Acceleration

Duncan has a recurring dream that night: He’s swimming at Kayuga Beach when he hears a girl scream. He surfaces for air, then dives again. The next time he surfaces, others are running into the water toward the screaming girl.

Duncan sees the girl’s eyes before she goes under; the crowd will not reach her in time. He dives, searching for her, but can’t find her. Then, his air runs out. He wakes and remembers that this is no mere dream. A year ago, Duncan was the last person to see a drowning Maya alive: “I was the one who didn’t save her” (11).

Chapter 3 is the journal entry of a killer. The killer wants a good name—otherwise, the media will give him one, and he might not like their choice. He believes that everyone will know about him soon and that his name must be appropriate for his ambitions.

Duncan shows his friend Vinny his (unclaimed) leather jacket from the lost and found. They go to a dilapidated neighborhood called the Jungle. When Duncan first met Vinny, he noticed that the latter always kept his left hand in his pocket. During an eighth-grade basketball game—in which Vinny insisted on wearing Duncan’s shirt—Duncan saw his withered arm and shriveled, claw-like hand missing two fingers. Vinny has many stories as to what happened to his arm—when in reality, it’s the result of a birth defect. 

At the Dairy Barn, Duncan orders a banana split from his friend, Wayne. Duncan always thought that Wayne would end up in prison (being his mentor in petty crime), but he’s trying to live a better life. The boys once got caught breaking and entering a place where they were going to steal toilets for resale—this incident marking the end of Duncan’s run as a thief. 

A transit cop arrives at the lost and found. He tells Duncan that a year ago, Jacob’s wife had a stroke, became comatose, and was eventually removed from life support.

Duncan wonders what it feels like to watch someone die in slow motion. He looks through the journal and notices some coherent sections among the gibberish. He finds a newspaper article about a hotel fire. Jacob appears and asks what the book is. Duncan says it’s nothing and goes to lunch.

An exacerbated Wayne calls Duncan, and they make plans to go to the public pool. However, the thought of going in the water nauseates Duncan.

Duncan’s mother is doing homework for a community college course when he gets home. Duncan asks her what the fear of water is called. She tells him that it’s called hydrophobia and asks why he wants to know. He leaves without giving a reason and goes to the pool.

The pool is crowded. While Duncan and Wayne swim, the latter drops their locker key on purpose. Duncan dives in to get it. The previous year, he quit the swim team out of his discomfort around water. Something grabs his foot, and he hears a scream coming from everywhere. When he breaks the surface, Wayne is angry, saying that he kicked him in the chest. Duncan leaves. 

At work, Duncan reads another entry about a bookstore fire. A note in the margin says that the arsonist didn’t need an accelerant because of the paper in the books.

A man in a suit comes looking for his golf putter (which Duncan practiced with and relished scratching). Duncan gives the man his club and returns to the roughly 200-page journal. The killer describes the bookstore fire in a way that suggests he was aroused by the crime.

The killer goes on to write about watching women on a subway. Duncan realizes that the man is a hunter, and that he is ready to start hunting women. 

On Saturday, Duncan’s father sleeps late. He works graveyard shifts repairing an assembly line that makes catalogues, the glue deadening his sense of smell and taste. In the kitchen, Duncan’s mother says that Duncan was making noises in his sleep.

She tells him about a nature program in which mother penguins recognize their chicks even among hundreds of crying babies. He says he just had a bad dream. She asks if he plans to call Kim, but he says that their relationship is over.

Duncan ruminates on phantom limbs and thinks of Kim as his phantom girlfriend. He looks at photos of her. Now, he just sees someone who looks like her. They were together for a year, but their relationship soured after Maya’s death at Kayuga Beach.

A year ago, Kim volunteered at Gatherup, a center for homeless children. Duncan didn’t like this decision, worried that she was in danger. He pestered her until she voiced her fear of him—thus marking the beginning of their breakup. 

Duncan continues to read the journal long after midnight. His current entry reads “3 CONTESTANTS: Cherry, Bones, and Clown” (57). Physical characteristics (hair, weight, and height) are listed for each woman as well as their schedules. They’re all white and in their late teens to early twenties. The killer refers to them as dogs.

Duncan thinks that he can use the journal to track its author whom he calls “Roach.” He wonders if he should give the book to the police, but ultimately decides that he must stop Roach. He believes Maya keeps coming back to him in his dreams to help him save the three women.

Duncan and Vinny watch the Terminator trilogy at a theater. A preoccupied Duncan listens to Vinny complain about Arnold Schwarzenegger going into politics; he plans to track Roach by following the locations in his journal later that night. He worries that he may already be too late. Vinny notices Duncan’s expression and asks if he’s okay.

Duncan blames his lack of sleep on construction. Before his parents got divorced, Vinny lived in a nice home. He says they have a duty to get out of the Jungle. Duncan wants to get out with the college fund his mother started when she was pregnant.

The boys see rats on the subway tracks. Duncan sees a man watching pretty girls. Duncan says he has to do something before he goes home and leaves Vinny. He believes that the woman whom Roach calls “Cherry” will be at Wilson Station.

Duncan spots Cherry on the train and follows her when she gets off at Wilson. She notices Duncan and hurries to her apartment, clearly afraid. He thinks, “I just terrified that woman—stalking her when I’m supposed to be protecting her. I’m doing what Roach does, except I’m sure he’s way better at it” (72). He decides to go home and study the journal; he believes that if Roach made a mistake, he can find it in the pages.

At home, Duncan’s mother scolds him for being late and not calling. He promises to call next time, saying he was on a non-date with a girl. Things feel surreal, but Duncan believes this night was a good first step.