Penpal

The novel flashes back again to the summer before the narrator starts kindergarten. He learns how to climb trees and becomes so confident that he takes his movement for granted. However, one day he falls from a tree and breaks his left arm. To console the narrator, his mother adopts a kitten, whom the narrator names Boxes. Boxes frequently escapes the house to hunt for bugs and lizards. Often, Boxes explores the crawlspace under the house, where neither the narrator nor his mother dare to venture.

The novel jumps forward to the summer after the narrator finishes first grade. He and his mother pack their belongings to move to a better part of town. His mother expedites their move, and the narrator feels concern about his friendship with Josh. His mother reassures him that they can talk over the phone. Over the next few years, the narrator and Josh keep in touch, sometimes traveling across town with their parents’ help to spend time together. That Christmas, their parents buy them walkie-talkies so that they can keep in touch from a distance.

The narrator’s mother forbids him from exploring the woods when he sleeps over at Josh’s house. The narrator and Josh occasionally sneak out anyway, once getting caught by Josh’s father. The narrator begs Josh’s father not to tell his mother, but Josh’s father emphasizes the importance of telling the truth. After the narrator’s mother scolds him and threatens to ban him from visiting Josh, the narrator relents, staying in with Josh to play video games.

The novel jumps forward again to when the narrator is 10 years old and in fifth grade. Boxes goes missing while the narrator is staying at Josh’s house. After three weeks, the narrator theorizes that Boxes must have returned to their old house, where he grew up. Rather than wait to look for Boxes the next day, the narrator insists on going to his old house in the middle of the night. He and Josh pick up flashlights in the garage and stifle their laughter to avoid getting caught.

Josh suggests a shortcut through the woods to reach the house. The narrator hesitantly accepts, remembering the night he tried to navigate the woods. This anxiety increases when Josh unwittingly asks him his mother’s riddle about how far he could go into the woods. Along the way, they come across the pool float, marking the spot where the narrator woke up years earlier. The narrator becomes despondent, causing him to fall into a hole that wasn’t there the last time. Josh screams when spiders crawl up onto him from the pool float, drawing the narrator’s attention. The narrator rescues him, and they proceed.

The narrator asks Josh what prompted him to ask his mother’s riddle. Josh reveals that the narrator told him about the riddle the day they started the Balloon Project. The narrator doesn’t recall this at first but admits that Josh is right.

Josh and the narrator pass The Ditch and reach the old house, which is completely dark. The narrator realizes that his mother lied to him about selling the house to new owners. The narrator loses a game of rock, paper, scissors with Josh, which forces the narrator to check the crawlspace while Josh remains outside to watch for Boxes.

The narrator smells something dead under the house. He grows increasingly worried about what this could mean if Boxes did go there. To his shock, it’s a dead raccoon. He notices bowls laid over a blanket in the crawlspace. One bowl contains cat food. The narrator thinks his mother must have set it up to keep Boxes safe if he ever ran away.

Over the walkie-talkie, Josh tells the narrator that he’ll inspect the house. The narrator directs him to check the boxes of old clothes he left behind. Josh decides to look in the narrator’s room. On the walls are hundreds of photos of the narrator. Josh finds the narrator’s old clothes, unpacked and hanging in his closet.

Josh panics when he hears someone else in the house. The stranger throws a large bag on the ground, which moves afterward. In the crawlspace, the narrator finds multiple dead animals, prompting him to leave. He hears the sound of a foot chase overhead, which ends with Josh reaching the crawlspace panel to let the narrator out. During their escape, Josh loses his walkie-talkie. Josh says the stranger took his photo.

The narrator and Josh return home. Both agree to never speak of their experience again. The narrator admits that he eventually told his mother much later to elicit her trust and get her to open up about his past. However, this only angered his mother, who revealed that she never left anything for Boxes in the crawlspace. She indicates that she told him the truth: Someone was living in the house. His mother discovered the bowls and blanket the day they moved out.

The night after his trip to the old house, the narrator thinks Boxes has returned when he hears a meow in his room. He follows the sound to his jacket and discovers that it’s coming from his walkie-talkie. It’s the narrator’s last memory associated with Boxes.