The book opens on two boys in a blackberry patch. The protagonist, an unnamed narrator, and his best friend, Jamie, have come out to pick blackberries, but they aren’t ripe yet. They race to the creek where they like to play. As they splash each other, Jamie points to an apple tree on the other side of a nearby fence. This “fence guard[s] a farm that the city had surrounded. The farm [is] said to be guarded, also, by a farmer with a shotgun” (5). Jamie announces that he’s going to hop over the fence and grab a couple of apples.

The narrator is nervous, but Jamie persists. The narrator doesn’t budge, so Jamie goes over the fence alone. He doesn’t know when to stop, even in a dangerous situation like this. The narrator waits in terror for him to make it past the farmer, who he’s convinced has a gun on him. He starts to plan for what he’ll have to do if Jamie is shot. Before he knows it, however, Jamie has returned with two apples.

The two boys part, and the narrator is almost back to his house when he hears someone calling out to him.