Carter despised Eddie Grimes, and one morning after Eddie had reset The Cave’s clock to alarm at three instead of five-thirty, Carter swore revenge. “That son of a bitch woke me up just as I was pulling Rene’s panties off,” he hissed, “and I don’t care if it was just a dream, he’s going to pay for it.”

It took Carter a week to perfect his scheme.

He first befriended Eddie. It was a sickening, but effective, performance. Jokes shared privately between them. Gifts of cigarettes and milk shakes from Carter. Carter begging Eddie to retell his dramas with street gangs. Giggles about a Busboys Union the two were plotting. And during their togetherness, Carter confessed that he suffered from a baffling illness: he was a sleepwalker.

Eddie took the bait hungrily. “Don’t worry, buddy, I’ll watch out for you,” he promised Carter.

“Just don’t let anybody wake me up if I do it,” pleaded Carter. “That could send me off the deep end, like my daddy.”

Eddie was curious. “What about your daddy?”

“He lost his marbles, Eddie. We had to put him in a home. They just let him out a few weeks ago.”

“Oh…”

And then Carter got his vengeance.

One night he began to moan softly in his bunk bed above me. Eddie sat up attentively. I pretended to awake from a sound sleep. “What’s the matter with Carter?” I mumbled.

“Be quiet,” Eddie commanded.

Carter moaned again. He began tossing wildly about, fighting with his pillow, and then he rolled out of bed and pulled on his jeans and opened the door and walked outside.

“What’s going on, Eddie?” I asked anxiously.

“Sleepwalking,” Eddie pronounced. “Don’t wake him.” He scrambled from his bed.

“Stop him, Eddie,” I begged. “He could get hurt out there.”

“He won’t do nothing he wouldn’t do if he was awake,” Eddie declared. “I know about sleepwalking.” He snatched a cigarette from the desk and lit it and then followed Carter outside, wearing only a T-shirt and his boxer shorts. He did not know that half the residents of Pine Hill were hiding behind the hedges, waiting and watching.

Joey Li and I quickly slipped on our pants.

Carter crossed the street in a strong stride and headed for the swimming pool with Eddie behind him, and with me following Eddie and with Joey following me.

“He’s going straight for the pool,” I called desperately.

“He won’t go in,” Eddie said with authority.