M Train

Content Warning: This section discusses suicide and natural disasters.

It is Halloween 2012. Smith and her friend Jem go to the bungalow to take photos and walk along the boardwalk. On the way back to Manhattan, Smith realizes that she left her camera on the beach. She is upset; though it was not her only camera, it was her favorite. As they part, Jem warns that a storm is coming: Hurricane Sandy. At home, Smith is uneasy, not just because of the storm but because Halloween marks Fred’s passing. She decides to go back to Rockaway Beach but learns that because of the storm, the whole city is shutting down, and the trains are not running.

She waits out the storm and thinks about Fred’s death. There was also a storm the Halloween that he died. She writes that the raging wind and rain personify Fred’s “rage and sorrow for being torn away” (160). After the storm breaks, the city is left without gas or electricity for days. The boardwalk in Rockaway Beach has been completely destroyed, and Zak’s café is gone. Smith’s bungalow, however, is safe. 

Smith spends some time in Spain and then returns to New York and visits the bungalow.