Clown in a Cornfield

One year after the incident at the reservoir, Dr. Glenn Maybrook and his teen daughter, Quinn, move to Kettle Springs, Missouri, from Philadelphia. Glenn chose Kettle Springs because it was affordable. He also felt that they needed a fresh start after the death of Quinn’s mother, Samantha, from a drug overdose at Quinn’s volleyball game. Quinn sees Kettle Springs as a place to process her grief before she returns to Philadelphia for college.

Kettle Springs is a small town with an old diner, a bookstore, a rundown movie theater, and thrift shops. The Maybrooks’ new home is a dilapidated house that was previously owned by the town doctor, whose practice Glenn is taking over. Glenn tries to get the moving crew to put their belongings into the house, but they abruptly leave. Quinn helps Glenn carry everything inside, though she is annoyed that they brought so much from Philadelphia. The smell of their couch, for instance, reminds her of her mother.

Quinn settles into her new room in the attic, which is too small for her to stand in. She gets a text message from her old friends and worries that the distance will make them forget her. Quinn panics when she sees her father talking to a neighbor boy her age. The boy offers to help Glenn move in, but Glenn indicates that his daughter is helping. The boy looks over, causing Quinn to retreat from the window.

Quinn goes to the other window, which looks out on an enormous cornfield and a burnt-down factory marked “Baypen,” which has a mural of a clown with a porkpie hat painted on its side. The clown appears to stare straight into Quinn’s bedroom, unnerving her.

The next morning, Quinn has her first day at Kettle Springs High. While walking to campus, she sees the neighbor boy her father met. He introduces himself as Ruston “Rust” Vance. Quinn finds comfort in his presence, which she feels will help her mitigate her culture shock in the small Midwestern town.

Quinn asks what is fun in town. Apart from his hobbies—hunting and fishing—Rust explains that there hasn’t been much to do ever since the Baypen factory closed. The Baypen factory closed before the Baypen fire. The clown in the mural is a local mascot called Frendo.

Quinn registers at the school office. While trying to open her locker, she overhears gossip about the return of another student who was involved in a criminal incident at his father’s property. A punk girl named Ginger helps Quinn open her locker. Two boys enter the school, drawing everyone’s attention. One of them is Cole Hill. He and Quinn exchange glances as he walks by. Ginger explains that Cole is an arsonist.

Quinn is late to her first class, science. The teacher, Mr. Vern, urges her to take her seat, then reminds the class that there will be a test the following week. When the students complain, he gets frustrated. He hears someone insult him, which provokes him to administer the exam immediately.

A student named Janet, who reminds Quinn of a valley girl, argues that Mr. Vern can’t test the students yet since their first unit test is supposed to include nutrition, a topic they haven’t covered yet. Mr. Vern says that nutrition won’t be on the test. This upsets another student named Tucker, who claims that he has been studying nutrition. A girl named Ronnie backs him up. Cole urges Mr. Vern to move the test. Mr. Vern sends Janet, Ronnie, Tucker, and Cole to detention to avoid further disruptions. When Cole protests, Mr. Vern rants, describing the teenagers as uncontrollable and entitled to amusement at the town’s expense. Quinn giggles at the absurdity of the scene, so Mr. Vern gives her detention.

Mr. Vern confiscates Janet’s and Ronnie’s phones, believing they will use their social media platforms to undermine him. He also bans the offending teenagers from attending the Founder’s Day weekend celebration. Janet protests that he has no authority to prevent them from attending a public event, but Mr. Vern indicates that he will tell the sheriff of the punishment.

In the suspension room, Janet and Ronnie reveal that they gave decoy phones to Mr. Vern, which impresses Quinn. Cole speaks up for Quinn when Ronnie tries to shut her out of the discussion. They explain that Mr. Vern is a lifelong resident of Kettle Springs who believes that the town was better when he was young. They regret that they couldn’t capture his rant on video, as they operate a YouTube channel where they perform stunts and pranks.

Quinn looks through their videos and sees Frendo in one of the thumbnails. The group explains that they’ve been incorporating Frendo’s image into their videos to make him more appealing. Talking about their videos reminds Janet and Tucker about a plan of theirs. Cole is reluctant to be involved in their plan, considering that he burned down the Baypen factory just one week earlier while he was drunk. Cole’s family, the Hills, own Baypen. Since the factory was already empty, Cole was only lightly punished. Cole admits that it was wrong for him to destroy the factory, but he resented it as a “stupid reminder of the way things used to be” (61).

The group invites Quinn to a party they are throwing at Tillerson’s barn the day after Founder’s Day. The party is their way of showing that they won’t concede to people like Mr. Vern, who want to repress them. They claim that the freedom to do what they want, even just for one night, is what makes Kettle Springs great.

Later that day, Glenn and Quinn eat at Main Street Eatery, the town diner. Glenn is pleased with how inexpensive the food is and considers ordering chicken-fried steak, but then he remembers that the last time he ate it was with Samantha. Quinn encourages Glenn when he considers ordering from the breakfast and lunch menus.

Quinn observes a truck with politically conservative symbols. In Kettle Springs, this detail strikes her as commonplace. Most of the diners at the Eatery are adults. On his way to the bathroom, Glenn tries to introduce himself to each of them, offering his services as a doctor. They rebuff him, and Quinn blames herself. The diners glare at her, resenting Glenn for bringing a teenager into the Eatery. Quinn tries to avoid their provocation.

A large sheriff enters the Eatery and takes a seat at the booth behind Quinn. The presence of Sheriff George Dunne draws everyone’s nervous attention. Glenn asks Quinn if she is nervous about going to her first party. Quinn asks if Glenn is nervous about practicing again. She is worried that Glenn might experience a breakdown. Samantha’s death catalyzed his last breakdown, which came after months of resentment toward the corporate healthcare industry. Glenn reassures her that Kettle Springs is good for him. He talks about his day at the office, which his predecessor, Dr. Weller, abruptly left. He wonders if Rust is going to the same party that Quinn is attending.

Quinn sees Janet, Ronnie, and another boy walking down the street. They jaywalk to the front of the Eatery. Sheriff Dunne gets up to stares them down. Quinn observes the clash between the newspaper clippings of small-town events taped to one side of the door and the teens with their phones out on the other. Janet smiles at Dunne and leaves with her companions.

On his way back to the booth, Dunne introduces himself to the Maybrooks. Dunne taunts Quinn about Founder’s Day. He invites Glenn to attend a town meeting to help Kettle Springs during its ongoing transitional phase. Glenn says he will try, an answer that Dunne teases him for. Dunne buys the Maybrooks a slice of cherry pie to show them his goodwill. The Eatery waitress, Trudy, complains to Dunne about the teens. Glenn shows Quinn the flyer for the town meeting, which reads: “Make Kettle Springs Great Again” (81).

The town mayor, Harlan Jaffers, tries to pacify the meeting of townspeople as they complain about the cost of the Founder’s Day parade. He justifies that the parade was financed at minimum expense and that the volunteers worked hard to prepare for the event.

The townspeople worry that they should prioritize the repair of their pump engine, which was damaged during the Baypen factory fire. Harlan assures them that out-of-town visitors will come for the celebration, allowing them to recoup their losses. He adds that Arthur Hill may attend the parade, even though he has not been seen in public in a year. Sheriff Dunne is skeptical about Harlan’s claim, so Harlan lies, saying that he had spoken to Arthur over the phone.

The townspeople ask Dunne about the Baypen fire case. Dunne has no new updates, but he assures everyone that the town is coming together to stamp out the behavior that threatens Kettle Springs. He praises Mr. Vern for banning several students from attending the parade. Dunne undermines Harlan’s claims of Arthur Hill’s attendance, suggesting that Arthur has refused to invest in the town because of the death of his daughter, Victoria, and the destruction of his factory. He believes that Arthur’s refusal to invest in the town is the result of the teens’ unruliness. He galvanizes the town to stand against the teens and show their support for the Founder’s Day parade.