Don't Let Him In

An unnamed first-person narrator—who will later be revealed to be Nick Radcliffe—pulls up to an expensive house in a delivery van. He notes the family gathered inside, dressed in somber funeral clothes, as he passes a window. He thinks about the man who once lived in this home, noting that although the man largely made good decisions, his family is about to pay dearly for the one bad decision the man made. He rings the bell and delivers a bouquet of flowers.

The narrative shifts to the third-person perspective. Ash Swann accepts the flowers from the delivery man. When she takes them inside to her mother, Nina, they puzzle over the card, which offers condolences from “The Tanners,” whom none of the Swanns—Ash, Nina, and Ash’s brother Arlo— remember. They are mourning the death of Ash’s father, Paddy Swann, who was pushed under a train by a man called Joe Kritner. Ash and Arlo look at photos of Paddy and share memories of what a fun and good-natured man he was. Ash cannot imagine how to move forward again without him.