In autumn of 1978, after abandoning her plans for Yale and golf, Mira moves to New York City. She lives with her Aunt Julie and Uncle Terence and works as a secretarial assistant at a travel magazine, where her recreational drug use expands from drinking, cannabis, and cocaine to include quaaludes. One night, while at a bar with her high school friend Marie, Mira is approached by Dennis Kerrington, a 45-year-old novelist and NYU professor. Dennis overhears Mira discussing having killed a boy with a golf ball and tells her, “Your life sounds like a novel” (106). He gives her his business card, suggesting that writing could be a cathartic exercise.

Weeks later, after mailing her Smith College application and learning she will be deposed in the lawsuit concerning Kenny Foster’s death, Mira calls Dennis. They meet for breakfast, then go to his loft and have sex. Afterward, Mira confesses her anxiety about the deposition and her inability to concentrate on challenging work. Dennis encourages her to write about her experiences, quoting Hemingway’s advice to sit at a typewriter and “open a vein” (114). He points out that writing, like golf, is mostly about practice.