The opening sentence of this short story suggests that anti-social behavior and anti-establishment action is brewing in the boys: "There was a time when courtesy and winning way went out of style." With their rejection of manners and good behavior, the narrator calls his friends and himself "dangerous characters," also hinting that some wrongful acts may occur. Further, Boyle's use of the phrase "a single ravaged island" that is near Greasy Lake certainly foreshadows the rape attempts by the three friends who "wanted to snuff the rich scent of possibility" and "ravage" the girl in the car that they mistake for a friend.

The boys' eagerness to appear bad and anticipation of seeing "a girl take off her clothes," "drink beer, smoke pot"..."savor the incongruous full-throated rock and roll against the primeval susurrus of frogs and crickets" also foreshadows the fight and attempted rape, as well as the dead body.  Later, in the exposition, the narrator explains,

"The first two nights we'd been out till dawn, looking for something we never found" foreshadows their finding of this "something." Their search for something ends as the three youths find what they think is a friend's, Tony's car, but it is someone else's. Instead, it is a belligerent boy who rushes at the narrator in anger and a dangerous fight, an initiation ritual, ensues. The blow struck to the youth who attacks the narrator foreshadows the conflict which must have left Al dead in the lake.