Roy has twice caught a glimpse of a mysterious running boy as he is looking out the window of the schoolbus in the afternoon.  Consumed by curiosity, he precipitously gets off the bus the second time he sees the boy, and follows him for several blocks - "over fences, through shrubbery, weaving through yapping dogs and lawn sprinklers and hot tubs".  The boy runs onto a golf course, with Roy in hot pursuit.  Unfortunately for Roy, he is struck in the head by a golf ball on this first foray onto the course, and knocked unconscious (Chapter 2).

Roy returns to the golf course a few days later because, once again, he is driven by curiosity.  He goes to "the stand of Australian pines into which the running boy had vanished" just prior to when Roy had been hit by the errant ball.  Roy searches through the brush for "a trail or some human sign" left by the boy, and, sure enough, he stumbles upon the remains of a campfire and a number of footprints.  Upon further examination of the site, Roy finds three plastic garbage bags, each tied at the neck.  One is filled with common trash, and the second holds a stack of neatly folded boys' clothing.  Unfortunately, the third bag is filled with cottonmouth moccasins, "highly poisonous".  Roy has found the running boy's camp, and will soon meet the mysterious boy himself (Chapter 5).

Roy returns to the gold course a third time because he wants to do something to help the running boy.  He has noticed that the boy is always barefoot, and he has brought a pair of his own shoes to give to him.  Roy carries the shoes in a cardboard box; they are "almost brand-new, he'd only worn them a couple of times" (Chapter 6).