In chapter 2 of The Pigman's Legacy, Lorraine says that the sixteen-year-old John has "long brown hair and gigantic eyes that can not only look right through you but grab your heart while they're doing it."

Even though she says their relationship is platonic, the reader presumes (particularly because of her description of John's eyes) that a romance is blossoming between them. Since the death of Mr. Pignati, for example, John has been holding Lorraine's hand when they walk down the street. Sometimes they are so deeply involved with each other that they forget where they are.

It was last May, about four months after our Pigman died, that John and I were riding home platonically as usual after school, and we got so involved in a discussion on the therapeutic value of mourning that we'd gone two bus stops past our regular stop before we remembered to get off.

The "Pigman" who Lorraine refers to is a character from the previous book, The Pigman, called Mr. Pignati. A friendship developed between the two teenagers and the old man after John and Lorraine played a prank on him. Neither John nor Lorraine has a happy family life, and they appreciated the attention and love that Mr. Pignati showed them. However, John and Lorraine made some bad decisions, and Mr. Pignati died from a heart attack soon after they ransacked his house.

This second book, The Pigman's Legacy, is about them trying to put things right through a similar relationship with an elderly man called Gus.