At the very least, Arnold Friend is Connie’s abductor. Yet there are many clues throughout the story that Arnold Friend is something beyond human. Although Connie notes that she never shares her name with him, he already knows it. He also knows her sister’s name and that of many of her friends. But what makes Arnold Friend seem most otherworldly is his knowledge of what Connie’s family is doing at the very moment when he arrives to abduct her:

“Right now they're uh—they're drinking. Sitting around," he said vaguely, squinting as if he were staring all the way to town and over to Aunt Tillie's back yard. Then the vision seemed to get clear and he nodded energetically. "Yeah. Sitting around. There's your sister in a blue dress, huh? And high heels, the poor sad bitch—nothing like you, sweetheart! And your mother's helping some fat woman with the corn, they're cleaning the corn—husking the corn—"

Arnold Friend is certain that Connie’s father will not arrive to rescue her. As his actions grow increasingly sinister, Connie invokes the name of Christ, although it is noted that her family never “bothered with church.” It seems that Connie is compelled to juxtapose goodness against the evil which now surrounds her, but even her attempts to invoke the name of Christ “sounded forced.” Arnold Friend wobbles in his boots, wears “a mask” of make-up, and has “tarlike” lashes. As Connie threatens to call the police, Arnold Friend simply asks her, “Don’t you know who I am?” This reduces Connie to a whisper, and she immediately begins distancing herself from Arnold Friend. It seems that this is not simply a malicious man who has come for Connie but rather the embodiment of evil itself. This reinforces the idea that evil can manifest anywhere and at any time—often to the detriment of those who temporarily let their guard down.