William “Bill” Dean

William “Bill” Dean is Michael Noonan’s caretaker at Sara Laughs, a warm, practical presence who also serves as a conduit to local knowledge. In their conversation after Michael’s encounter with Mattie Devore and Kyra, Bill turns a morning visit into a briefing on town gossip, Maxwell Devore’s willfulness, and the plastic owls Johanna had ordered before her death. His help is affectionate, but it carries a warning: with Jo gone, Bill believes he is the person responsible for looking after Michael, and he urges him to keep clear of the Devore family’s business.

Identity and Introduction

Bill arrives at Sara Laughs around nine o’clock in a clean, new Dodge Ram, off-white like his previous truck and marked with the same sign advertising camp checking, caretaking, and light carpentry. The details establish him as a working caretaker rather than a visitor with an incidental errand: his sign identifies the services he provides, and his conversation with Michael soon confirms that he regards care of the property and its owner as his responsibility.

His greeting is exuberant and physical. He climbs from the truck calling Michael by name, pumps his hand hard enough to threaten the coffee in Michael’s cup, and claps him on the back. His false teeth, grin, and hearty welcome make the reunion comic as well as sincere. Michael says that he feels all right, and his smile is genuine; after the frightening events of the previous night, daylight has made them feel more interesting than terrifying. Bill’s visit thus begins in ordinary companionship, but the ease between the men also gives him room to raise matters Michael does not yet understand.

Local Knowledge and Maxwell Devore

Over coffee and tea on the deck, Michael asks Bill to explain the version of his encounter with Mattie and Kyra circulating between Royce Merrill and Dickie Brooks. Both older men had seen Michael beside the road holding the child, with his Chevrolet partly in a ditch and the driver’s door open. They had apparently missed the fact that Kyra had been balancing on the white line of Route 68. Royce’s account made up for that omission with an inventedly amorous embellishment: he claimed Mattie had hugged Michael as a hero and kissed him on the mouth. Michael answers with a joke about whether Royce had also imagined him grabbing Mattie and slipping her some tongue. The exchange shows Bill relaying gossip without presenting it as reliable fact, while Michael uses humor to deflate its sexualized distortion.

Bill’s more serious warning concerns Maxwell Devore. At first Michael thinks Bill means that Devore is angry with him; Bill’s expression makes clear that he means “mad” in a more literal, unsettling sense. Asked what he means, Bill compares Devore to Howard Hughes: a man who must possess whatever he wants and will not rest until he has it. He presents this as a lifelong trait, not a sudden response to the custody conflict, and says stories in town describe Devore as willful even as a boy.

To distinguish rumor from what he considers dependable local memory, Bill recounts a story told by his father. Around 1923, the boy who would become Devore broke into Scant Larribee’s tack shed to take a Flexible Flyer sled meant as a Christmas present for Scant’s son, Scooter. He cut both hands on broken glass but got the sled, and was found near midnight sliding down Sugar Maple Hill with his hands held against his chest, blood covering his mittens and snowsuit. Bill acknowledges that people tell many stories about Devore’s childhood and that some may be false, but insists that this one is true because his father did not lie. The anecdote makes the warning concrete: in Bill’s account, Devore’s determination to obtain what he wants has a long history, and even injury did not stop him.

Caretaking and Warning

Bill explicitly frames his warning as part of his work. After Michael tells him that Kyra is fine, Bill replies without amusement that her safety is not the point. He tells Michael to stay clear of the Devore family’s affairs, then explains that it is his job to say so: with Jo gone, he supposes he is the only caretaker Michael has. The remark joins practical concern to bereavement. Bill does not merely maintain the property; he understands himself as responsible for the man who lives there, and Jo’s absence has made that responsibility feel more personal.

His departure does not end the exchange immediately. He reaches for the gearshift, then pauses to remember another piece of advice: Michael should look for the plastic owls. They might be in the basement or Jo’s studio, and Jo had ordered them by mail the fall before she died. When Michael asks what they are for, Bill explains that moving them from time to time can keep crows from becoming suspicious. His matter-of-fact knowledge of the trick gives the owls an ordinary, practical purpose and points Michael toward objects Jo had acquired without telling him.

Jo’s Absence and Bill’s Role

Michael laughs at the idea that plastic owls can frighten crows, but accepts Bill’s assurance that the tactic works if the decoys are moved occasionally. He recognizes it as exactly the kind of information Jo might have picked up and acted on without mentioning it, comparing her inquisitive gathering of small facts to a crow collecting glittering things. That recognition abruptly turns the comic advice into a reminder of loss: Michael misses Jo intensely. Bill’s revelation therefore does more than identify a household object; it opens a brief path from the practical present back to the habits of the person who is gone.

Bill offers to walk the whole property with Michael another time, including the woods, and predicts that Michael will be satisfied. The offer extends his role from caretaker of the house to guide through its grounds. Across the visit, his manner moves between exuberant friendship, dry humor, protective seriousness, and local storytelling. He does not claim to resolve the danger posed by Devore, but equips Michael with context and counsel: the gossip surrounding Mattie and Kyra, a history of Devore’s acquisitive will, and the warning to keep out of the family conflict. His final practical lead—the owls Jo left behind—also shows how care can preserve a connection to her through the small things she had noticed and done.