Boothbay Harbor is the mainland town reached by ferry from Grayling Island, and the intended destination that gives The Senator and Kelly Kelleher’s drive its deadline. It remains just beyond their reach: they set out to catch the 8:20 p.m. ferry, but a wrong turn onto an abandoned road leads to the car entering Indian Creek. The town therefore marks both a real route across the water and the imagined continuation of a night that ends in disaster.

Setting and Routes

Grayling Island lies a twenty-minute ferry ride northwest of Boothbay Harbor. On the evening of the Fourth of July, cars line narrow sandy roads on the island’s northern shore, where beach parties anticipate fireworks after nightfall. Against that holiday activity, the route toward Boothbay Harbor takes The Senator and Kelly through an unpopulated marshland, away from the shore and from other motorists.

The couple leave a party at 17 Derry Road at about 7:55 p.m., giving them twenty-five minutes to reach the ferry. They have enough time if they drive quickly and take the correct route. On Derry Road, they turn onto Post Road, one of the island’s few paved roads, then take Old Ferry Road, a rutted sandy track no longer maintained by Grayling Township. A new, paved ferry road has replaced it, and its turn lies three-quarters of a mile beyond the old road’s turn. The Senator is headed in the right general direction, but his choice of road takes them away from the usable route to Boothbay Harbor.

The Ferry Deadline and the Accident

The drive is shaped by an increasingly urgent timetable. The Senator had wanted to leave the party earlier, but they depart late after he has had another drink or two. At dusk, the narrow, poorly maintained Old Ferry Road winds into the marsh. The rented Toyota reaches a hairpin curve, loses control at a speed later estimated at about forty-five miles per hour, leaves the road, overturns, and sinks in black water. The car enters Indian Creek, a stream the pair had not known was there.

The road’s condition and the driver’s decisions belong to the same chain of risk, though the narrative distinguishes established circumstances from later speculation. Old Ferry Road should have been officially closed, and the stream runs through a largely unpopulated stretch without witnesses or passing motorists. It is also speculated that, had the car remained on the road, it might have struck a narrow bridge railing and fallen into the water with a similar result. Boothbay Harbor is thus not merely a distant destination: the ferry schedule helps explain the haste, while the obsolete road makes the route itself hazardous.

The Town as an Expected Refuge

Before the crash, Boothbay Harbor represents a conventional next stop after the island party. Kelly and The Senator are expected to have a late dinner at a motel there; room service is considered preferable to the public dining room during the height of tourist season. In a later imagined continuation, Kelly agrees to take the ferry to Boothbay Harbor and pictures the Boothbay Marriott. Her anticipation extends beyond the immediate crossing toward the day after the Fourth of July and a future in which she believes she can make The Senator love her.

That expectation contrasts with the isolation of the marsh road. The island’s busy holiday shore, the town across the water, and the ordinary prospect of dinner remain close enough to shape the evening’s plans, yet neither partygoers nor ferry travelers witness the crash. The intended passage from island to mainland becomes a boundary the characters do not cross together.

Aftermath and Narrative Significance

The Senator survives the sinking and makes his way on foot to the highway, where he reaches a telephone booth and calls Ray Annick for help. At 9:55 p.m., after the accident, he tells Ray that Kelly is dead and asks him to come get him. Boothbay Harbor remains the journey’s announced destination, but the emergency call replaces the ferry trip and anticipated dinner as the immediate route toward assistance.

The narrative also unsettles the apparent sequence of events. After presenting the crash and its consequences, it returns to Kelly’s perspective as the Toyota is only turning from the highway onto the desolate road; she senses that the route may be wrong but also imagines being lost as part of their intention. Boothbay Harbor consequently belongs to both the forward-moving plan and the reader’s knowledge of its outcome. Its ferry, motel, and mainland setting make the future Kelly imagines concrete, while the structure reveals that this future is already unavailable to her.