Friday morning before Labor Day
Vern's Big News
Vern Tessio bursts into the treehouse, excited and out of breath after running two miles. He reveals that he overheard his brother Billy and Charlie Hogan talking about a dead body—the missing boy Ray Brower—near the Back Harlow Road. Vern had been digging for his buried jar of pennies under his porch when he heard the conversation, learning that the body was hit by a train.