Johnny asks Dan what he should do with them. Owen gives Johnny his prize collection of baseball cards. The day after Tabitha’s death, Owen’s father drives him to Johnny’s house. The cousins do not belittle him, and they all become friends. He runs home, but Johnny and his mother drive after him and bring him back. When Owen goes into the closet, Hester tickles him. They play a game in which Hester hides in their grandmother’s closet and the boys have to find her before she grabs their penises. Owen is eventually able to meet the cousins. Although Owen desperately wanted to visit Sawyer Depot, Johnny was afraid his cousins would accidently kill the small boy. Johnny’s cousins Simon, Noah and Hester are rough and athletic. Johnny and his mother visited his aunt in Sawyer Depot twice a year. Dan had used it as a prop for one of his classes. Johnny finally opened the bag to find a stuffed armadillo. Dan gave Johnny a paper bag and asked him to keep an eye on it, but not to open it. After assuring her mother that she wasn’t pregnant, she said Dan was interviewing for a position at the Gravesend Academy. Tabitha announced at the dinner table that she’d met another man on the train. Johnny met his stepfather, Dan Needham, when he was 6. Johnny suspected Owen took the ball home. Someone put a coat over Johnny’s head so he couldn’t see her body, but he could hear the chief of police asking where the murder weapon went. He cried out his apology before running home. Owen was devastated, since he loved Johnny’s mother. Owen fouled the ball over the fence, hitting Tabitha in the temple and killing her instantly. The coach uncharacteristically allowed Owen to bat. She had arrived at the last inning of his and Owen’s Little League game. Johnny recalls the day of his mother’s death. Johnny describes his friend Owen as having a strange and irritating voice. Johnny and his mother lived with his Grandmother Harriet, who claimed Owen’s voice could make dead mice come back to life. Owen is convinced that God will one day reveal his father’s name. She promised to tell Johnny his father’s identity when he was old enough, but she died before doing so, when he was 11. She claimed to have met Johnny’s father on the train.

She used to ride a train into Boston once a week for singing lessons and spent the night in the city. Johnny’s mother, Tabitha, had Johnny out of wedlock and refused to tell anyone the name of his father.

Johnny recalls how everyone in Gravesend, New Hampshire, was fascinated by Owen’s small size. Johnny will remember him because Owen is the reason he is a Christian. It’s not because he was so small and his voice so strange, and not because Owen was instrumental in killing his mother. He begins by saying he will always remember Owen Meany. Johnny Wheelwright tells his story in a nonlinear memoir format.

A prayer for owen meany book