Porcupine Necktie
- Let's jump right in, shall we? Our handy narrator tells us a story about how when he was little, he adored a tie that his Uncle Pete wore. Yes, this is a strange start. To make it even stranger, the tie he loved so much has a porcupine painted on it.
- When the narrator was twelve, he moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona. Well at least we know something: he has a thing for ties with porcupines on them, and he is over twelve years old. Moving right along, then.
- As a going-away present, Uncle Pete gave him the tie he adored so much, and our narrator was so thrilled about this that he decided to start his own porcupine tie collection.
- Two years later, (oh, so he must be at least 14), his collection was still just the one tie. It seems that there aren't many people out there who love this bizarre tie art as much as he does.
- Where did he move to in Arizona? A town called Mica, it turns out.
- On his fourteenth birthday his mom wrote a little blurb about her son in the local Mica newspaper: "As a hobby, Leo Borlock collects porcupine neckties" (Prologue.4).
- Ah, so his name is Leo, and we know he's at least fourteen.
- He doesn't sound mad that his mom shared this potentially embarrassing information about his unusual hobby. In fact, he seems like a pretty chill dude at this point.
- A few days later, Leo found a mysterious package outside his front door. Lo and behold… a porcupine necktie! There was no hint about who sent it.
- Leo was mystified, but now that he is older looking back, he realizes that he was being watched. Creepy, right?
- He ends the prologue with this statement: "We were all being watched."
- Yep. Definitely creepy.