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Jay's Journal Timeline
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Jay starts his journal.
Jay's Sunday school teacher and his scout master made him start a journal. He states that when he was in seventh grade, he started doing drugs and getting off track. He feels like the good part of him has died. -
Jay gets grounded.
Jay got grounded for sneaking out to see Debbie when he was already grounded. He got grounded two days before because he stayed out to late with Debbie, a girl he really likes. He says "being away from her is like not breathing." -
Jay steals pills from his dad's pharmacy.
Jay went to his dad's pharmacy early and took Amphetamine capsules for Debbie. He didn't want to, but his friend Gregg pressured him. Now, Jay is regretting what he did because someone might have really needed the pills for something medical related. -
Jay is sent away to a reformatory school.
Jay's dad caught him stealing pills about 2 weeks before. His parents decide to send him to a place for "druggies, incorrigibles, runaways, or court probation cases." Jay went into this school not needing as much help as the others, but it drove him mad and turned him into a boy who was just as troubled as the other students. -
Jay meets Pete.
Jay meets Pete and he says there is something different about him. He is slick, slim, a trim jock, and different from the rest of the teachers. Meanwhile, Debbie has stopped writing to Jay and he feels used, although he still loves her. -
Pete introduces Jay to witchcraft.
Pete is into Astara and the occult. Pete talks about intuition, meditation, ESP, auras, life after death, the oversoul, etc., and Jay has a hard time processing it. -
Jay introduces Astara to Brad and Dell.
Jay has been home from the reformatory school for eight days now. He skipped class with his friends Dell and Brad, and went to the lake. He told them both what he has been learning from Pete about Astara. Brad and Dell get entrusted and they join the Astara occult with Pete and Jay. -
Dell moves away.
Dell's dad takes a construction job in Las Vegas for six months. Jay feels even more lonely without him, although he tries to convince himself "he can handle anything." He says the shock of Dell's leaving is traumatic, and he is so lonely, he "can't concentrate or eat." -
Jay's mom gets very sick.
As the New Year rings in, Jay;s mom catches the flu, the same one Jay had. However, her fevers are extremely high and her symptoms are so out of control that even Dad is nervous. She ends up being okay, but as Jay contemplates life without her, he is overthrown with a feeling of loneliness he hasn't felt before. -
Jay uses an Ouija board.
When everyone leaves for the summer, Jay's only option for interesting company is two boys named Carl and Nelson, who also work with witchcraft. One night, Carl encourages them to use his Ouija board, and it answers questions about Jay, Debbie, and Pete, that "no one in the world could possibly know" except Jay. He goes about daily life for months, even gets a job, but feels strange ever since that night. -
Jay has a presence in his room.
Jay feels like there is a bad presence standing in the corner of his room staring at him. He starts talking with it and it reveals that its name is Raul, and he claims to be inside of Jay. Jay doesn't want to listen to it, but finds it hard when Raul visits every night. -
Brad dies.
Brad was driving and was hit by a truck. The truck crashed over top of Brad and the bumper hit him directly on the right temple, killing him instantly. Brad died at the age of 16 1/2 years old. Jay refuses to comprehend it and feels so alone. -
Dell dies.
When Dell's car stalled, he started walking on the side of the road to a gas station, when he got gravel in his shoe and sat down on the side of the road to take it out. Kyle hit him and the bumper of his car hit him in his right temple. Kyle says that he was trying so hard to control his car but there was a stronger force pulling the wheel to hit Dell. This force was Raul. Jay's "heart is warped." He is very distraught. -
Jay commits suicide.
Jay leaves a note on his bed side table saying that he doesn't want to do anything anymore, and he doesn't want to be sad or depressed anymore. Later, his mother writes a letter to Janie. She says that no one was home and Jay took a 22-pistol an shot himself in his right temple.