Strange as this Weather Has Been

Jimmy Make is preoccupied watching NASCAR, so Dane goes outside to watch Corey and Tommy playing with their bikes in the road. Eventually they leave, and Dane decides to follow them. He passes by two neighborhood boys who say that Corey and Tommy are in the “Big Drain,” a clandestine toxic waste disposal site:

[It] sticks out of Yellowroot Mountain about a third of the way up its side, kind of above Mrs. Taylor’s house, but of course you can’t see it from there. It is hidden, deeply buried in woods and in brush, it’s a secret place, despite how big it is, and the only people who even know about it are those other people have shown. Exactly why it’s there, Dane does not know (245).

He makes his way to the drain, and it’s immediately clear that the place is dangerous: The “temperature drops as soon as he enters the tunnel,” it’s dark, and there’s a weird “gooey water” (246) that runs down the middle of it. Dane sees a bunch of neighborhood boys encircling Seth and Corey, who are on their bikes and about to compete to see who can ride their bike highest up the side of the tunnel.