Page "Hearts in Atlantis" Paragraph 7

The remainder of the story details, in brief, Bobby's adolescence.

He beats up Harry Doolin with a baseball bat, and moves away from Harwich with his mother, and is twice put in a juvenile detention facility.

When he arrives home after his second incarceration ( at this point it is 1965 ), he receives a letter from Carol, with another envelope that she tells him is from Ted.

Bobby opens the envelope and finds it is full of red rose petals, the ones which surround the Dark Tower, and he knows that somewhere Ted is free of the low men once again.

He goes to his mother, who seems to have grown prematurely old, and embraces her ; she cries because of the mess they have made of their lives, while he encourages her that there is hope for both of them.