Neville recounts saying goodbye to his parents in New York in November 1933 as they sailed back to Barbados, marking twelve years since his own arrival in America. He describes feeling like a failure by his own and his family's standards after those twelve years -- working in the theatre, making money one year and losing it the next -- too ashamed of his lack of success to return home himself. A sudden, inexplicable urge to go to Barbados, felt right after the ship pulled out, leads him to consult his teacher Abdullah about the trip.