- Will stops running as nine o'clock chimes from the big courthouse clock. The two boys head through the town as shops are in the process of closing or have already closed. The effect is ghostly.
- They pause in front of the United Cigar Stores as a wooden Cherokee glides away. (Clearly the shop owner is moving stuff around, but it looks for a moment as though the statue is moving on its own.)
- The store owner Mr. Tetley asks them if the wooden Indian scared them. The boys say no, but Will feels a chill.
- Mr. Tetley freezes to listen to a sound in the wind. He's so distracted that he fails to notice as the boys leave.
- The boys run off and stop before Mr. Crosetti, the barber, who has similarly frozen in front of his shop. A teardrop glistens on his left cheek.
- Mr. Crosetti sniffs the air and asks the boys if they smell cotton candy and licorice. He explains he is crying because he remembers how boys ate cotton candy a long time ago.
- Mr. Crosetti then wonders where the smell is coming from, since none of the shops in town sell cotton candy.
- He turns to lock his door. Will stares at the never-ending ribbon of the barber pole. He asks Mr. Crosetti to leave it on, and the barber nods in assent.
- The boys bid the barber good night and head home.