Kim was supposed to have spent August with his father in California, but at the last minute, his dad had apologetically cancelled. It seems that an unexpected emergency had required him to take his new wife on an extended tour of Europe, instead. His father’s jilting and the fact that most of Kim’s neighborhood friends, especially the Kowalski twins and Chuck Mansel, were on vacation with their families, were primarily responsible for the boredom that had gnawed away at Kim’s summer
If Kim had not found other amusements in his dim underground sanctuary, he would have already been bored with the basement and gone back above ground more lonely than before.