ATDTDA (7): Sidekicks, 195-196

[Paul Nightingale]

More of Deuce's backstory, including his relationship
with Sloat Fresno: each thinks of the other as his
"sidekick", "each thinking he was protecting the
other": which might recall the kind of relationship
Scarsdale Vibe has with Foley Walker (eg the "Twin
Vibes" passage, 101-102). Sloat is "a wanted man" but
elusive: the "unflattering likenesses" mean his
identity cannot be established. Cf. Lew's situation
when about to depart for England (188): he doesn't
need a passport, because it isn't considered necessary
that his identity be established so formally. At the
outset, then, the section reminds us of the importance
of interaction (this is not a time when everyone
carries ID, or has to, and Sloat can reinvent himself
from one Army post to the next); by the end, the
section has reconfirmed that Deuce and the rep have
never even met, all evidence to the contrary
notwithstanding.

Deuce and Sloat have contrasting specialties: Sloat
"inflicting damage", Deuce "mental domination". But
Deuce, it seems, has to want to do it: "He envied the
more professional shootists of the time, even Sloat
with his enlisted man's approach ..." etc.

The text gives us a lot of information about Deuce in
these pages, this superior knowledge effectively
distancing the reader from Webb. Hence, the above
passage begs the question: how will Deuce find that he
wants to go through with this job? It seems that his
involvement must "always" follow the same pattern,
repeated over and over: "If it wasn't to begin with,
before the end of the assignment there'd always be
something he could find either contemptible or
desirable enough to prod him through it."

Deuce and Sloat have their own one-sided take on their
relationship, and so do Deuce and Webb. Perhaps Deuce
is (or has to wait to be) motivated by knowing how
well he has duped Webb. With his own agenda (he
"half-consciously imagined he'd found a replacement
son") Webb manages to misread Deuce: "Thinking he saw
something wistful on Deuce's face ..." etc (196).

Webb repeatedly ("had got into the practice of ...")
visits Deuce at the same time, and they repeatedly
"[talk] late into the night", despite the likelihood
of "end-of-shift exhaustion": an ironic touch, the
narrative voice here reminding us that, maybe, Webb
might have realised ("it could've been") it for
himself. And then, the brief paragraph that follows
goes back to Webb's pov: the narrative voice changes
abruptly to encapsulate everything we have learned so
far about his family relationships.

If duping Webb allows Deuce to find him
"contemptible", what he finds "desirable" is
consequent on the dawning knowledge that "he was in
the presence of an honest-to-God dynamite-happy
Anarchist". Hence, "he wondered if he should have
charged more". Webb has seen progression in terms of a
relationship between surrogate son and actual
daughter; for Deuce, this is a career opportunity of
another kind. By the end of the section, then, Deuce
has been established as the protagonist here, Sloat
and Webb, for different reasons, his narrative sidekicks.