ATDTDA (9): Damage and pain, 265-266

[Paul Nightingale]

Sloat says "nobody gives a hair on a mine rat's ass if you marry her or
not"; but Deuce won't be able to sleep once Lake finds out the truth. His
advice is "fuck her, . [but]don't tell her nothing". Back when he was
introduced, Sloat was said to be "frankly in it for the feelings of
passionate alertness that grew in him while he was inflicting damage" (195);
the text, on his behalf, then differentiates "damage" from "pain, for hell,
any ordinary day is pain ain't it". Perhaps he differentiates in the same
way between fucking Lake and telling her the truth.

Back at the cute-meet Mayva calls Lake and Sloat calls Deuce "just about the
same time" (261). Linked together, mother and partner are commentators on
the action. Sloat, unable to "figure out" (265) what is happening to Deuce
also struggles to rationalise: Mayva called Lake "crazy" (264); Sloat now
thinks Deuce must be "haunted by what he did" (266). Well, seeing Lake in
the Nonpareil, Deuce has a Macbeth moment, seeing the ghost of Webb in
Lake's features (262).