ATDTDA (17): Dreams no different, 475-476

[Paul Nightingale]

>From insisting there is/was "nothing special about me" (475) Deuce now
suggests that killing "a whole lot of other folks" would mean he "wouldn't
feel nearly so bad about just the one" (476). Here, "dreams no different
from his cursed youth" (475) follow the journey home, "descending again into
all he had ever wanted to rise above" (473). Returning to Nochecita, the
last days before they heard of Webb's abduction, Frank "wondered if he could
be his own ghost" (461). For Deuce, 'going home' ("descending") allows him
to purge himself of family ties: "It would be impossible for him to sleep in
that house, ever again" (474).

Note that Deuce is "waiting for Webb to find him" (475): not Frank or Reef,
retribution, or even his erstwhile employers (see 270, "not vengeful people
ordinarily"). On 316 Frank is 'haunted' by Webb's ghost at Telluride, a
reminder of duty; here, Deuce is plagued by absence, the failure of the
ghost to appear. On 270 "Deuce had to gently start breaking it to Lake that
there might just be some people after him". This is juxtaposed to a
reference to her performance: "... strange patches of innocence" (top of
271).In the current chapter, of course, she is no longer bothering to
perform such innocence/ignorance.

On his "clockless nights" (476), cf. his sleeplessness following Sloat's
departure ("just the two of them now"), in particular: the "luminous face
suspended above where her own would have to be" (272).