ATDTDA (17): Don't sound so forlorn, 477-480

[Paul Nightingale]

Previously "waiting for Webb to find him" (475), Deuce is now "on call
around the clock for the more abstract emergency, the prophecy which loomed
out beyond the sensible horizon of daybook fact" (477, the world "with a
minor adjustment or two", perhaps). When his past catches up with him, it
isn't Webb's ghost or retribution, but news of Sloat's death; and he
"imagine[s] himself on out to some picturesquely windswept grave, head
bowed, hat off" (478). So he immediately positions himself as mourner in a
narrative that has nothing to do with, or glosses over the facts of the
case, or at least his role in it. Cf. his earlier recollection of Sloat:
"... he had to admit, well, maybe he hadn't been all that alone, really"
(474). Perhaps the "abstract emergency" he awaits has now arrived in the
form of a "rectal message that somebody might be more than willing to do him
up too" (478). News of Sloat's death has to be interpreted, of course; there
is nothing in the factual report to corroborate Deuce's view that "they were
bound to find you", that it was "one of [Lake's] got-damn brothers", as
indeed she reminds him. And subsequently, talking with Tace, she explains
Deuce's abrupt departure thus: "... this time he thinks it's him out
looking" (479), Sloat's death giving him a reason, or excuse, to adopt the
role of avenger.

Upon Deuce's departure the narrative, for the first time in this chapter,
adopts Lake's pov. Immediately, "she is shocked awake by a familiar, keen,
anal memory" (478): it seems she, unlike Deuce, has no trouble sleeping, but
like him she is troubled by visions, visiting ghosts, in this case Sloat.
Subsequently, allowing Tace to contradict her, she calls herself an
"unnatural daughter" (479). Perhaps it is significant that Tace is anything
but the wifely counterpart to her husband: "... she had taken off her
Sheriff's-wife face like a deputy might unpin a star". As such she invites
confession and provides confidences of her own, each woman seeking refuge
from the family.