ATDTDA (17): Well at least it wasn't fatal, 486-488

[Paul Nightingale]

Discussing their childlessness has replaced discussion of Webb: a "more
personal" 'guilt' might be assigned now, whereas in the past it was "outside
crises or stresses". Their status as a 'normal' couple is dependent on
children, Lake/Deuce juxtaposed to Tace/Eugene, the badman/deputy a kind of
inferior patriarch. Deuce is "unwise enough" to suggest that they "owe"
Webb. Deuce's recollection of Webb ("Easy story to tell, years later," 487)
is resisted by Lake, but it follows the pattern established by Tace, talk
reconstructing the past. Cf. Lake's own, rather more speculative, writing of
the past on 483: ". was it conceivable ." etc. There is, here, another
fast-forward moment (eg, with regard to Lake, her scene with Mayva following
estrangement from Webb, 192), which allows the current scene to be refigured
retrospectively from a point somewhere along the line.

For the first time Eugene has accompanied Tace, drawn by the sounds of
battle (487). Tace "start[s] smoking in front of her husband, who pretend[s]
not to notice". At the start of this section childlessness could be blamed
on distant events, some kind of elsewhere; here, the fight is impacting on
an elsewhere, the Tace/Eugene relationship. Or at least the reader's
awareness of that relationship: there is now an indication that Tace doesn't
seek refuge from Eugene, and she is somewhat more assertive, "grim-lidded
and carrying a Greener shotgun" while he is "still half asleep and
preoccupied with his galluses". Cf. Deuce's "multiple humiliation" on 485.
If, here, Deuce's "uncanny impersonation of Webb's voice" (487) invokes the
patriarchal order, then Lake's assault leads to the appearance of a 'new'
version of Tace/Eugene, one that might be said to undermine a simplistic
patriarchy. It seems that Tace/Eugene have assumed it was Deuce assaulting
Lake; recognition that he is the victim is followed by Tace smoking, Eugene
choosing to ignore it.

In attempting to clarify the situation ("You could make a case ." etc, 488)
"Tace stalk[s] back and forth" (487) to effectively speak the law. Again,
cf. Lake's speculative version on 483: ". not as if this was a courtroom and
Tace was the judge".