Atdtda23: Loss, 644-646

[Paul Nightingale]

Frank in El Paso, which is modernising: "[n]ot a patch on the old El Paso".
And Stray will complain that "[b]usiness with the Army sure ain't like it
was ..." etc (645). The chapter opens in "a reputable hotel near the Union
Depot" (644), which might remind us of our first sighting of Nochecita, also
transformed by the railroad (200). That was where Frank first met Stray; the
last time he saw her was in Fickle Creek (464), so her appearance here
(bottom of 644) seems to replay that moment, not least because of the impact
her presence has on others. Here: "a sudden dip in the chitchat level ..."
etc. On 464: "... the attractively costumed waiter girls ... kept throwing
her certain glances". Here, she heads straight for Frank and greets him
easily; on the earlier occasion, "she didn't recognise [him] if she saw him
at all".

Frank stands in for Reef: "It was your brother's old stomping grounds"
(645). Stray features as a business partner for Reef and now for Frank. She
denies it was the "[g]ood old days"; like the town itself she wishes to
erase the past. Frank considers his role as Jesse's uncle (646); in the
absence of Reef this is a means to reconstitute the family. However,
whatever kind of nephew he imagines ("beaming") Stray invokes a loss of
innocence, Jesse "[a]lready playin with the dynamite". This concludes the
section by taking us back to the first impression Frank had of the town on
644: in the opening lines the emphasis is placed on loss since "the Law and
Order League got into the act".