IVIV20: Once or twice, 352

[Paul Nightingale]

Watching TV allows Doc to imagine his parents (352), just as, on the
previous page, the "glittering mosaic of doubt" (351) allowed him to imagine
Sauncho. Absent, his parents can be located in time and place by the TV
schedules, although what follows will disturb his confident assumption that
they can be taken for granted.

Elmina tells him of Gilroy's latest promotion (352), sending us back to
Gilroy's first appearance, so to speak, as "the one with the life,
operations manager for whatever, grandkids and acreage and so forth" (112).
Here, Elmina's account of life with the "lulu" is followed by reference to
"that pretty Shasta Fay Hepworth" (352). At this late stage, then, we
discover that Gilroy doesn't really feature as a role model for Doc; the
career is undermined by a failure to provide Elmina with a daughter-in-law
she might approve of. So it seems Doc's relationship with Shasta might have
given   him something of an advantage over his brother, all of which takes
us back to the surprise visit in 8.2: "Elmina wasted no time in bringing up
the subject of Shasta Fey, whom she'd met once and taken to right away"
(114).

The third visit to "the gateway to the past" (351) in a couple of pages,
then, this phone call following Farley's enlargements and the flashback
conversation with Sauncho. We recall that the narrative began with Shasta's
appearance as performance, coming in "the way she always used to" but
"looking just like she swore she'd never look" (1): this is me now
pretending (but failing) to be me then. This meeting provides the first
indication that Doc is sensitive to his status ("I have an office now") as
well as threatened by an alternative pov. If he fears Bigfoot's power to
bust him, he is certainly uncomfortable when looking at his home through
Shasta's eyes on 4.

More recently, Shasta has reappeared on 261, the passage in question echoing
her appearance on 1, itself an echo of something called 'the past': "...
same getup, same carefree attitude, as if she still hadn't even met Mickey
Wolfmann ..." etc (262). Later, Doc goes to visit her at Flip's, the writing
on 303 reversing her approach to him on 1.

On 262, of course, our confidence in the "same getup" is undermined somewhat
by the earlier "near as Doc could tell ..." etc (261). The section begins
with Doc looking in vain for "anything new about the Wolfman case"; the
story's disappearance from the news media is then succeeded by Doc reading
Shasta's image as one that undoes the narrative thus far. A few lines down
her "that's all over" (262) seems to confirm that Doc's quest is over.
Whatever his ongoing interest in Shasta, it seems the investigation into
Mickey Wolfmann's affairs/disappearance has only ever been on Shasta's
behalf. As a PI Doc might resemble Shasta's T-shirt, or even Mickey's trophy
ties; he is hardly a 'truthfinding machine'.

On 306, "look[ing] for telltale zombie symptoms", Doc concludes "it seemed
like the same old Shasta". That section (17.2) then ends with Doc
"follow[ing] the prints of her bare feet already collapsing into rain and
shadow, as if in a fool's attempt to find his way back into a past that
despite them both had gone on into the future it did" (314). This "fool's
attempt" prefigures the opening of Ch20, "the gateway to the past unguarded,
unforbidden because it didn't have to be" (351).