Atdtda33: Gringo mischief, 929-930

[Paul Nightingale]

The chapter opens in the immediate aftermath of fighting, and this section
looks back, Frank doing "repair work from the battle mostly", ie an attempt
to return to a time before the battle took place. On 928, Frank accompanies
Wren ("Didn't know you were interested") when she returns to the
archaeological site; on 929 he is no longer with her, remaining at home when
she, one infers, is at the site. They are each, it seems, occupied with work
that fills their time apart. She is digging, ie attempting to uncover the
effects of change, as with the "huge remnant" on 928; he ("some carpentering
and plastering", 929) is both undoing and covering up what has happened more
recently. When she returns to the narrative we find her absent, ie asleep,
albeit keeping him awake: at the end of the section they kiss as she is
about to board the train, but "she [is] already miles away down those rails
before their lips even touched" (930).

Wren, it seems, is "on her own trail" 929), and Frank "only happen[s] to be
on the same piece of trail for the moment". El Espinero later says they
"walk very different paths" (930); and reference here to the railway
suggests a determinism, ie an inability to deviate. Frank anticipates losing
Wren to "the cruel country of the invaders", the language he uses here only
increasing the distance between them. In her absence he spends more time
with El Espinero, who predicts ("read[s] the thorns") that Frank and Wren
will soon part; Frank confirms that "[t]he professors she works for return
in September to the other side", ie their university base. By implication,
"the cruel country of the invaders" is the US, transformed by a Frank who is
here seeing things differently. However, that doesn't stop him "forg[etting
the names of herbs] as soon as he [hears] them, as if they [are] protecting
themselves against future gringo mischief" (929): that "as if" shifts the
emphasis from the difficulty Frank has with a 'foreign' language to his own
status as an alien.