Atadta33: Drifting, 919-921

[Paul Nightingale]

The new chapter opens with a brief introduction to a church that isn't quite
a church. Firstly, the light is different. The mediation of light by "sacred
images of stained glass" has been superseded by "the new leafage on trees
outside". The church as a religious space has been brought into the mundane
by "federal artillery". As the chapter opens, the action takes place in Holy
Week; however, for the narrative this location in time must refer to the
climate ("still freezing at night but tolerable during the day") rather than
religious ritual. Indeed, the subsequent reference to the ongoing civil war
("the federales had driven off Madero's forces ..." etc) indicates that the
routines of a religious calendar have given way to political struggle. Space
is transformed by necessity. The church is juxtaposed to the garrison, the
latter offering sanctuary to federales; and the church itself acknowledges
"the recent battle" rather than some supreme being. Here, "the priest and
the doctor" are interchangeable, their respective roles not distinguished.

On 377 Semana Santa is associated with the abandonment of work: "nobody
worked that week". However, in the current section, Holy Week--the
translation is apposite--sees the daily routine of the church concerned with
caring for the wounded (919). And note that "women from the town [come] when
they [can]": they have their own mundane affairs to manage, "a child to see,
a novio to be with or bid goodbye, a family death to mourn".

And so to Frank's reappearance, at precisely the moment he "[wakes] from a
dream": he was dreaming a lot on 377. We last saw Frank on 651, at the end
of Ch45. That earlier chapter featured the transformation of El Paso,
another kind of revolution, one brought about by the Law and Order League,
"very small back rooms" replaced by "damned little tearooms" (644). Another
take on modernisation. Earlier still, in Ch28, he is "traipsing to no
purpose around an empty shadowmap, a dime novel of Old Mexico" (374, and cf
the dreamed "[n]o point to your life ..." etc on 377, not to mention the
subsequent 'confession' of sorts: "I'm back and forth a lot" on 650). On 374
Frank meets Ewball Oust. On 637, at the start of Ch44, Frank insists that
"Mexican politics [is] not his business"; a few lines down that page he has
reconnected with Ewball and started "moving modest consignments of war
materiel ..." etc, all of which will lead to the meeting with Stray on 644
(her entrance contrasting her to the "respectable wives and mothers" who
represent the Law and Order League). On 650, his "back and forth" comment
comes a few lines after the reference to a successful business deal, "the
Krags ... delivered safely and en route to their invisible destiny": Frank's
own "invisible destiny", perhaps, has been signalled by the meeting with
Ewball on 374, from "traipsing to no purpose" to a meeting down the same
page, one that locates him in terms of his own past wandering, ie "that
fellow with the magnets". If the dream on 377 mocks his pursuit of Deuce,
the "invisible destiny" ties him to Mexican politics.

Waking on 919, "all at once" Frank is located physically in the present,
"back on the floor of the cold, broken church, immobilized and hungry, among
the smells of casualty and dying". Similarly, up the page, Holy Week--unlike
Semana Santa--is associated with the experience of time, specifically the
climate at that time. Here, the phrasing gives the reader his reading of the
scene, one opposed to the impressionism of the dream: "immobilized and
hungry" after "running without effort or pain". His first awareness of El
Espinero ("a face he was about to recognise") is through the "store-bought
Mexican cigarette" (ie one commercially manufactured). The narrative reminds
us that El Espinero "once showed [Frank] how to fly", and so we return to
Ch28, where El Espinero is introduced on 390. We have already indicated the
narrative conflict between Frank's pursuit of Deuce and his growing
involvement in Mexican politics; we should also note that these pages in
particular juxtapose his past (on 382 Dwayne insists Frank is "that
Kieselguhr Kid of Wild West legend") and his present (on 390 the "Tarahumare
girl" reminds him of "the other Estrella" waiting for him down the line). On
392, El Espinero says Frank has "fallen into the habit" of seeing the wrong
things; then, having taken the hikuli, he is taken "out of his mind, his
country and family, out of his soul". All of this is recalled at the top of
920, the "spectacular vomiting" on 392 replaced by the pain he now feels
smoking the cigarette with broken ribs (and, of course, Frank then says he
"should've been someplace else"). 

El Espinero says "your other Estrella" is here, but she doesn't announce her
presence with speech. The narrative confirms her presence, from Frank's pov,
"on the arm of some impossibly good-looking Mexican dude" (920). There is a
reminder of their earlier meeting ("no more little dainty .22 ... etc) in
Ch45, specifically 45.2 on 646-647. Stray's appearance (her name only
appears after her departure at the end of the section on 921) has been
transformed as Frank recalls the earlier scene "two years ago, closer to
three" (920), repetition here not that of the calendar. She says she has
moved on, "more of a diplomat these days" (921); and there is another
reference to manufactured cigarettes, the sole reminder of her presence when
Frank has "drifted off and ... drifted back".