Atatda33: Footsoldiers, 921-922

[Paul Nightingale]

The following day, Frank is again asked to recognise someone, to go back in
time. Bottom of 919 he recognises El Espinero and thinks back to their
previous meeting. On 920 he then compares Stray now with the Stray he had
last seen on 651. Here, he needs "about a minute to recognise her new
companion" (921): he must think back to the last scene with Ewball on 649,
but also to the previous day, when Stray appeared "on the arm of" Rodrigo
(920). At the end of the section Frank will think of his "two-second
interlude with Sloat Fresno back down the Bolson de Mapimi five, no, six
years ago" (922), the dating itself recalling his earlier estimation of the
time since he last saw Stray, "two years ago, closer to three" (920).

The reappearance of Ewball also takes Stray back. Above the section break on
921 she is "more of a diplomat these days"; now, she "pretend[s] to sigh in
dismay" and suggests she might "get back into arms dealin after all". Later
on, very businesslike, she is "taking notes" (922). It is the interaction
between characters, rather than characters per se, that drives the
narrative.

Ewball outlines the (im)balance of forces indicated when the chapter opened
on 919: "Federales are hitting us with howitzers, machine guns, time
shrapnel, best we can do is throw dynamite sticks and trust in the Lord"
(921). He cites a key principle of guerrilla warfare ("we need something's
easy to break down and pack around on mules", 922); and then describes
"honest soldiering", or the etiquette of bomb-throwing. What he calls "the
real nihilists" are those like Deuce and Sloat, "working for the owners":
abstraction joins personal recollection here, with Frank thinking of Deuce,
"still out there" (in the process, recalling his own past wandering).
However, Ewball says "our dead never stopped belonging to us", use of the
past tense indicating that he has moved from the general (ie speaking of a
principle) to the particular, "a considerable number of dead he now felt
were his": it is this knowledge that alerts Frank to something greater than
his own quest for vengeance. And so we end this section where we started,
with an emphasis on personal recollection, Frank thinking of those he
knows--or has known--personally. Ewball has something else in mind when he
says "they wouldn't forgive us if we wandered off of the trail" (a phrase
that recalls, or recognises, Frank's own waywardness).