SLPAD - 74

[Michael Bailey]

Aware of a situational abrogation of protocol at the pier from his
observations the previous day, he confirms its continuing absence now &
climbs aboard one of the tugboats.

Since there are “half a dozen army personnel and as many civilians,” nobody
in the mixed crew of people who might not even know each other challenges
him. After all, many hands make light work. The more the merrier (-;

There’s still a lot of standing water in Creole, but they float past the
upper stories of the courthouse & towards the outlying farms, where the
cleanup hasn’t yet been.

There’s a flash-forward, but rather than to incidences of wondering
(suggested as “fun” on the previous page) why he took the decision to join
the team of ad hoc removal people, the flash-forward is a generic one, to
(most of) Levine’s later memories of the feel and smell of the death-imbued
air:

“ It was mostly this that Levine remembered afterward, the peculiar
atmospheric effect
               of gray sun on gray swamp, the way the air felt and smelled.
For ten hours they cruised
               around looking for dead.”


This “time-binding” moment allows the story to percolate briefly outside
its timeline, confirming the nature of Levine as a person on whom
impressions are made, more than a beer-bellied rebellious automaton.