chapter 18 opens with nick andros, the deaf-mute who suffered a major ass-whipping via the hands of sheriff baker's brother-in-law ray and ray's cronies back in chapter 9. sheriff baker gave nick a job sweeping up in the jailhouse to make up for the week of pay he lost when the wayward welcome committee tried to show him the way out of town (and total existence, for that matter). three of the four culprits now call the shoyo, arkansas jail home; only ray, the sheriff's brother-in-law, avoided capture and is now MIA.
nick has met the sheriff's wife, jane (who also happens to be ray's sister) and had supper with them. she apologizes to nick for her brother's actions, which shows a lot of character, in my opinion. while of course she has no control over her brother, she still shows a level of remorse (not really the word i am looking for but i cannot think of the right one) for what he did. jane baker is also concerned over her husband's health; he's very sick and is running a fever. she orders him to bed, in the way that only a loving wife can do, and he complies, in a way that only a husband who knows what side his bread's buttered on can do. sheriff baker asks nick to go back to the station to ensure the detainees have a meal, but before nick can do that, baker deputizes him. he also gives nick permission to sleep at the station.
while he's at the station having some down-time, nick pens a shorthand autobiography for baker. by the age of nine, nick was an orphan and living in a baptist orphanage. having been born a deaf-mute, his learning was already stunted, but living at the orphanage made it worse as no one knew how to help him. he was on his way to becoming a recluse of sorts until another deaf-mute, an adult man named rudy, showed up at the orphanage to help him. nick was stubborn at first but rudy got through his wall. when nick was 16, the orphanage went belly-up and nick ran away because he didnt want to live in a foster home with strangers.
sheriff baker seems to be making a recovery from his "summer cold," and he and nick have a little heart to heart. the local doctor comes by to check nick out and pronounces him bruised and battered but otherwise healthy. nick will probably lose his two front teeth, courtesy of ray's fraternity ring, but other than that, he'll be okay. i happen to know exactly what's going to happen to nick because i've read the book but i wont spoil it for you this early in the story. unless you want me to. then i probably still wont. HAHA
doc soames takes a peek at sheriff baker per mrs baker's request and discovers that the lawman is having a relapse with his cold. the fever is back, along with some glandular swelling (sound familiar??). doc orders the sheriff home to bed. the doctor divulges to the sheriff that the cold is making the rounds through town: a whole slew of town folk have come down with the sickness. oh me oh my, whatever do we make of this? captain trips is making his rounds right along with doc soames. even two townspeople who stopped in to check on nick are sick.
that night, nick dreams of being in a cornfield and being terribly afraid of something behind him. so nick is apparently dreaming about the same thing stu redman dreamed of. it's interesting that they both are not just "afraid" but they both experienced "terrible" fear. whatever's in the cornfield must be very evil. *shudder*
two or three times in this chapter it's noted that while nick is in the holding area, billy and mike (two of the four who assaulted him) are constantly verbally harassing him, even though they KNOW he is deaf and cannot hear them. i think they are half-brained brutes who probably dont know their asses from a hole in the ground. vince, the third assailant (and the one who spilled his guts when questioned by the sheriff) isnt harassing nick. i think vince is remorseful for what they did and for his part in it. he's also sick, very sick.
by 8 AM the next morning, sheriff baker hasnt shown up for work, and no breakfast has been delivered for the prisoners. nick starts to feel a bit uneasy. he sees that vince has gotten even sicker and decides to go for the doctor. he finds the doctor, who is sick himself. he breaks the bad news that sheriff baker has died and mrs. baker is sick. as a matter of fact, several people in shoyo have died since yesterday and many more are sick and dying, thus running doc soames nearly ragged. the doctor reveals that all the phone lines are down and no calls can be made outside of the town and all exits are blocked off for road construction. in fact, the road crew look suspiciously like soldiers. never seen road crew salute each other, right? the good doc also suggests that someone somewhere made a mistake, a big mistake, and that's why everyone is sick. old doc couldnt be closer to the truth.
things are really starting to heat up now. i can imagine that mass panic is happening all around the country, perhaps even the world. people dropping like flies with no respect to class, race, or gender. the illness has likely traveled by plane, train, and automobile to all parts of the world by now. we see this kind of apocalyptic event in movies a lot but could you imagine if it REALLY did happen? think of all the things that would cease to exist: electricity, running water, HOT water, refrigerated food and drink. we'd all be back to living in pre-industrial america. and it wouldnt be just "the good guys" who survived. there would be less-than-admirable people among them too. so we wouldnt be faced with just the hardship of living in a different world, we'd also have to watch our backs constantly. no security cameras, no 911, we'd be right back to frontier justice. very scary.
this chapter was very long. it was difficult for me to blog, too, for some unknown reason. maybe the next chapter wont be the same.
(where oh where has my stu redman gone? i miss him and want to visit with him soon....)
nick has met the sheriff's wife, jane (who also happens to be ray's sister) and had supper with them. she apologizes to nick for her brother's actions, which shows a lot of character, in my opinion. while of course she has no control over her brother, she still shows a level of remorse (not really the word i am looking for but i cannot think of the right one) for what he did. jane baker is also concerned over her husband's health; he's very sick and is running a fever. she orders him to bed, in the way that only a loving wife can do, and he complies, in a way that only a husband who knows what side his bread's buttered on can do. sheriff baker asks nick to go back to the station to ensure the detainees have a meal, but before nick can do that, baker deputizes him. he also gives nick permission to sleep at the station.
while he's at the station having some down-time, nick pens a shorthand autobiography for baker. by the age of nine, nick was an orphan and living in a baptist orphanage. having been born a deaf-mute, his learning was already stunted, but living at the orphanage made it worse as no one knew how to help him. he was on his way to becoming a recluse of sorts until another deaf-mute, an adult man named rudy, showed up at the orphanage to help him. nick was stubborn at first but rudy got through his wall. when nick was 16, the orphanage went belly-up and nick ran away because he didnt want to live in a foster home with strangers.
sheriff baker seems to be making a recovery from his "summer cold," and he and nick have a little heart to heart. the local doctor comes by to check nick out and pronounces him bruised and battered but otherwise healthy. nick will probably lose his two front teeth, courtesy of ray's fraternity ring, but other than that, he'll be okay. i happen to know exactly what's going to happen to nick because i've read the book but i wont spoil it for you this early in the story. unless you want me to. then i probably still wont. HAHA
doc soames takes a peek at sheriff baker per mrs baker's request and discovers that the lawman is having a relapse with his cold. the fever is back, along with some glandular swelling (sound familiar??). doc orders the sheriff home to bed. the doctor divulges to the sheriff that the cold is making the rounds through town: a whole slew of town folk have come down with the sickness. oh me oh my, whatever do we make of this? captain trips is making his rounds right along with doc soames. even two townspeople who stopped in to check on nick are sick.
that night, nick dreams of being in a cornfield and being terribly afraid of something behind him. so nick is apparently dreaming about the same thing stu redman dreamed of. it's interesting that they both are not just "afraid" but they both experienced "terrible" fear. whatever's in the cornfield must be very evil. *shudder*
two or three times in this chapter it's noted that while nick is in the holding area, billy and mike (two of the four who assaulted him) are constantly verbally harassing him, even though they KNOW he is deaf and cannot hear them. i think they are half-brained brutes who probably dont know their asses from a hole in the ground. vince, the third assailant (and the one who spilled his guts when questioned by the sheriff) isnt harassing nick. i think vince is remorseful for what they did and for his part in it. he's also sick, very sick.
by 8 AM the next morning, sheriff baker hasnt shown up for work, and no breakfast has been delivered for the prisoners. nick starts to feel a bit uneasy. he sees that vince has gotten even sicker and decides to go for the doctor. he finds the doctor, who is sick himself. he breaks the bad news that sheriff baker has died and mrs. baker is sick. as a matter of fact, several people in shoyo have died since yesterday and many more are sick and dying, thus running doc soames nearly ragged. the doctor reveals that all the phone lines are down and no calls can be made outside of the town and all exits are blocked off for road construction. in fact, the road crew look suspiciously like soldiers. never seen road crew salute each other, right? the good doc also suggests that someone somewhere made a mistake, a big mistake, and that's why everyone is sick. old doc couldnt be closer to the truth.
things are really starting to heat up now. i can imagine that mass panic is happening all around the country, perhaps even the world. people dropping like flies with no respect to class, race, or gender. the illness has likely traveled by plane, train, and automobile to all parts of the world by now. we see this kind of apocalyptic event in movies a lot but could you imagine if it REALLY did happen? think of all the things that would cease to exist: electricity, running water, HOT water, refrigerated food and drink. we'd all be back to living in pre-industrial america. and it wouldnt be just "the good guys" who survived. there would be less-than-admirable people among them too. so we wouldnt be faced with just the hardship of living in a different world, we'd also have to watch our backs constantly. no security cameras, no 911, we'd be right back to frontier justice. very scary.
this chapter was very long. it was difficult for me to blog, too, for some unknown reason. maybe the next chapter wont be the same.
(where oh where has my stu redman gone? i miss him and want to visit with him soon....)
whew, what a great synopsis. i had a really hard time with this one too.
ReplyDeleteI am sad for you tho....cuz...well.... Stu is MINE lol lol
looking forward to the next one =p