the stand: chapters 3-5

jackie and i decided to try to blog four chapters but chapter 5 was pretty long so we're going to start on 6 tomorrow.

the first part of chapter 3 opens with norm bruett, a man we met at bill hapscomb's texaco back in chapter 1. norm is at home now, and we learn he has a wife and two children. wife lila is away babysitting for a "dolar" and has left a "sassage" for his "luntch." norm is sad when he sees his two young boys playing outside in hand-me-downs and simultaneously angry with a desire to beat them. times are tough for the bruett family, and now norm has a cold.


there's nothing like some financial hardships to bring out the beast in some people, but overall, norm is a class-a scumbag, in my opinion. his and his family's characters are stereotypical but unfortunately pretty spot-on. it's implied that his wife is uneducated and he's abusive. their family has fallen on hard times; he is laid off from the calculator factory (we learned that in chapter 1 also), and now, norm is sick: headache, body aches, and sneezing.

we're back at bill hapscomb's texaco for the second part of chapter 3. bill is working on a car and his pal vic is keeping him company. bill's cousin, a state patrolman, comes by to gas up and impart some serious information: some houston pathologists and some people from the plague center in atlanta are coming to inspect the bodies of charlie campion and his family. bill and vic are both showing early signs of a cold.


we can see a sickness beginning in this small town. we also have to remember that the old guys at the texaco aren't the first people that charlie campion and his family came in contact with; after all, they did make it all the way from california to this small town of arnette, texas.

the chapter ends with lila bruett, norm's wife, babysitting the hodges kids. she's watching a soap opera and lamenting over how nice sally hodges' house is with a color tv and paint-by-number pictures of Jesus. lila has a cough and a tickle in her throat, and the youngest hodges baby is sick too.


now the sickness is spreading fast. lila and norm were only in each other's company for presumably half a day after he was exposed to campion at the texaco. lila has been with the hodges children for less time than that and already the baby is sick. true, the baby could have been exposed in some other way but we dont know and we're left to assume that her exposure came from lila.

i've had some training in healthcare and i understand about airborne pathogens, and this scenario is scary. most viruses incubate for several days or even weeks before symptoms start to emerge. this illness is spreading and showing in less than 24 hours. very very scary.

project blue. that's what the marines are calling the sickness. the marines are at the base where it originated, the same base that charlie campion ran from. there are many dead people on the base in the labs and in the cafeteria, even a guy who died and fell face first into his bowl of soup. the virus has an ivory soap communicability rate, 99.4% with an equal mortality rate. the town of arnette, texas is under quarantine, and the crew from the texaco station all show signs of sickness except for stu. the news around town is an anthrax outbreak. 


this chapter kinda depressed me. starkey, a marine bigwig who is at the base, is the main character of this chapter and he has to deal with the reality that this virus is now out in the open and he is scared. i am sad for starkey and scared with him. i sympathize with him when he imagines having to tell his daughter that her husband (his coworker or maybe subordinate) is dead. (not from the virus though; he committed suicide in the face of the impending disaster.) this chapter also has one scene it that has stuck with me since the first time i read it: the dead guy with his face in the bowl of soup. this scene has popped into my head at various random times throughout my life. the stark reality is you never know when and where your day is gonna come so always wear clean underwear and always pack a great lunch. stay away from the soup though....i hear it's killer.

chapter 5: larry underwood, up and coming pop music star, goes back home to new york city to visit his mother. life in los angeles has been good to larry lately; he cut an album and made it to the billboard music chart, even made it so far as to be featured on kasey kasem's top 40. but things got out of control: parties, drugs, a leeching girlfriend. a fellow musician takes larry aside and forces larry to see what's really going on. larry leaves los angeles and heads back to his mom's apartment in new york for a vacation. larry's mom is a tough woman who had to raise her son alone after his father died. larry left home with a less than heartwarming goodbye, and his homecoming is about the same. she doesnt approve of larry's style of music and she doesnt mind letting him know. on the day larry unexpectedly arrives, she has called in sick to work but, upon his arrival,decides to go to work anyway.


larry was one of my least favorite main characters the first time i read the book. he's careless and selfish and naive and just overall a jerk. but when times got tough, larry knew where to turn: home, the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. i sort of feel sorry for larry once he's home; guilt trips are no fun even if you are in the wrong. all in all, chapter 5 was a "get to know ya" chapter for larry. i think what happened to him in los angeles shook him a bit, but i agree with his mother that it's going to take something major in his life to make larry wake up and smell the coffee.

the dead cat in the garbage can and the rat gnawing on the cat seem to be foreshadowing symbolism to me. good vs evil with a major case of role reversal; mankind, virtually dead in a wasteland, is being preyed upon by the evil that lurks in the shadows, an evil that just needs some bright headlights to send it back to its hiding place.

thank you for reading along so far. please feel free to comment if you wish.