MC takes Paul and Mo-se-na-tah, his girl, back to Paul's apartment. MC drives back to wolf creek, where his house is and tries to get some sleep, even though it is now dawn. The dawn brings more questions for MC, except they're not new, they're the same old questions burning down in his gut, eating away and making him hungry for answers. Questions like how does he know when he needs help, before he goes and does something like this? Does he need help? Yes. He does. But he doesn't want it and especially not from his brother, not because he hates his brother but because it would be embarrassing. Once home and awake, Jessie, (MC's wife) reminds him they are going to pick Jessie's brother up at the train station. MC's brother in-law says he fishes, but he doesn't even know how to fly-cast, and in Montana, if you don't fly-fish, you don't fish. At the train station I noticed three things.
1. Neal has white flannels and two v-neck sweaters, and he looks like a tennis player but can't play tennis.
2. He has no fly-rod, or rod of any kind for that matter.
3. He doesn't even acknowledge MC, even though he's staying at MC's house.
This is an easy scene to visualize for me, because I have scene a lot of movies with old-time trains and train stations. When Neal walks off the train looking like a fake tennis player with fancy shoes and an old straw suitcase with his mother's initials on it. In western Montana in the 1930s, there was not a lot of people who looked like that, especially in Wolf Creek, a town of about 250 people. Jessie's mother is also there. That night, Neal goes to the only bar in town, an upside down railroad car called Black Jack's. I can imagine the dusty lightbulbs and the bar that is actually a huge tree split in half by someone who can't use an ax. There is two people at the bar, Old Rawhide, the towns only prostitute, and Long Bow, an indian who got his name because he supposedly "pulls the long bow" (exaggerates). MC knows he doesn't lie, because he's seen it happen. Old Rawhide ends up taking a liking to Neal.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic post. You do such a great job explaning what you visualize that I can actually visualize it, too.
I really liked how you picked up on the oddities of the situation at the train station and how you kept connecting the book to the setting (both the 1930's and the place, Montana). Both time and place have such character associated with them and I think that knowing that is helping you understand the book.
My favorite line from your post is how you describe the bar as "...a huge tree split in half by someone who can't use an ax." That is an awesome image.
Great job!