CHAPTER 3

Summary

As this chapter opens, we meet Edgar Quisenberry, the president of the local bank. Edgar acts as if the bank was his own personal kingdom and we meet him because Randy has to cash Mark's out-of-town check. Edgar has little regard for the Bragg family - Randy's father had kicked Edgar out of a poker game long ago when Edgar looked at Judge Bragg's cards; Mark infuriated Edgar since he always referred to Edgar by his school nickname (Fisheye); and Edgar considered Randy to be just plain lazy. Edgar knows Marks' check is good, but he delays Randy just to annoy him.

Cash in hand, Randy goes to the local supermarket and buys over $300 of groceries - an astronomical amount in the 1950s. He also stops at a local bar and buys a stock of whiskey and scotch. Randy wants to tell the bar owner to be ready for the coming war, but the man has a reputation for lying and his lies could spark a riot.

Once home with his groceries, he has Malachi Henry, Preacher Henry's son, unload the groceries. Malachi makes a little money from Randy by taking care of the yard work and doing odd jobs. Randy tells Malachi about the coming war and is surprised to find that Malachi is not as ignorant of world events as Randy believed. Randy has trouble talking to him as if Malachi were an equal. Still, the Henry family has the one thing Randy has not thought of yet - running water. Long ago, Randy's grandfather drilled an artesian well to water the orange groves and allowed the Henry's to tap into it. The water smelled of sulfur but it was drinkable and would not be contaminated by the fallout from nuclear weapons.

As Malachi leaves, we meet Lib McGovern, Randy's latest love interest. She has come by the house to convince Randy that he needs to get a real job in a city - she thinks he is turning into a vegetable living in the country. Only yesterday, Randy would have seriously considered this idea but now, in the light of Mark's warning, he knows the cities will soon be death traps. He decides he needs to tell her about Mark's warning.

But, before he can, Dr. Gunn arrives to tell Lib about her father and mother. In an aside, we learn about Dr. Gunn's background - he was an idealist who wanted to help those suffering from deadly diseases, but the financial burdens of a failed marriage trapped him into a life of delivering the babies of the locals and treating their minor problems. Dr. Gunn has just visited the McGovern's - Lib's mother, a diabetic, wanted to change her prescription and her father was slowly dying from nothing to do.

Randy then tells Lib and Dr. Gunn about Mark's warning of the coming war. Dr. Gunn believes Randy and gives Randy and Lib a number of prescriptions to fill, just in case.

This chapter ends by switching scenes from Fort Repose to a Navy Task Group in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ships are in an area where it is difficult to maneuver and an unidentified aircraft is following them.

Notes

In chapter 3, we start meeting more of the characters that will play important roles later in the novel. We meet Malachi Henry, a hardworking black man, poor but honest, loyal, and smarter than he looks. We also meet the McGoverns - Lib, Randy's latest love interest; her diabetic mother, Lavinia; and her father, Bill, forced into an early retirement and slowly dying of boredom. We meet Dr. Dan Gunn, a long-time friend of Randy's, forced into a job he hates by the consequences of a marriage gone sour.

In an aside, we learn that Randy had served in the military with black men. As a result, he harbors no overt resentment or racism toward blacks, unlike Kitty Offenhaus. Still, he has some trouble relating to Malachi Henry as an equal, at least now. Later events will put the final nail in the coffin of Randy's indecisive attitude toward blacks, particularly Malachi.

The artesian well system will become important later in the novel. An artesian well is a well whose water is under sufficient pressure to flow up the well shaft without the need of a pump. Generally, artesian wells are deep and, as a result, the water is often hard and sometimes has an odd smell or taste. If the water has too many dissolved minerals, it is undrinkable and useable only for irrigation. In the case of the well in the novel, the water is drinkable although Randy never cared for the taste. The water source for the well is deep enough that it would not be contaminated by chemicals, waste (animal or human), or radioactive fallout.