Pax

Pax heads to the war human food tent and sees that there is no easy meat hanging for him to grab. He decides to go after cheese until a familiar scent stops him—peanut butter—Pax’s favorite food. He smelled it coming from a garbage can. He tries to get inside, but the lid falls loudly. A flashlight shines out from the tent, right on him. Pax freezes until he recognizes that it’s the boy’s father. He sees Pax and laughs gruffly. Peter’s father motions for Pax to go through the tent.

Pax goes through the tent and doubles back to guard Runt and Bristle. Runt is very much the worse for wear, “Pax saw that his lips were cracked and his eyes sunken” (211). Pax realizes that Runt needs water. He and Bristle wonder if it will even be possible to take Runt to the stream. Runt tries a few times to get up and fails. The only thing he can do is lean against his friends. They take him to get water. Runt sees a deer at the water’s edge and is intrigued: “At its edge, he lifted a hoof. As he set it down, the earth rocked and the grass blew…. Runt screamed in terror at the quaking ground.” Bristle calls to both Runt and Pax that they need to leave, but Runt doesn’t acknowledge his sister. That’s when they realize, he can’t hear them.

Peter agrees to Vola’s new plan on three conditions. Condition Number One: Vola must now wear her prosthetic leg instead of her wooden one. Together, they burn Vola’s wooden leg, as Peter believes she wore it all this time as a form of self-punishment for the things she did in the war. They sit together and watch it burn; Vola is the first to leave.

The second condition is that they take all of Vola’s puppets to the library so others can appreciate her craftsmanship, and the marionettes can bring people joy. Vola tells him they’re going to the library together on a tractor and that she has something special for him: a baseball bat. Peter tells her he doesn’t need it, but Vola says “I think you do, maybe when you get where you’re going, you’ll figure out why” (216).

As they’re leaving, Peter looks at the newspaper clipping he found earlier and sees the date. Peter is horrified. “He knew!” (217). The newspaper is 12 days old, so his father knew about the landmines and the wires when the two of them left Pax on the side of the road. Vola says she can tell that he’s angry. Peter says he doesn’t get angry because he’s not like his father ad anger is too dangerous. Vola replies: “Feelings are all dangerous. Love, hope! Ha! Hope… you talk about dangerous eh?” (218).

Peter asks just once for her to give him some real wisdom, some real advice without him having to figure everything out on his own. She gives him a blank card. He doesn’t understand, but she promises that on a trip like this, he will find the wisdom to fill the card himself. She again refers to two but not two and says, “you may be on your own. But you won’t be alone” (220).

Peter’s final condition is that Vola come to the library twice a week to teach the young children there to play with the marionettes. As they’re leaving the library, Peter passes by the shortstop he spoke to a few weeks earlier and asks how his team did. He sees Peter’s crutches and assumes that’s why he didn’t see him at the game but is still rude to Peter. Peter is filled by a sudden panic and impulse to communicate with this boy on a very, deep human level. He says, “Wait, you know when you’re on the field… and the glove turns into part of your hand, and you know you’re exactly where you should be? That feeling, do you think that’s peace?” (224). The young boy is standoffish at first, but then, at the edge of the parking, he turns back to Peter, lifts his hands in a peace sign. Peter returns the sign.

Vola takes Peter to the bus driver and tells the man that Peter is family and for the driver to take good care of him. Peter is shocked and says, “I’m family?” Vola responds “That’s as true a thing as any I’ve ever known” (227). She says she’s going to leave the porch door open for him. The bus takes off.