Ragged Company

Dick chooses the Indian Road location to honor Amelia, who brought them all together, and Granite and Margo help them set up the place. Dick buys a TV, movie player, and lots of movies for his room. Watching movies and drinking is how he gets through the nights; he’s afraid to sleep, in case the dreams come back, and stays awake until daybreak every day.

Amelia likes the house as soon as she sees it. After moving in, she begins to plant a garden in the backyard. With Granite and Margo, she begins to regularly attend plays; the four original “rounders” also watch movies regularly, and Granite occasionally joins them. However, Amelia senses changes around her; although Digger has settled, the other two haven’t. She knows about Timber’s long walks and Dick’s staying awake drinking at night.

Digger fixes up the garage for himself to sleep in and buys an old truck to drive around and collect old appliances that people throw away, which he brings back to fix. He finds that he has a talent for it, so Merton helps him buy some tools and finds him an old store to work in. People start bringing Digger things to fix and sell. Digger names the place “Digger’s” and hires someone to man the store while he fixes things. He even begins to attend occasional AA meetings. Mostly sober, and gainfully employed, Digger barely misses the old “rounder” life.

It becomes a ritual for the group to watch movies on the high-end television in the living room, after which they gather on the verandah and talk. One day, Granite brings An Affair to Remember to cater to the women; as they watch the movie, Margo holds his hand. After the movie, the group discusses falling in love, and Timber reveals that he was in love a long time ago. He begins to tell the group his story.

The Hohnsteins were farmers who came across from Germany many years ago and continued the tradition here. When Timber was 14, however, the hired help on the farm showed him how to whittle, and Timber discovered that he was a natural. He began carving regularly, and by the time he was 16, he became a woodsmith, selling his pieces for money.

While Timber was an apprentice in the city, a woman named Sylvan Parrish—a librarian who moved to the city some months ago—came into the store he worked in, and he was struck by her. Timber asked her out for a meal, and she agreed. They had a wonderful time together and began to meet every day, eventually falling in love and getting married some months later.

At Sylvan’s urging, Timber began to sell more of his work, eventually moving into a small house with a garage that he converted into a workshop. They had a cat named Cheever and a jade plant named Eudora, after American writer Eudora Welty. They had a good life until the day Sylvan was hit by a drunk driver and fell into a coma. Her broken bones eventually mended, but she didn’t wake up for a long time. Timber sold everything they owned to pay for her medical bills.

Sylvan finally woke up, but the brain damage left her with no memory of the past and an inability to retain new ones. Heartbroken, Timber—whom Sylvan doesn’t recognize—kept visiting; however, he was eventually forced to sell the house too and move into a hotel, where he began drinking to deal with his heartbreak. His visits grew more infrequent as his drinking increased, until one day the hotel kicked him out. He took the money he had remaining and left the city, becoming a lone “rounder” until the day Amelia found him.

The unnamed voices discuss how when love arrives in one’s life, it shifts how one views the world; they compare it to how changing and evolving over time also shifts one’s comprehension of the world.

Amelia reflects on the Spirit Wind her ancestors talked about, which reveals great truths when it blows across the world. She hears the wind when Timber finishes his story, and she thanks him for sharing. Everyone sits in silence until Timber gets up and leaves; he doesn’t know where he’s going yet, but he needs to walk.

When Timber doesn’t return for the next couple of days, Merton files a missing person’s report, and the group worries. Granite feels guilty for having brought back that movie; he knows that movies sometimes bring up things one doesn’t want to confront, as he has often experienced. He tells the group his worn story, and when he finishes, Digger remarks, “‘Wow, […] You’re as friggin’ homeless as I was’” (213).

The group talks through the night and Amelia tells them her story too, including how the “shadowed ones” brought all of them to her. She explains how the “shadowed ones” are parts of oneself people leave behind to resolve unfinished things from their lives. These spirits are able to move on when the living get on with their lives. This prepares the spirits for the next part of their journey, which is to reconnect with their selves and become whole again, before continuing on.

Digger worries about Timber and sends people to look for him, but even the police can’t find him after three days. Nevertheless, Digger continues to drive around and look for him.

Amelia watches Granite and Margo kiss, and she remembers Ben. Merton calls with information that the police have traced Timber’s movements through cash withdrawals; apparently, he has been walking long distances all over the city, but the withdrawals stopped two days ago. Granite realizes that media buzz will surround Timber’s disappearance; it might even be able to help get him back. Amelia asks what they must do until they find him, and Margo suggests that they pray together.

Dick watches the movie ET and has an epiphany about where Timber might be.

Timber walks around the city for three days, wishing for death. When he’s unable to escape the guilt and thoughts of Sylvan, he finally takes a bus back to where he left her.

When Dick suggests that Timber might have returned to Sylvan, Digger realizes that Dick is probably right. A clerk at the bus station confirms that Timber indeed boarded a bus two days ago. Merton worries about Timber’s state of mind, but Amelia explains that Timber has no expectations from Sylvan; he just needs to sit in the chair by her bed again. The group decides to go together and find Timber.

The group boards a flight, and Dick, Digger, and Amelia marvel at the newness of everything around them. Granite, meanwhile, marvels at having possibly found love again with Margo.

The group lands and checks into a hotel, and the next morning they go to the extended care hospital where Sylvan last was. Merton mentions that the media is asking for details and asks Granite to write the story. Despite his hesitation at not having written in so long, Amelia urges Granite to do so, insisting that no one else will be able to do the story justice.

As expected, the group finds Timber at the hospital. He apologizes for worrying them. Sylvan is still alive, somewhere in the city, and Timber doesn’t know what to do now. Amelia suggests revisiting all the places that Timber and Sylvan frequented, which might give him a sense of what to do next. When Timber professes that he’s scared, Digger insists that he do this to complete his story and finally be free.

Timber arrives at the house that he and Sylvan lived in together and replays old memories in his head. He meets the new owner, who invites him to look around when she learns that Timber used to live there. The whole group joins him, wanting to see his old workshop. Digger suggests that Timber make something after they get back home, assuring him his hands will remember how to carve. The new owner reveals that Sylvan visited the house some years ago, along with a doctor. Her memory had begun coming back in flashes. Timber is stunned, as he never thought it would be possible. The owner gives Timber the doctor’s name: Lyndon MacBeth.

The group goes to the doctor’s office and meets his son, Lyndon MacBeth Jr.; his father passed away five years ago, but Lyndon Jr. remembers Sylvan’s case. It was a huge puzzle to his father, who kept working on it and paying for Sylvan’s care out of his own pocket. Lyndon Jr. remembers one strange thing about the case: an oddly named jade plant in her room that she wouldn’t let anyone else care for. Timber reveals that he left the plant, Eudora, there the last time he went to see Sylvan. Lyndon Jr. remembers a journal that his father kept about his work with Sylvan, and hands it to Timber.

Timber reads the journal and realizes that the doctor loved Sylvan. The doctor found a photo album among Sylvan’s belongings which Timber had left for her long ago; he and Sylvan began to look through the album together, and over time Sylvan began to show signs of ownership. She recognized herself and began to remember other details but never Timber. Timber reads through the whole journal, which details Sylvan’s journey of healing, and eventually finds an address.

Sylvan now lives in a cottage in a city by the sea. She tried for years to find her old memories, aided by a gentle and wise man; when it got too overwhelming, the man let her be and just stayed by her side while she found a new home devoid of any old memories that taunted her.

The group drives up to Sylvan’s home. At the cottage, a man and a woman are sitting on the porch. When Timber gets out, Digger catches him because he collapses in shock when the woman greets him by his name.

Timber is stunned that Sylvan knows who he is, and she reveals that she has a picture of him in the house that Dr. Lyndon had recommended she put up. The man with her introduces himself as Philip Greer, Sylvan’s husband, and invites them in.

Timber notices that Sylvan moves differently now and that the house contains no books. He tells Greer that Sylvan used to be a librarian and loved books, which Greer didn’t know. Greer explains that Sylvan’s memory is like a broken switch that works on some days but is highly unpredictable. A picture of Timber is in every room of the house to help jog her memory, but it has never worked; she only knows his name because she has been told it over and over again.

Greer was Sylvan’s physiotherapist; he eventually fell in love with her, and they got married three years ago. Because of Timber’s disappearance, their divorce papers were put through in absentia. Greer details how he was present by Sylvan’s side through all the rough times, from difficult physical recovery to relearning basic skills. He apologizes for sounding angry and judgmental at Timber’s absence; it comes from a place of love for Sylvan. However, he says he was sure that Timber, too, loved Sylvan and would return one day.

Greer shows Timber the now-huge plant Eudora, which is in a corner of one room. Greer recognizes that leaving that plant for Sylvan was the only loving thing Timber had left to do after losing everything else; it meant a lot and aided in Sylvan’s recovery. However, Sylvan remembers nothing about or before the accident, and she has no feeling left for Timber.

Timber takes Sylvan’s hands in his own, and she comments on his sadness. He tells her that he left something a long time ago; when he returned, it was no longer his but had grown into something more beautiful and valuable. Sylvan notes that this is like Eudora, and shows him how the property is surrounded by a long fence of jade plants, all sprung from Eudora. She gives him a small, potted jade plant, also from Eudora, to take home; and when she tells him things will be all right, Timber believes her.

When the group wakes up in the morning, Timber is gone again. Amelia reassures them that, like a bear, Timber has gone to lick his wounds alone; she believes that he’ll return when he’s done.

The group waits for four days but sees no sign of Timber. Amelia suggests that they go to his old house again because he might have revisited it to mourn. The new owner confirms that Timber came by four days ago and left a jade plant in the front yard.

Timber considers going back to Sylvan but finds that he can’t. Instead, he walks from coast to coast, visiting first his family on the farm, and then Sylvan’s, telling them both about what his and Sylvan’s lives have seen these past years. He then walks through all his old haunts in the city before buying carving supplies and finally going home.

Merton tells Granite that Timber wants to sign everything over to Sylvan except a small amount he needs to live off of. Timber plans to set up a space at the back of Digger’s store and carve. Together, Granite and Merton marvel at the miracle of how this story has unraveled so far.

Digger and the rest of the “ragged company” sit at The Palace and drink together. They decide to go to a movie, and Timber suggests Mountains of the Moon, which is about friendship. Granite, Margo, and Merton join them, and the group drinks and tells stories together before heading to the movies.

As he watches the movie, Timber marvels at the strength of friendship and the adventure that it is. After the movie, he walks again. He feels good about his decision to leave everything to Sylvan, to finally take care of her after all these years. He knows he’ll carve again. He returns to the house and, for the first time that night, doesn’t feel the concrete calling him.

The unnamed voices discuss how the “Indians” had a great understanding of the universe, especially the concept of companionship and the coming together of spirit.