Iceland Spar, Chapter Nineteen: Frank Traverse in Old Mexico!

Back with ol' Frank, who, unlike his brothers, never ends up in Europe. Here, he's in Mexico, or at least "a dime novel of Old Mexico" (374) (simulacra!), having fallen in with a fellow named Ewball Oust (a name that I love), a kid from a rich family trying to make it in Mexico as a mine engineer, but apparently not having much luck. Frank tries to tell him about argentaurum (the alleged silver-gold hybrid created via alchemy, you'll remember), but Ewball immediately cuts to the chase and notes that he, Frank, is really interested in Iceland Spar. Frank gets work as an amalgamator, and has dreams of Deuce Kindred, mocking him for having let his trail go so cold. But he finds himself always following the same path in every dream, and wakes up "convinced there was an actual counterpart somewhere in this daylit city" (377).

Frank and Ewball find themselves under arrest for reasons they don't understand: "they say it was something one of you did a long time ago, back on the Other Side" (381). This calls to mind Lew Basnight and the mysterious "sin" he had supposedly committed. In jail, they fall in with another inmate, Dwayne Provecho, predicting the end of the world.

You'd think it would be bad to be in a Mexican jail, but this place seems okay, in fact "just a dream, so peaceful, compared to what they'd been brought here down out of" (380). There's a whole community there that mirrors the outside world but, well, better. This is an emerging theme of the novel: communities found in unexpected places, enacting better worlds outside of the one we know and barely tolerate.

Dwayne reveals why he's here: "On a mission . . . specifically to offer you some contract employment, it being widely believed, down here as back the other side, that you, sorry if I'm being too direct, 're none other than the Kieselguhr Kid of Wild West legend" (382). Really: don't we <i>all</i> have a little Kieselguhr Kid in us? This is a point of contention, but nonetheless, the three of them decide to break out. They get on a train, but are stopped by a group of outlaws and/or anarchists, led by a man known as El Ñato (who refers to Frank as "el Famoso Chavalito del Quiselgúr" (385). He has a profane parrot who asks Frank why we refer to places as, for instance, Guanajato, Guanajato. Because "one's a city, one's a state" (387), Frank accurately replies, but the parrot starts raving about double refraction. Everything's connected.

They want Frank to bring his explosives expertise to bear for some terrorism-related activities, but nothing ever comes of it. This is the period of time in which Victoriano Huerta, having ousted Mexico's legitimate President in a coup, is running riot. He was a bad guy, and Mexicans revile him to this day. Now, his thugs are out on patrol. El Ñato's group, from a vantage point above, sees a group of three  Tarahumare taking shelter from them in a cave, but it's clear that they'll be caught and killed if nothing else is done, so Frank and Ewball take their leave of the group and drive the Hueristas off with strategic gunfire. At this point, Frank and Ewball split up, Ewball rejoining El Ñato and Frank planning on going back north.

But before that, he introduces himself to the Tarahumare: a married couple and his wife's sister, whose husband is presumed murdered by the Hueristas. Her name is Estrella: "this was a peculiar place to be reminded of the other Estrella, Reef's sweetheart back in Nochecita" (390). Estrella is Stray's full name, you will remember. They suggest that she, this Estrella, could use a new husband; Frank demurs, but I hope I'm not spoiling too much if I reveal that he later takes up Stray. Again, connections everywhere you look!

He comes across some calcite crystals, and looking in them, he sees a vision: "in the depths of the calcite now, without waiting too long at all, he saw, or later would say he thought he saw, Sloat Fresno, and exactly where Sloat had to be. No comparable message about Deuce, however" (391). And another vision, this one brought on by mescaline or similar: this of "a cave in which it was raining, calmly but steadily. Inside this one cave, [Estrella] explained, falling steadily for thousands of years, was all the rain that should have been falling on the southwestern desert." Frank objects that the desert is just "something that has evolved over geological time. Not somebody's personal punishment," but she explains that "the idea was that water should be everywhere, free to everybody. It was life. Then a few got greedy" (393). A blunt yet effective metaphor for capitalism if I've ever heard one.

Frank takes his leave, remarking to Estrella, "hope you find the right hombre." "Just as happy it wasn't you," she retorts. "You are a good man, but kind of disgusting, with all that hair growing out of your face, and you always smell like coffee" (394). I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK!

The chapter ends with Frank striding into a cantina, seeing Sloat, and blasting the hell out of him. It feels like a surprisingly abrupt climax. Not that I'm objecting; I think it works. But it's definitely sudden.

Old Sloat, who maybe never even recognized him, failing as it turned out even to get off his shot--blown over backward, one of the chair legs breaking under his already dead weight so he was sent into half a spin, throwing a dark slash of blood that trailed in the air and feathered in a crescent slap, unheard in the noise of the shots, across the ancient soiling of the pulquería floor. Fin. (395).

I've gotta say--that is not unsatisfying. It's just too bad Deuce doesn't get his, at least not in the same way.