Ironweed

After dinner, Francis goes to the mission looking for Helen. Pee Wee sends him to an abandoned house to find Rudy. Together, they head to Palombo’s Hotel. Donovan, the hotel manager, tells him that Helen did check in. Francis asks him to check on her, so Donovan knocks and asks whether she needs anything. She responds gratefully that she does not need anything, just as she’s looking back on her life, as related in Chapter 5. Francis leaves two dollars for Donovan to give Helen in the morning.

Francis and Rudy go buy wine and whiskey, then rent two beds in a cheap dormitory. There, they run into Moose, a down-on-his-luck friend of Francis. As they drink and talk about their troubles, Francis imagines that he sees a group of women in the corner who shift in number and age, including Sandra, Katrina, his mother, and others he recognizes but cannot name. Later, Helen appears in the mix before all the faces turn to Annie’s.

Finny, whose car was apparently burnt, enters the dormitory with his friend Little Red and another man called Old Shoes. Old Shoes is another friend of Francis, who claims to now have a wife, a house, a steady job, and a car. Francis and Little Red begin to bicker and then fight, though Francis stops short of seriously injuring Little Red.

Moose repeatedly invites Francis and Rudy to go for a ride in his car, and they eventually accept. As they drive, Francis recalls Emmett Daugherty, Katrina’s Irish father-in-law, whose stories shaped Francis’s political views and lead to his participation in the trolley strike; both Emmett and Francis were painted as heroes in a book by Emmett’s son. Francis admits to Old Shoes that Harold Allen’s death was not an accident.

Following Francis’s directions, they arrive at a hobo jungle, where they find Francis’s friend Andy and a man named Michigan Mac. They sit around a fire and talk, and Francis shares his wine and some food that Annie gave him with the others as well as a nearby family of three. He tells them how Gerald died and is disappointed at their mild response.

A group of men identified as raiders suddenly appear wielding baseball bats and burning everything in their path. When one of them hits Rudy, Francis retaliates, taking one of their bats and dealing a serious, possibly fatal, blow to one of the raiders. With Old Shoes gone (Francis suspects that the car wasn’t really his), Francis carries Rudy the long distance to a hospital, where Rudy soon dies, and Francis gives his name as Rudy Newton.

Francis returns to Palombo’s Hotel, where he finds Helen dead on the floor. He contemplates her passing, realizing the limitations of his “repetitive and fallible memory” (223). He thinks to pray for her soul but finds that he cannot pray at all.

Francis boards a train to leave town, fearing police pursuit. On the train, the ghost of Strawberry Bill, a onetime baseball player turned vagrant who was briefly mentioned in Chapter 1 for his unceremonious burial, appears. He assures Francis that the cops are not after him and reminds him how nice it was at Annie’s house. Suddenly, as he drinks whiskey and hears banjo music, Francis finds himself in the attic of the Phelan household with Annie attending to his needs. He considers asking her to set up a cot for him in Danny’s room.