![]() They are beaten by their own fear before the game even begins." Paul Fisher, 169 There is fear in their eyes when we come charging off our bus, whooping our war cry. We have laid waste to their fields and their fans. The War Eagles have set out a on a bloody rampage through the county. It's how we've done it that is so extraordinary. "It's not enough to say that we have won every soccer game in a row. At the end of the novel Paul has no sympathy for Erik, when it looks as though Erik may go to jail. But that doesn't bring him any closer to Erik. Ultimately, when he does solve the mystery, he is no longer afraid of Erik. He needs to solve that mystery in order to be free of its hold on him. The only thing attaching him to Erik is his desire to solve the mystery of his damaged eyes. The essence of Paul's relationship to Erik is revealed when Paul explicitly states that he would feel better if Erik died. I don't want Erik to die and take his part of the story with him." Paul Fisher, 55 Erik is a part of whatever it is that I need to remember. "What if Erik was the body at the undertakers now? How would I feel about that? ![]() This is one of Paul's first negative impressions of that sport. Not coincidentally, the source of the sound it a football. He associates the sound with a scene of someone being beaten up. The violence of the kicking sound reflects Paul's feelings about Erik's actions. At this stage we still don't know why Paul is afraid of him but in this moment we get to see something about how Paul is afraid of him. This sinister glimpse of Erik is one of the first in the novel. It's a short, violent sound, like some big guys holding up some little guy and punching him over and over in the stomach. "I'm in my room now, at the computer, listening to the sound of Erik kicking a football into a net in the backyard. His own words confuse him, but he's beginning to question the story of the solar eclipse. This time, though, he says that he doesn't know. Up until this moment he has always told people a story that he was told, about looking at a solar eclipse. For the first time in his life, he has said that he doesn't know. Paul has just been asked by a girl at school what happened to his eyes. " But if that's the truth, if that really happened, why can't I remember?" Paul Fisher, 38 As Paul will later conclude, it is a place that doesn't have roots. In this moment we also see that Lake Windsor is a new place: unlike the town of Tangerine, Lake Windsor hasn't been around for long. This view of the unfinished parts of the Lake Windsor housing development is a glimpse of the imperfections of a place that is intended to look perfect. I have always lived with overflowing construction Dumpsters and portable toilets sitting on boards." Paul Fisher, 33 It occurred to me that I've never lived in a development that was finished. "I walked past dark green Dumpsters filled with plasterboard and scrap metal, past blue portable toilets parked along the construction lots. The school principal tells them it happens all the time. The rain comes down so fast and suddenly that the entire school gets flooded and the fields become filled with water. When Paul and his mom go to visit the Lake Windsor Middle School they experience of a flash-flood. What else has dad overlooked about Tangerine?" Paul Fisher, 27 "Mom would never say it, but I bet we were thinking the same thing. It also shows one of the unique physical realities of life in Tangerine. This strike foreshadows more lightning to come–specifically the lightning that will kill the neighbor, Mike Costello. It's Paul's first night in Tangerine and he's woken by a bolt. This is the first of many lightning strikes to happen in the novel. ![]() Then my glasses suddenly appeared on the nightstand, illuminated by a flash of lightning." Paul Fisher, 11 I groped around for my regular glasses-unable to find them in this new bedroom, upstairs in this new house. "I woke up in the dark to the sound of an explosion. This marks is first introduction to the agricultural production and field workers, whom he will soon come to love. He sees the beauty of the trees and this beauty is captured in his language. When Paul first lays eyes on the tangerine groves of Tangerine County, he is in awe. Thousands upon thousands of trees in the red glow of sundown, perfectly shaped and perfectly aligned, vertically and horizontally, like squares in a million-square grid." Paul Fisher, 7
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