payment page
Summary
Sections 46-50
46
Demon, frustrated by their detour to Hungry Mother, pushes for them to continue driving to the beach. However, Fast Forward stops in Richmond to visit Mouse. They end up in a neighborhood unlike anything Demon has experienced—demographically the inverse of their own, predominantly Black but equally poor. At Mouse's place, she seems wary of their presence, commenting that the kids in the neighborhood might tell their moms about the visitors. Demon bluntly replies that their moms are either dead or in jail.
Inside, Mouse lays out lines of coke and expects them to snort it as a gesture of politeness, much like eating food offered by a host. Demon, already agitated, takes the rest of his Oxy and a Xanax, fearing he’ll fall into withdrawal before they reach the beach. However, Fast Forward loses all interest in continuing to the beach, spending the day making a drug deal with Mouse and tinkering with the truck. Demon returns to Dori, full of regret for leaving her.
Later, the phone rings—it’s Angus, who informs him that her father has been getting calls from the school about his truancy. She warns that Coach is considering putting him back on season rules, a stricter regimen to force him back into line.
Back at Coach’s house, U-Haul confronts Demon, smugly claiming he’s been tasked with keeping an eye on him. Demon dismisses U-Haul as a glorified errand boy, but U-Haul retorts with veiled threats, claiming he knows things about Coach that Demon doesn’t—including accusations of embezzlement and misappropriation of funds. He caps the conversation with a lewd comment about Angus, which infuriates Demon.
47
Dori’s father dies unexpectedly in the middle of the night when a power outage shuts off his oxygen. Dori blames herself, consumed with guilt because the nurses had entrusted her with much of his medication regimen. Her Aunt Fred arrives soon after and takes over, planning the funeral and selling the store to pay off debts. Dori is allowed to stay in the house but must cover utilities herself. Turning eighteen soon, she will no longer qualify for Social Security benefits. With her father gone, they lose access to the Oxy and other medications they had been secretly taking from his supply.
Desperate, Dori brings Demon to a pain clinic to restock. The clinic is located in a defunct strip mall, but the parking lot is packed with hundreds of people. Demon assumes he and Dori will go inside to get pills for personal use, but he’s shocked to learn that Dori has been selling the medications at a massive markup to the other pain patients. The scene is grim; many of the dealers are elderly men, some as old as Mr. Peg. The pill mill is run by formerly legitimate doctors who now sell drugs for profit, including Dr. Watts.
Back at Coach’s house, Demon’s grandmother confronts Coach, announcing that she’s stopping the monthly payments because Demon has flunked his report card. Coach looks deeply ashamed but says nothing. Dori offers to let Demon move in with her, but he hesitates, realizing that she is still a child in many ways. Having spent most of her life caring for her father, Dori was never taught basic life skills like cooking or domestic work and has no understanding of how to support herself. Despite these concerns, Demon decides to move in with her anyway. He knows he’ll never play football again and doesn’t want to remain a burden on Coach, even though Coach tells him he can stay.
Angus confronts Demon, asking him directly how deep his addiction goes. At first, he brushes off her concerns, but then he admits the truth: his drug problem has grown far beyond his injured knee.
48
Emmy runs off with Fast Forward, abandoning her scholarship to UT Knoxville. This is a common story, except June is actively trying to find Emmy while most parents don’t bother. Demon tries to reassure her, saying Emmy will eventually turn up, but deep down, he has a bad feeling.
Demon and Dori’s addiction worsens as they struggle to afford Oxy. Dori suggests switching to heroin because it’s cheaper, but Demon is terrified of needles, so they resort to chasing the dragon. Occasionally, Dori gets morphine from one of her father’s former nurses, Thelma, but the method is risky and prone to overdose. They both try several times to quit, but withdrawal proves too powerful.
Desperation leads them back to the pain clinic, where Dori goes inside to avoid Demon being recognized by Dr. Watts. When she returns, she’s visibly shaken—Dr. Watts offered to overlook the $400 prescription fee in exchange for an "exam," implying that Dori pay him with sexual favors. Furious, Demon drives them away, but their situation only worsens. A week later, Dori suggests going through with the doctor’s offer, saying they’re too sick to keep going without it. Demon promises to find work, but Dori has abandonment issues and doesn’t want to be left alone.
Meanwhile, their home falls into disarray. Trash and laundry pile up, and their plumbing stops working after Dori clogs the toilet with large objects. The power is cut off for unpaid bills. Demon tries to find a job, but nothing pans out.
Feeling overwhelmed, Demon visits Maggot and Mrs. Peggot. Maggot is strung out on drugs, and Mrs. Peggot has mentally deteriorated under the weight of her grief. He also visits Tommy, who is still living in the McCobbs’ garage. The McCobbs never installed the promised bathroom in the garage and lied about owning the house they live in. Despite their circumstances, Tommy continues to work at the local newspaper, handling articles, ads, and layouts at the end of each night. When Tommy can’t find a graphic for an article, Demon offers to draw one, and it becomes a regular task. Demon quips that if the paper ever needs a skull graphic, Tommy will have to take over.
49
Life stabilizes for Demon and Dori—he finds a job at Sonic, and she starts cutting hair in her nurse friend Thelma’s basement. With a bit of income, they manage to fix the plumbing and washer, and they stay on top of their prescriptions.
June reaches out to Demon, deeply concerned about Emmy, who has been missing for two months. They know she’s somewhere in Roanoke but have no other leads. When they meet, June expresses frustration over Emmy and Maggot squandering the advantages they’ve been given. Demon defends Maggot, saying he needs more time, but June bluntly suggests what he really needs is a boyfriend. Demon is surprised that she’d be okay with that, but June assures him even Mrs. Peggot would eventually make her peace with it.
June probes Demon about Fast Forward, asking if he’s dangerous or involved with drugs. Demon cautiously describes Fast Forward as someone who exerts influence over others, more a dealer than a user. She then asks if Emmy is taking pills, and Demon admits he doesn’t know anyone his age who isn’t, though he realizes Angus might be an exception. June grimly explains that the opioid crisis isn’t just about kids—Purdue Pharma specifically targeted places like Lee County, analyzing disability statistics to flood the area with opioids. The result is a community trapped in addiction, spanning generations.
Meanwhile, Tommy becomes increasingly upset by national headlines that demean rural people. Demon is shocked that he’s never noticed it before and brushes it off, saying everyone needs someone to look down on. But Tommy doesn’t let it go, particularly irritated by a comic strip full of hillbilly stereotypes that the paper has to publish. Demon impulsively throws the strip away, dismissing it as not even being well-drawn. Tommy challenges him to do better. Rising to the occasion, Demon creates a miner character with a red bandana and names the strip Red Neck.
50
Demon and Dori’s relationship begins to unravel as the stress of their situation mounts. They frequently fight, especially over Demon being out of the house, even though he’s working to support them. When Demon suggests that she take on more responsibilities at home, it leads to an explosive argument.
Seeking a reprieve, Demon meets with Angus, who is now attending community college. She tells him her dad is worried about him and updates him on U-Haul’s malicious rumors at school. U-Haul has been spreading gossip that Ms. Annie is having an affair with Mr. Maldo, and Demon was supposedly a witness at the Fourth of July party. Demon, furious, asks if U-Haul has ever tried anything with Angus, but she avoids answering. Turning the conversation back to his relationship, he complains about Dori not keeping house or cooking. Angus bluntly reminds him that Dori never did those things, and he chose her, so he has to deal with it.
Back at home, Demon lets things slide, and their home begins to fall apart—trash piles up, dishes grow moldy, and their living space becomes increasingly uninhabitable. When Dori steals from her employer, Demon confronts her, but she breaks down in tears, accusing him of hating her. He realizes that he needs to treat her like a baby doll, and love and care for her without any expectations. His birthday is coming up, and he promises that all he wants for his birthday is her, forever. When she asks if that means they’re getting married, he agrees, knowing she’ll likely forget the conversation.
Demon stops by the high school to see Ms. Annie and tells her he had nothing to do with U-Haul’s rumors. Ms. Annie dismisses the gossip, saying that as an interracial couple, she and Mr. Armstrong have heard it all. She adds that some people cling to whiteness as their only possession that hasn’t been taken away from them. However, she expresses concern about Mr. Armstrong, who’s under fire from PTA members accusing him of being a communist and pushing to have him fired. She encourages Demon to return to school, but he insists he can’t because of his responsibilities. Before he leaves, she praises Red Neck, saying she recognized his art immediately. She urges him to claim credit and get paid for his work, calling it a valuable skill. Demon brushes off her advice, convinced that his drawings aren’t worth anything.
Analysis
Demon’s relationships reflect his longing for stability and belonging, but they are frequently undermined by addiction and trauma. His bond with Dori, once built on shared experiences of caregiving and loss, deteriorates under the weight of their addiction. Their home becomes a physical manifestation of their unraveling lives, with piled-up trash and broken utilities symbolizing their loss of control. The promise of “forever” on Demon’s birthday highlights his desperation to hold onto something meaningful, even as he knows the futility of their situation.
Dori is a representation of how childhood trauma can cause a learned helplessness. Her father’s death leaves her rudderless, and her lack of life skills—stemming from a childhood spent caregiving—makes her ill-equipped to manage independence. Her increasing reliance on Demon for support, coupled with her emotional fragility, creates a toxic dynamic where both are drowning in dependency. The fight over Dori’s theft from her employer and Demon’s realization that he needs to love her like a “baby doll” illustrate the infantilizing effects of addiction and trauma and the way they strip individuals of agency. Their situation also represents the butterfly effect of failed systems—because the medical caregiving system is broken, a seventeen-year-old was left responsible for managing a man’s round-the-clock care, including administering powerful opioids. This untenable responsibility not only accelerated Dori’s descent into addiction but also became the gateway for Demon’s own worsening dependency, highlighting how systemic failures perpetuate cycles of harm.
The creation of Red Neck is both a political statement and a significant moment in Demon’s character development. Politically, the character of Red Neck and the strip as a whole reclaim the derogatory term historically used to demean rural, working-class people. Mr. Armstrong’s earlier lessons about the Battle of Blair Mountain and the red bandanas worn by miners during their fight for labor rights add layers of historical weight to Demon’s choice. By drawing a miner character with a red bandana, Demon links the term "redneck" to its original meaning—a symbol of solidarity, resistance, and pride among Appalachia's working-class communities. In this way, Red Neck becomes a vehicle for challenging the exploitative systems that have stripped his community of dignity and agency, from the coal companies of the past to the opioid industry of the present.
For Demon, creating Red Neck is an act of self-assertion. It marks a rare moment where he channels his frustration and pain into something constructive. Drawing has always been a tool for Demon to process his emotions and make sense of the world, and with Red Neck, he turns his art into a form of resistance. It’s significant that Demon chooses to embrace his roots rather than distance himself from them, especially in a context where he has often felt ashamed of his background due to pervasive stereotypes. The strip also represents Demon’s growing awareness of systemic injustices. Where he once accepted the dismissive narratives about rural people, he now recognizes them as tools of oppression and exclusion.
On a personal level, Red Neck is a reflection of Demon’s inner conflict and his evolving sense of identity. It is both a critique of the world he lives in and an acknowledgment of his place within it. Demon’s decision to create the comic strip, despite initially dismissing his artistic talent as worthless, signals a shift in his perception of his own value and abilities. While he may not yet fully embrace his potential, Red Neck becomes a small but meaningful step toward reclaiming his narrative and finding agency in a life often defined by circumstances beyond his control.
