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part two: The Stones of Home, A♣, 2♣, 3♣, 4♣, 5 ♣, 6♣ 

Summary: A♣ aftermath

Ed deals with disappointment in himself over his decision not to kill the rapist. He shot the gun into the air and left the man cowering on the hill. Later, Ed commits to play in the Annual Sledge Game, a barefoot soccer match. Ed’s feeling of worthlessness extends into the next day, and he and Doorman have ice cream cones in the park on the main street in town. Sophie joins them briefly to ask how Ed is doing and he tells her he waits for the next ace. 

Summary: 2♣ the visit  

Two men in balaclavas accost Ed at his home and proceed to rough him up. They introduce themselves as Daryl and Keith, hitmen sent to pick up the gun and deliver a new ace. Ed asks who sent them and they say they don’t know, it’s a paid job. When Ed complains that he doesn’t get paid, he gets punched in the face. Daryl delivers a message that their employer is satisfied with Ed’s performance. Daryl relays that they know Ed spared the man’s life, and Daryl punches Ed in the gut. They leave Ed unconscious on the floor with the employer’s envelope tossed on his back. 

Summary: 3♣ the envelope  

The envelope contains a note and the ace of clubs. The sender’s note praises Ed’s handling of the three ace of diamonds tasks, particularly the man from Edgar Street, whom he says fled to an old mining town. The note ends with the cryptic observation that Ed’s life depends on completing the tasks. The ace of club's message, “say a prayer at the stones of home,” baffles Ed. 

Summary: 4♣ just ed  

Ed visits Audrey for help with the message. Her lover asks who’s at the door and Audrey identifies Ed as someone of little importance. Ed takes offense when she won’t talk to him and indignantly leaves. She comes over later and Ed tells her about the first three tasks. Audrey encourages Ed to take satisfaction in his good deeds with Milla and Sophie. He regrets his high-profile role in stopping the bank robbery and complains about having been chosen for hard tasks. Ed segues into telling her he wants to be her lover. When Audrey tells Ed he’s her best friend, he despairs of having a deeper relationship with her. 

Summary: 5♣ cabs, the hooker, and alice  

On his evening shift, Ed picks up a sex worker, Alice, who is kind to him. He fantasizes about making love to her and nearly runs a red light with the next fare.

Summary: 6♣ the stones  

Ed accepts his role as a messenger as an opportunity to change people’s lives for the better. He practices with Marv for the Sledge Game. Ed knows Marv compulsively saves his income and has thirty thousand in the bank. Marv opens up about an old girlfriend, Suzanne Boyd, who suddenly left without saying goodbye. Ed wants to ask him about her but instead, he changes the subject to his general malaise. 

Ed does fruitless research on the ace of clubs. He checks on the Edgar Street home, reads to Milla, and watches Sophie run. Toward the end of his evening shift, he picks up a young man who has Ed drive to the river and then refuses to pay the fare. When Ed threatens to take his jacket, the man, a messenger, muses that he’s heard that Ed is stubborn. The man jumps out and starts running toward the river. Ed takes off after him, leaving his cab unlocked, the keys in the ignition, the doors standing open. Chasing the man reminds Ed of losing a foot race to his brother Tommy eight years prior. The man taunts him and disappears. Ed keeps going, following a memory of fishing from rocks in the river. As the sun comes up, the landscape seems to come to life like it’s being painted around him. Ed climbs to the boulder where he and Tommy used to fish from and finds three names carved into the rock which he memorizes: Thomas O’Reilly, Angie Carusso, and Gavin Rose. Returning to his cab, he finds the doors closed and the keys in the sun visor. 

Analysis of A♣, 2♣, 3♣, 4♣, 5 ♣, 6♣ 

The attempted murder of the rapist sits heavily on Ed’s conscience even though he didn’t carry it out. Having aimed the gun away from the man, he has to wonder what unintended harm the stray bullet might have caused. Ed is plagued by guilt for not completely resolving the problem for the mother and daughter on Edgar Street, but he was true to himself in deciding not to kill the rapist. The peace that shattered him at that moment came when he stopped struggling with his moral and ethical scruples and accepted them as part of himself. When Ed acts following his integrity, he sacrifices the satisfaction of a sure solution not only for Angelina and her mother but also for his safety. 

While Ed has conflicted feelings, Daryl and Keith consider him to have slacked off. Unlike their employer, who praises Ed’s handling of the Edgar Street man in his note to Ed, Daryl and Keith punish Ed with physical blows. Their casual brutality indicates that they are street-savvy muscle. Ed, Daryl, and Keith share a similar belief that sometimes a person has to take the law into their own hands. Vigilantes accept meting out rough justice as a moral imperative. The three of them could learn from their employer’s perspective that Ed’s solution was efficient: Simply scaring the man was enough. The mastermind views violence as a solution to problems as neither practical nor elegant. The news that the man from Edgar Street is never coming back reassures Ed who doesn’t want to look too closely at the results his actions achieved. The rapist’s ultimate whereabouts in an old mining town evoke a ghost town, a metaphor for death. 

The creativity, persistence, and belief in himself required to deliver the first three messages have begun to affect Ed’s everyday life. Ed’s appearance at Audrey’s door shows the change happening in him. Her appearance indicates she had passionate relations. He normally is philosophic about her promiscuity, but today Ed has a frustrated reaction. Ed wants Audrey to be his lover, not just his best friend. Alice the sex worker triggers Ed’s needs and he projects his fantasy of loving Audrey onto her. 

Marv shares a personal loss, Suzanne Boyd. Ed wants to follow up because he cares about Marv, but the conventions of their friendship preclude that kind of intimacy. He changes the subject to ask how Marv might feel about having a duty but not knowing how to accomplish it, and Marv’s answer foreshadows his conflict with Suzanne Boyd. The two best friends share a sense of frustration, but neither knows the other’s circumstances causing it, like two ships passing in the night nearly colliding. 

Ed works out his frustrations by revisiting the first three messages, his success reinforcing his commitment to being the messenger. That night, a new go-between shows up, as belligerent and menacing as Daryl and Keith. All signs point to a coordinated plan by an entity that knows Ed’s personality characteristics and exploits them. They know Ed will chase a deadbeat to get the fare paid. The passenger leads him on a pre-dawn chase to the river. The runner’s mocking of Ed’s inability to catch him replays Ed’s foot races with Tommy, whom he could never beat. To this day, Tommy’s superiority rankles Ed, who feels his younger brother is not only faster but stronger and smarter than he is. 

Ed’s experience of the landscape emerging from darkness like painting materializing on a canvas alludes to the mysterious machinations by an unknown instigator. The mastermind locating the next message within the evocative setting of childhood suggests a keen familiarity with Ed’s past as well as his present. There are many rock ledges along the river but only one from which Ed and Tommy routinely fished. That Ed finds the message carved there suggests the new mission is meant to help Ed overcome his shame and develop his character. Finding his cab safe after impulsively abandoning it with the doors open and keys in the ignition suggests a benefactor is behind the messages.

Previous section part one: The First Message, 9♦, 10♦, J♦, Q♦, K♦ Next section part two: The Stones of Home, 7♣, 8♣, 9♣, 10♣, J♣, Q♣, K♣

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