Freedom

Two years have passed since Joey’s previous chapter. Jenna is no longer with Nick, and Joey is planning on going to Argentina with her—a convenient excuse, since he will be in Paraguay on business anyways. Also, he and Connie have now been married for five months. Jenna’s mother, Tamara, breaks her leg skiing in Aspen, and now she cannot go to Argentina with Jenna.

Joey remembers calling Connie to tell her he is going to take a trip. Connie has been in Minnesota since the marriage. She wants to come to Argentina with Joey and make it a honeymoon, but he dodges the suggestion. He has not told his parents that he is married. As Connie cries, Joey accidentally swallows his wedding ring during the call, after nervously putting it in his mouth.

He walks to the ER to see if the doctor can extract the ring. As he walks, he passes the building which houses RISEN: Restore Iraqi Secular Enterprise Now. Joey has been working there, trying to find ways in which LBI—which owns RISEN—can profit from the American invasion of Iraq. He arrived at RISEN via a summer position at the think tank of Jenna’s father, one summer prior.

At the ER, the doctor tells Joey he will have to pass the ring naturally. Back at home, Joey reminisces about the previous two years, which includes the decline of his friendship with Jonathan. Part of their fallout involves Joey’s mistreatment of Connie, whom Jonathan genuinely likes. He also disapproves of Joey’s ongoing text relationship with Jenna, and of Joey’s support of the Iraq war.

The setting shifts to around two years ago: Connie drops out of Morton College and is depressed again. When Joey calls Patty for reassurance, she tells him about her own depression. Joey starts to wonder if all women who are close to him will grow depressed. 

At a family dinner on the Fourth of July, Joey argues with Walter about the war in Iraq. Walter practically disowns him and says he no longer wants to know about anything Joey is involved in.

One night, Connie calls to tell him she went off her anti-depressant because she had been sleeping with her boss at the restaurant; however, she cannot climax while taking the medication. It is painful for Joey to hear, even though he fantasizes about Jenna and gave Connie permission to sleep with other people—assuming she never would. During another important phone call, Patty says she cannot send Joey the monthly checks anymore because Walter found out about them. 

Kerry Bartles, a war profiteer subcontracted by LBI, calls Joey with a suspicious-sounding business proposition. American soldiers in Iraq are considering using an antiquated Polish truck, the Pladsky A10. Kenny said that if Joey can find parts for the Pladsky, they can get rich off the sales. The parts are in Europe and South America. All Joey has to do was find them and send them to Iraq. However, Joey must pay $50,000 to buy the parts first. When he tells Connie about the proposal, she says she will give him the money from her trust fund. When she visits, Joey sees cuts on her forearm. She says she made one cut for every night he Joey did not call, and then gives him the money. That week, he proposes impulsively, buys the rings, and marries Connie at the courthouse.

The narrative then returns to the present as Joey meets Jenna at the Miami airport. He calls Jonathan and promises he will not have sex with Jenna, and Jonathan is disgusted by how Joey treats Connie. In Argentina, they drink wine at dinner, and Joey is flaccid when they try to have sex. She says she understands because she is on Lexapro, an antidepressant which can inhibit sexual desire. Joey, however, suspects that his inability to become aroused with Jenna is rooted in his love for Connie. In the morning, Joey has a bowel movement and looks for the ring in his excrement with a fork he brought for this purpose. When that does not work, he uses his hands instead. He finds it and puts it on, which makes him feel like a new person.

That morning, Joey gets a message from Carol, who is ashamed that he has not told his parents about the marriage to Connie. Kenny also leaves a message instructing Joey to go to Paraguay to sort out an issue with axles for the trucks. Joey tells Jenna he has to go to Paraguay, and she is cruel but does not try to stop him. 

In Paraguay, an unsavory man shows Joey the truck parts, which are sitting in a field, rusting and practically useless. Joey negotiates a deal and pays the man $20,000, rather than the previously agreed upon sum of $50,000. However, Joey is stricken with guilt at the thought of sending substandard parts to American soldiers. When he asks Connie for advice, she says to do whatever he thinks is best. Jonathan, however, tells him that the deal is an evil mistake. When he calls Kenny, Kenny does not care if the parts are bad. He just wants to make money. The leadership at LBI tell Joey that if he does not deliver the parts, he will be in breach of contract, which could lead to severe legal and financial repercussions. Joey goes through with the deal, then asks Jonathan if he would consider being an anonymous whistleblower who exposes the deal for the truck parts.

Later, Joey sees a news report that U.S. troops in Fallujah were successfully ambushed due to American trucks that broke down at a critical moment. Joey calls Walter and says he is in trouble.

This section opens with the history of Walter’s grandfather, Einar, detailing how the family came to own the Whispering Pines motel. Einar was a Swedish immigrant who grew bitter about the American Dream after several unsuccessful business deals. In his old age, he crashed his car, killing himself and his wife.

Gene, Walter’s father, was similar to Einar, though he resolved to be a better man than his father. After his service in World War II, Gene grew similarly bitter and was cruel to his wife, Dorothy. They had three children, of whom Walter was the middle child. After buying the Whispering Pines motel, Gene always gave Walter the most demeaning, menial tasks. As he descended into alcoholism, he treated Dorothy worse. He also singled Walter out for abuse, since Walter was artistic, sensitive, and unwilling to live a life without intellectual stimulation. Walter never complained; he was determined to beat his father and become a better man.

Walter was a junior in high school when his family inherited the lake house. He asked Gene to send his brother Mitch with him to fix it up so they could rent it the following summer. Gene did not want to pressure Mitch, and Mitch refused to cooperate. Walter went to fix the house during the summer and found the solitude so captivating that he made a nature documentary about bitterns and other birds.

After ten days, Mitch came with friends to party at the house. He said that their parents told him to come fix the house and that Walter had to leave.

Walter instantly developed a dislike for the outdoors, as if nature itself was a traitor. His future work with the Conservancy would largely be to prevent people like Mitch from intruding on nature. Mitch lived there for six years without ever paying rent.

The narrative then resumes with the modern-day events of the 2004 section. Walter confronts Patty after reading the manuscript and tells her that she must leave. He reads several of the most hurtful passages to her and says, “You did the worst thing you could possibly do to me. The worst thing, and you knew very well it was the worst thing, and you did it anyway” (462). Patty says it kills her to leave him with Lalitha. After Patty leaves, he has sex with Lalitha, and Walter cries several times afterwards as he thinks about Patty and Richard. Days later, he says they have to fire Richard, but Lalitha refuses.

Walter tries to figure out how to help Joey with LBI. At dinner, Joey says he already knows about the separation from Patty. Then, the previously-hinted-at Dan Caperville Times piece comes out and damages Walter’s image. It mentions Mathis telling reporters that Walter called him stupid. Walter worries that the Times is correct about him. Vin Haven invites Walter to attend the opening of the LBI body armor plant, and Walter agrees.

Walter goes to dinner with Joey and Connie. Joey tells him that Patty believes Walter made her leave just so that he could be with Lalitha, which infuriates Walter. Jessica has been ignoring Walter’s phone calls, and he assumes that this is why. A week later, Joey calls to tell Walter that he is uncomfortable about the money he made on the Pladsky parts. He is giving the money away, which impresses Walter. When Joey tells Walter that he saw Patty in Jersey City with Richard, Walter snaps. At home, he flushes his ring down the toilet and breaks every picture of Patty. He realizes he never thought the marriage was actually over until this moment.

The next morning, Walter and Lalitha go to the body armor plant. When he begins his speech, he sees Mathis in the crowd, smirking. Walter gets rid of his notes and makes a disastrous speech in which he condemns LBI, overpopulation, and refers to humanity as a cancer. Mathis punches him in the face, and then others join in the beating, resulting in a dislocated jaw, damaged ribs, and other injuries.

Walter recovers from his injuries at the Whitman County hospital. Lalitha spins his outburst at the grand opening as conscious sleepwalking. Nevertheless, Vin Haven fires him, and the Free Space initiative is in jeopardy. However, the footage of the riot goes viral, and Lalitha gets messages offering help from younger activists. Now, Walter becomes a hero. Joey writes a $100,000 check for Free Space, which moves Walter deeply. Jessica is mad at him, however, and thinks Walter chose the wrong enemy. To Walter, She sounds like Patty.

Walter and Lalitha drive across the country in a van, camping and bird watching. Lalitha enjoys Walter’s contentment but dislikes everything else about the trip. She thinks nature is savage. They visit Walter’s brother Brent, who says that their Mitch is struggling. They decide that Lalitha will return to help with the music festival, and Walter will meet her soon when he is ready to stop traveling.

Walter visits Carol. She says she saw the separation from Patty coming, adding that she always hated how Patty treated him. Then Walter drives to Nameless Lake and calls Lalitha. The next day, Walter visits his brother Mitch at a campground. They have a pleasant conversation, and Walter leaves with a feeling a gratitude. Then his phone rings. The caller tells him that Lalitha died in a freak car accident that morning.