Volkswagen Blues

The photograph on the wall is of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, seated at a table in the Café Trieste with seven other people. The owner of San Francisco’s legendary City Lights Bookstore, Mr. Ferlinghetti “knew all the important people who lived in North Beach,” and the café owner advises La Grande Sauterelle to speak with him about Théo (199). The café owner also notes that the photograph is reproduced in Beat Angels, a book available at City Lights.

Mr. Ferlinghetti is not at City Lights when Jack and the girl arrive, but they do find Beat Angels. Studying the photograph in the book, Jack is stunned to recognize his brother seated with Mr. Ferlinghetti. The names of everyone at the table appear beneath the photograph, except Théo’s. He is labeled as “unidentified man,” which troubles Jack, who thinks it’s “like saying a ‘man without importance’” (202). Jack is also disturbed by the resemblance, from a distance, of the photograph to Leonardo’s “The Last Supper,” and how Théo, “[w]ith his big head of black curly hair, […] looks like Judas” (203).

Jack and the girl return often to City Lights but don’t see Mr. Ferlinghetti until two days later. Suddenly hesitant to question the bookstore owner because “it feels too much like playing detective” (204), Jack only asks about the photograph after Mr. Ferlinghetti approaches them. He peers at the image and slowly recollects that Théo often attended poetry readings and had a girlfriend. Although he hasn’t seen Théo for five years, he knows that the girlfriend, Lisa, works nearby and points to a nightclub across the street and a sign that reads, “HAVE A PRIVATE TALK WITH A LIVE NAKED GIRL. ONLY $1” (206).

That evening, Jack and La Grande Sauterelle ask to see Lisa at the nightclub and, after paying two dollars, are directed to “[g]o to the last showcase” (207). A naked girl appears behind the glass and sits on a stool. When Jack says he is looking for Théo, the girl grows uneasy, but they quickly dispel her suspicion that they are police. She reveals that she is from Montréal and asks if Quebec “independence would be coming soon” (209). As for Théo, she last saw him a while ago, around the corner of Market and Powell, and he was “[n]ot in good shape” (210).

The intersection of Market and Powell “formed a lively square with a cable car terminal, busy bus stops, a subway station, numerous stores and restaurants […],” and “[a]t the entrance to the subway station there was a sort of little open-air amphitheatre” outfitted with benches (211). Jack and La Grande Sauterelle move to a hotel with a view of the intersection and spend their days making small excursions while keeping a lookout for Théo.

One afternoon, while Jack is chatting with a street musician they’ve befriended, the girl dashes up and announces that Théo is in the open-air amphitheater. Jack hurries over and spots Théo sitting on a crowded bench just as a circus act begins in the performance space. After the show, Jack watches from his vantage point as two men put Théo in a wheelchair and push him out to a van. Stupefied, Jack lags behind the girl, who races to the van and pulls the two men aside. When Jack faces Théo and identifies himself, “Théo showed no reaction” (217). Jack becomes distressed and shakes Théo’s arm, trying to elicit a sign of recognition. The men intervene and caution that with “disabled people,” it’s important to be gentle, “especially when dealing with paralysis” (217).

Théo’s diagnosis is “creeping paralysis,” and hearing the word “creeping,” Jack imagines “a man crawling along the earth like an insect” (218).

La Grande Sauterelle is driving Jack to the airport. He is returning to Quebec and leaving his Volkswagen with the girl, who has decided to stay in San Francisco for a while. Because the city’s population is so diverse, she thought it “was a good place to try to come to terms with her own twofold heritage” (220).

Two days earlier, they visited the agency caring for Théo. According to the doctor, Théo’s condition is incurable and has impaired his memory, but he is relatively happy. Attempts to remind him of the past would only upset him. Jack now tells the girl, “[T]he idea that it’s better not to see my brother again…I accepted it so quickly that…now I wonder if I really loved Théo. Perhaps I only loved the image I’d made up” (220). He adds, “One of these days I’m going to have to learn something about human relations,” and the girl suggests he explore the subject by writing a book about it (200).

After a heartfelt hug at the airport, La Grande Sauterelle says, “May the gods protect you!” (221). Her prayer cheers Jack. As he walks into the airport, he imagines “that somewhere in the vastness of America, there was a secret place where the gods of the Indians and the other gods were meeting together in order to watch over him and light his way” (222).