How It All Goes Down
- Dominick undergoes a grueling police interrogation. ("What year is it?" "1969")
- It seems they're trying to get the guys to say that Ralph is giving them tons of weed to sell in exchange for a cut of the proceeds.
- To get out of there, Dominick lies and says yes, Ralph offered them a deal.
- On the way home, Dominick is furious with Leo, because Leo lied about everything—he threw everyone under the bus (a pretty big bus) to get himself off.
- Leo says it's just "survival of the fittest" (23.249) and Dominick shouldn't take it personally.
- Take this personally: Dominick chucks Leo's box of eight-track tapes out the window.
- Leo pulls over the car, they fight, and Dominick walks home.
- But he can't go home, so he walks to the water and dives in.
- The chapter ends with a conversation between present-day Dominick and Dr. Patel.
- She asks what all that was about; Dominick says, "I was a son of a bitch" (23.299).
- He's upset that he sold-out Ralph, just like everyone sold out the Native Americans years ago, keeping the minorities down.
- Dr. Patel brushes this white guilt aside and tries to tell Dominick that it's important to keep remembering, even the bad stuff. "The stream of memory may lead you to the river of understanding. And understanding, in turn, may be a tributary to the river of forgiveness" (23.250). All this talk of rushing waters makes us have to pee.