The Night
The plot of this narrative all surrounds something that happens in the mystery of the darkness of night in suburbia. "The summer sky is a veil thrown over the moon and stars. The streets are quiet, the good people of Avalon long since tucked for the night. Their own parents are asleep in their queen-size bed under the plaid Afghan knitted by one of their father's patients." This imagery appears very early in the story and is most effective as subtle foreshadowing. Words like "veil," "good people," and "patients" all combine to hint at the big elements of the story to come. This description is of the last few moments of normality for a family, but also the last few moments of reality for others in the community. The veil will also prove to cover up the not-so-good instincts of a man who took an oath to do no harm.
The Oak
Imagery helps bring to vivid reality to a portrait of a tree. "A majestic oak at the corner of Division and Birch...its trunk is now close to five feet in diameter. It is encircled—depending on the season—by dozens of varieties of wildflowers, tall, fragrant grasses. Every other bit of greenery in the neighborhood is regularly manicured and trimmed by landscapers, but the oak presides over its own small patch of jungle, a primeval piece of real estate." The oak has already been introduced. This passage describes the tree a quarter-century later. The imagery presents the tree both as simple vegetation and as something with roots going much deeper. It is the scene of the incident that took place in the darkness that night so many years before. To the outside world, it really is just a tree. To the family involved, it is not so much the fragrance of wildflowers that surrounds it as the stink of secrets and lies.
The Crash
The oak is actually introduced on the night in question. "The wheel spins. The screams of teenagers in the night...there is no screech of brakes—nothing to blunt the impact. A concussion of metal and an ancient oak: the sound of two worlds colliding. The fender and right side of the Buick crumple like it’s a toy and this is all make-believe." The reference to worlds colliding and make-believe in this imagery literally refers to the Buick and the oak. But it will come to refer to the worlds of reality and illusion which divide the facts of what happens that night and the history created by story that is told about what happened.
The Drunk
The Buick crashing at full speed into the oak is not the result of drunk driving. Ironically, it results from a licensed driver who is drunk recognizing she should not drive but not also recognizing she should not allow her unlicensed younger brother to get behind the wheel. "At first it was like this: a soft, invisible quilt that enveloped her and made her feel safe, warm, comfortable in her own skin. A few drinks diluted her sense of not belonging. It was just that easy. She became voluble, floaty, brave, and funny." This is imagery from the mind of a drunk remembering what it was like to become turn into a drunk. The cloak of personal safety is a visceral description of the inherent self-centeredness of all drunks. The dilution of senses related to the questionable ache to join ephemeral cliques of unliked peers is also tangibly understated.
