The Car at First Sight
The first time the narrator sees the car, the impact is that of seeing not an object, but something infused with the spirit of a living, sentient being:
“There it was, parked, large as life. Really as if it was alive. I thought of the word repose, because the car wasn't simply stopped, parked, or whatever. That car reposed, calm and gleaming, a FOR SALE sign in its left front window.”
Draft Notice
A summer trek brings the characters home just in time for the narrator’s older half-brother to get his draft notice. A particularly descriptive metaphor tells the reader all they need to know about what that brother looks like:
“I don't wonder that the army was so glad to get my brother that they turned him into a Marine. He was built like a brick outhouse.”
PTSD
Military service has not been kind to the narrator’s brother. The only thing that keeps him from being jumpy and on edge is watching television. And even that stillness is hardy peaceful; hardly encouraging:
“He sat in his chair gripping the armrests with all his might, as if the chair itself was moving at a high speed and if he let go at all he would rocket forward and maybe crash right through the set.”
The Last Mission
When his brother returns from the war, he is not the same person and shows little interest in anything that used to bring him pleasure. So the narrator conceives of purposely messing up the car so that it will stimulate his brother to find something to put his energy into. But upon seeing what he’s done to the car, the brother is simply outraged:
“…when I left, that car was running like a watch. Now I don't even know if I can get it to start again, let alone get it anywhere near its old condition."
Recognition and Confession
A camping trip to the Red River climaxes in a moment of truth for both when the narrator is suddenly unable to control himself and begins shaking him by the shoulders, demanding the PTSD-stricken veteran “wake up!” Something happens because at the moment his brother physically changes in front of his eyes:
“His face was totally white and hard. Then it broke, like stones break all of a sudden when water boils up inside them.”
