The Other Side of the Bridge

Ian goes to Arthur’s farm for his first day of work and discovers that it’s very different than he imagined. What Ian wanted was to be near Laura Dunn, but he sees her for less than a minute; instead, he gets close to Arthur Dunn. He also discovers that farming is hard work, and that his body aches: “before the first hour was up his muscles–all of them, in every part of his body–reminded him of the diagrams of human musculature in his father’s textbooks: the muscles were drawn in red ink and looked raw and stretched to breaking point” (50).

Ian says he sustains himself through the work by dreaming of how he’ll eat lunch with Arthur and Laura and get to be close to her and have conversation with her, but again, the reality is different. Lunch is busy and noisy, there are three kids to feed, and he again has no time to interact with Laura Dunn the way he wants to.

After work, Ian goes home. He takes two bathes to get all the mud and dirt off of him and then goes down to dinner, where his parents tell him they’re getting a divorce.