Last Bus To Wisdom: A Novel

When they arrive at Wisdom, the bus passes the Greyhound depot, driving to the wooded area where the workers will spend the night. As they search for a place to stow their possessions, Highpockets tells them they need to go to the town and get bedrolls because it will be cold. Herman volunteers to do that, leaving Donal to eat the stew that the other men pass around. Eventually Herman returns with flashlights and blankets and other items he acquires by selling Donal’s wicker suitcase and his own German western novels.

As they sit around the kip—the nighttime gathering of workers—a stranger arrives. Donal recognizes him as Harv, the jailbreaker who was Letty’s boyfriend. Harv announces he has come to cut hay, and the other men welcome him. Donal and Herman sit beside Harv and reintroduce themselves. When Donal comments on the rugged way Carl treated him as his prisoner, Harv says, “It’s just that you put a big badge on the little guy, his head swells along with it” (358). Soon, Mallory, a sheriff, arrives. He speaks to Highpockets and asks if there are any lawbreakers he needs to be aware of, looking around the circle. Highpockets says that Donal, Herman, and Harv have been with the group since they harvested apples in Washington.