Joyland

A few days later, Devin arrives at work and sees Eddie Parks topple over, clutching the left side of his chest, in front of the Horror House. Devin immediately starts chest compressions while Lane Hardy calls an ambulance. Eddie still isn’t breathing. Bracing himself, Devin starts rescue breathing, enduring the taste of cigarettes and the stink of jalapeños on Eddie’s breath. Eddie starts breathing on his own. Devin looks up at the grimacing monster faces on the front of the Horror House. The sign above the snarling faces reads, “COME IN IF YOU DARE” (174). Devin thinks of Linda Gray who went in alive and was carried out dead. He remembers Mrs. Shoplaw saying that there was a photograph of the murderer, but the only thing recognizable was a bird’s head tattooed on his hand.

Eddie has always worn gloves—supposedly to conceal psoriasis. Devin strips off Eddie’s gloves but finds no tattoo, just psoriasis. Afterward, Lane finds Eddie’s gloves and asks why Devin took them off. Devin makes up the first ridiculous excuse he can think of. Devin’s removing Eddie’s gloves rouses Lane’s suspicion that Devin is trying to figure out who murdered Linda.

Devin goes to the hospital, bringing the gloves and a photograph he found in the little shack where Eddie lives. Eddie tells him the woman in the photo was his wife and that walking out on the miserable woman was the best thing he ever did, but a tear slides down his cheek as he says it. They had a daughter who was killed by a car. Devin is just leaving when Eddie says that Devin should have let him die; he could have been with his little girl.

Leaving the hospital, Devin runs into Annie, and this time she actually smiles when she sees him. Devin is angry and upset from his visit to Eddie, and he doesn’t know why. It has something to do with Wendy, and it bothers him that he’s not over her yet.

Annie tells Devin that Mike is fine, just there for a checkup. Devin senses that Annie wants to be left alone, and that increases his anger. Everyone seems to want him to go away: Wendy, Annie, even Eddie. He responds that Mike doesn’t believe he’s fine, so who is Devin supposed to believe?

Annie snaps back that it’s none of his business anyway. Mike has rolled up unnoticed in his chair while they were speaking and says that it is Devin’s business.

Annie tells Mike it’s time for them to get going. Mike says loudly and clearly that he wants Devin to take them both to Joyland before he dies.

Annie grabs Mike’s chair and wheels him toward the door. Devin goes after them. In the parking lot, he tells Annie he’s not trying to take Mike away from her. Mike takes her hand and says, “It doesn’t have to be the last good time” (183).

Annie begins to sob, Devin realizes she has been paralyzed by the visceral belief that if they never started doing “last things,” then life could stay summer forever. Only, it is autumn now. Annie gives up. She tells Devin he can do whatever he wants, but she won’t have anything to do with it. Mike tells her he can’t do it without her. That night, Devin gets a call from Mike. Mike tells him Annie is sleeping; she was tired. Devin thinks to himself that it’s no wonder after the way he and Mike had ganged up on her.

Mike replies that he knows they did as if Devin had spoken aloud. Devin asks if Mike can read minds, and Mike says that he doesn’t know. Sometimes he sees and hears things or gets an idea in his head. He is excited about Joyland. Devin reminds him that it’s still contingent on Annie’s approval, and Mike replies that it’s for Annie they’re going. For her and Devin, but mostly for the girl who has been there too long and wants to leave.

Shocked, Devin asks how Mike knows about Linda Gray. Mike doesn’t know how, but he thinks Linda is the reason he came to Heaven’s Bay. Mike asks Devin whether he has already told Devin that “it’s not white” (187). He did, but Devin still doesn’t know what it means. He still hasn’t realized that it refers to Lane’s hair, which is not white but blond.

Devin’s heroics in saving Eddie’s life persuade Fred Dean, the manager, to open the park for Mike. Devin sets up the tour for the following Tuesday. When Tom and Erin arrive that weekend, Tom leaves Erin and Devin alone to talk over the results of Erin’s research. Devin lets them into the front gate, and Erin remarks that Devin has entered the real world while Erin and Tom have remained in a suspended childhood in college.

They settle down within sight of the Horror House with its sinister invitation to enter. Erin lays out a selection of photos from a variety of newspapers and summarizes what she discovered while researching Linda Gray. She has found four murders similar to Linda’s. Each of the girls was killed where there had been a county fair or traveling carnival in the area. Since the four previous murders were linked to traveling shows, Erin concludes that if Linda’s killer was at Joyland, he will certainly have moved on by now. A stationary amusement park would be much riskier than a road company.

Finally, Erin shows Devin a stack of photos taken by the Hollywood girls at Joyland. Each one shows Linda Gray with her killer. The man’s face isn’t visible in any of the shots. He is wearing his baseball cap tilted a bit to one side and low over his sunglasses. A goatee hides the rest. Erin calls Devin’s attention to a shot of the man’s right hand with a tattoo of a bird’s head. One of the other girls was seen with an older man immediately before her death. The witnesses saw them distinctly, remembering the man having a tattoo of a cross on his right hand. The most telling photo is another pic taken at Joyland. The man’s right hand is visible in the shot, but the bird’s head tattoo is blurred; the ink is running. The tattoo is a fake. There is something significant in the pictures, but Devin can’t bring it into his conscious awareness.

On Monday, Fred Dean sends Devin home early. Mike’s big day at the park is scheduled for tomorrow. It will be Mike’s last chance to visit the park because a tropical storm is expected to hit them on Wednesday.