Chapters 19-21

Connection

Brendan and Vangie run around together and he's invited to some of the Boudoin's family meals. He gets along well with Arnie, who has developmental issues. They even go to Galveston, and Brendan takes Vangie by The Colonel's. Brendan is beginning to think of Marrying Vangie and plans to speak with Jeremy's lawyer uncle about making himself legal, again.

Late in May, Brendan invites Vangie into the pool house and she teases him for it being so neat. Like he was planning to bring her home, that night. Then she asks him if he's gay. She's noticed Everett like him, a lot, and only stays with Jeremy due to his resemblance to Brendan. They chat more. She's concerned he's just out for some fun with her.

Vangie puts on some music, pulls out a water pipe and they smoke some pot through it. Then she suggests they have a three-way with Everett, taking Brendan aback. But he agrees, making her feel easier. They wind up having sex against one of the bean bags...and he knows she is the one for him. 

Reality

Brendan is set to meet Vangie, Everett and Jeremy to see Jaws, but Rene talks to him, pointing out Vangie would be giving up a lot to be with him while he has nothing to really offer her. He would actually harm her chosen career in the State Department. Shaken, Brendan blows off the date and stays home to think. He sits in the pool trying to sort things out, but the B-Girls begin questioning him. Reveal his aunt and uncle have been talking about Vangie. So he dresses, figures out his Uncle told Rene about him and Vangie, learns Mairead's visit is put off due to house-hunting in Toronto and a new baby coming, and goes to The Colonel's.

Todd is wary around Brendan. Even calls him stupid for being with Vangie. Reveals he's been busted for selling pot and is taking a deal to minimize the sentence. He calls Uncle Sean a weak man for caring more about position and money than anything else. Brendan considers hopping on his Montesa and driving away from Houston, forever.

He finally leaves the bar, thinks about walking home but can't decide. Suddenly, a pillowcase is slung over his head, he's punched in the gut, bound, and slung into the trunk of a car. They drive away.

Violation

The car heads south, to the I-10 and travels east along it. Brendan works the pillowcase off, sees a tear in the car's fender and notices signs for the westbound side pass. They exit just past Loop 610 and head south over rough roads, railroad tracks and through a tunnel. The stench of the refineries grows stronger as the drive goes on and on.

The car finally stops, Brendan is dragged out and the pillow case put back on, then he's bound facing a thick tree trunk, his shirt torn open and jeans yanked away, and he is viciously whipped as racist comments are made about him loving a black woman. His heart pounds wildly as he curses and threatens...then suddenly he passes out. He sort of wakes to hearing a voice say, "I told you; I warned you," as a nitroglycerin tablet is shoved under his tongue. Then he is carried into the rear of a station wagon and driven to his aunt and uncle's house.

Two men carry him into the pool house, one of whom reminds him of Lon, Vangie's cop brother. He hears Uncle Sean tell the man, "I don't want to see you, again." Aunt Mari sees what has happened and angrily tends to his injuries. Brendan asks her if Uncle Sean was there, watching him be whipped. Her evasive answers only serve to convince him the man was. She tries to explain the pressure he was under but Brendan tells her to leave. She does. Once he's alone, he realizes he's lost Vangie and grows angry from it. After a while, he works on a portable cassette player to try and settle himself but his hands are shaking and the raw marks around his wrists from the ropes get blood on it. This only seems to tell him he's not even good at repairing things, right then.