News of the World

The Captain and Johanna arrive in the town of Bandera. There are teams of oxen in the street: it’s a line of freight wagons that will leave the town together as protection against the Comanche. The Captain reads new stories, stories about how Texas has recently been readmitted to the Union, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Cincinnati Reds as the first professional baseball team. Johanna is no longer afraid of large crowds of white people, and so she sits in the back with the paint can to collect the dimes. She threatens anyone who attempts to go by her without paying.

They are in the lower country now, having descended from the hills. The weather is warm. The Captain remembers the territory; it’s a part of him, and will never not be. The wind and smells remind him of his old home, his wife, war, and watching his captain die in his arms, those many years ago. Johanna senses a change coming and she grows uneasy. She speaks of the doll she left overlooking the Red River. She asks if they will be reading in Castroville, to which the Captain answers no, not anymore.