Shell Shaker

Thursday, September 26, 1991

Adair dreams of being shot by gangsters, and hears her father’s voice telling her that she is “the true hunter in the family” (loc 3880). She awakens on the plane with Gore, flying to New York. She finally asks Gore why he never called her, and he explains that he married someone else, though they are now divorced. Then, he asks her to marry him. Adair hesitates, despite how much she loves him, but finally agrees.

Once they get to New York, Adair is nervous about the responsibility she holds. She wants “to show [her] family that [she’s] worthy” (loc 3927) like her sisters. She has a vision of a panther sitting on the couch in the hotel room. It is her father, and he tells her how to track down Redford’s contact in the IRA, the one Redford called James Joyce. When she awakens, Tema’s agent calls and tells Adair that an Irish man has been trying to contact Tema. They go to the bar that Adair’s father told her about, and James Joyce approaches them. The man gives them an envelope and then goes on a long rant, which Adair cannot follow.