Escaping the Entanglements of our lives

Ike Hayes describes the job to Goodson, then both men push carts of dirty laundry to the laundry to be washed. Goodson becomes upset about injustice he is suffering. Ike Hayes poses a question that triggers a tangent from Goodson, which leads him to ask Ike Hayes his views on the struggle for civil rights. 

Ike Hayes is awaken from his dream by Officer Hits who introduces inmate Goodson, and tell Ike Hayes to show him what to do. Ike Hayes has worked alone in the laundry room for months, sort of a punishment, but he is suspicious about Goodson, because it is unusual for a new cock to be given a gravy train job.    

Poems left by a struggling poet who freed himself by leaping from a window

Testing to teach myself how to work all the buttons

By happenstance our protagonist is reunited with an ex-girl friend and thoughts of love floods his mind, although the picture isn't quite right. 

We start at the return to a kitchen table where we find our besieged protagonist, a wanna be writer, engaged in self-reflection as he taps out words with his fingertips in an effort to finally finish his book.  He has returned home from Chicago, in his view like a dog with its's tail between its legs, to  what he calls his "beginning", and to a place he calls "the killing floor...

Thom arrives at school before the bell rings, and discovers a short period of time, where the students are relaxed and laid back.  He's aware of eyes  upon his new hair style, and likes the attention.  He hears laughter from the classrooms as he walks toward Miss Magazine classroom, where encounters Mr. Lowtower who fully recognizes him from yester day.  Meanwhile, in Miss Magazine  classroom...

Ms. Magazine is not in the mood to teach when she reaches the school. While she prepares to read the mail from her faculty mail box, it all falls to the floor, and as she gathers it up, Mr. Lowtower appears. As a jokes she invites him to tell her what is in the mail. It is mostly monthly reminders. The only new information concerns a school board ruling forbidding boys from wearing shoulder length...

Thom endures the  pain of chemically straightening his hair, it is worse than pain he endures  when his mother combs his hair.  Thom leaves the barber shop, with his hair processed, and the feeling of being a somebody.

Thom hears familiar music as he nears the gym, it is the same song  he had listened to in his room.  There's an organic concert in progress! Thom manages to reach the first row of  student spectators. He sees a young entertainer called Billy Bam, who   trigger's his imagination.  Although Thom does not possess the entertainers' talent,  he's convinces himself  that the adoption...

Thom runs to beat the ringing of the high school bell, and runs straight into the hands  of a high school  teacher with a reputation  for being nasty towards students, especially teen age boys. Thom is literally saved from being hauled to the front office, by his home room teacher, Miss Magazine.

Thom attends Lincoln High School, which was called new Lincoln in reverence to the former high school, now called  old Lincoln.  Miss Magazine is Thom's home room teacher  due largely to social changes and political unrest.  

Our  protagonist gets caught  again, but refuses  to snitch on Son  Bolow,  He is released by a bull, and  ordered from the yard, instead of  jailed  to await prosecution  for his trespass on rail road property.   As our protagonist makes his way back,  he  sees the train, that  he would have been aboard,  He laments his fate as he hears the whale of  train's whistle,  He  decries his failure...

Freedom lies across river, and our protagonist believes he has learned enough to  make it across without Son Bolow.

At last  our protagonist feels a few feet from freedom.

Joe is given one more thing to worry about: the LA Slasher.

New people pass through narrative with stories of their own

After endless miles of walking , our two tired travelers  and given a ride in a camper

Our protagonist manages to laugh at an outrageous claim,

Our protagonist who has committed no crime feels like he has by association. 

The  speed of  "the hot shot"  en route  through the night  to El Paso  lugs   our two wayfarers asleep .  Joe is jerked awake in the early morning hours to discover, the gondolas had been detached, and the one he rides is at the bottom of a rock pit, on the very verge of being filled with rocks. 

He called it a wasted day, but  the night brought a change of mind

Joe considers  his trails and tribulations  thus far, and concludes for all his efforts he is at least a little nearer to the promised land,