How It All Goes Down
A Beckoning Whistle
- Billy Graham (yes, that Billy Graham) pitches his tent in Los Angeles.
- Cynthia goes to see him, and when she comes home she says she's not going to divorce Louie.
- He's relieved about this, but angry that she's had a religious awakening.
- She manages to drag Louie to one of Billy Graham's sermons, but when it comes time to pray, Louie leaves. That night, he has another nightmare about the Bird.
- Cynthia gets Louie to go to another sermon, and Louie remembers a still day he experienced on the raft with Phil: "That day, he had believed that what lay around them was the work of infinitely broad, benevolent hands, a gift of compassion" (5.38.33).
- When they're asked to pray, Louie tries to leave again, but he has a flashback to his time on the raft.
- He says, "If you will save me, I will serve you forever" (5.38.40).
- It is the last flashback he has—he comes back to reality, and walks toward Billy Graham a saved man.
- He realizes that "He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make of him" (5.38.56). Instead he is… unbroken. Boo ya.
- He dumps out all his alcohol when he gets home, and feels like "a new creation" (5.38.46).