At this point, the end of Book 2, I am beginning to see a story of seeking, of looking for what man thinks will fill his needs. The old man, E. F. Bloodworth, is looking for a peaceful death. Brady is looking for his father’s commitment. Boyd is looking for the wife who left him for a peddlar, and Warren is just looking for good times and women. We have highly recognizable vehicles: a white truck emblazoned with lettering, Junior Albright’s handpainted yellow car turned taxi. So we have the movement between states, crossing borders to bring each character out of his comfort zone of home ground.
But what of Fleming? He is forced to drive though he hasn’t a license, when his uncle Warren, then his friend Albright, are too drunk to drive where they need to be. Fleming’s left home alone, yet he walks through the woods when he first needs to get away (as his grandfather, E.F. walks through the woods the final miles of his journey. The car brings them together, as E.F. requires the use of Albright’s "cab." And interesting too, the home that E.F. has his sons set up for him before his arrival, is a mobile one–a trailer.
So in this case, the vehicle is the vehicle of story. As we close out Book 2, E. F. has reached his destination but Fleming has discovered love, and she’s forty miles away.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology