THE Ballyhoo was gone. Conker and Buck and Jolie and all the others were gone. Ray took out the lodestone and began following it. He walked all morning and into the afternoon, passing ruined plantations and poor farmhouses. An old black man driving a Nissen wagon with a mule carried Ray for a stretch along dusty clay roads. Soon Ray left the roads and followed a lazy, meandering stream. The fields, ripe with midsummer, gave way to stretches of forest, and with the sun setting through the trees, Ray was again in the wilderness. As he journeyed, Ray thought about Jolie and Conker. Ray still burned with resentment toward Jolie, but he regretted not having made up with Conker before leaving. He hated that Conker might be sore with him, and Ray wished he could apologize to his friend. In fact, he wished Conker were with him now, out here in the woods, on some adventure. He also wished he had taken food from the mess car. But unlike before, when he was in the Lost Wood, Ray was now able to recognize some plants in the forest that were edible.
What do You think about The Nine Pound Hammer (2009)?
