Ferndale

Ferndale is the place where Yvonne and Juan acquired a sedan in the early morning, making it a practical waypoint in the group’s preparations with two cars. Its role is brief but concrete: the pair drove there before dawn, hot-wired the vehicle, and returned with it to the hill.

The Early-Morning Trip

Past four in the morning, Yvonne and Juan drove to Ferndale and hot-wired a nondescript four-door sedan. The description emphasizes the car’s ordinary appearance, while the means of acquiring it marks the trip as clandestine. The two cars came rumbling back up the hill before dawn.

Role in the Two-Car Preparation

The sedan brought back from Ferndale became one of the two vehicles assembled for the operation. Pauline sat behind its wheel, gripping it so tightly that her knuckles turned blue, while Juan instructed her to drive up to the barn and return without turning off the engine. Ferndale thus figures not as a developed setting but as the starting point of a vehicle’s passage into the group’s preparations.