McGee's one-dollar bill

McGee's one-dollar bill is both the literal trace of Andy McGee's flight with Charlie McGee and evidence that his use of the push can disturb what other people see. It helps secure their cab ride to Albany, then becomes an object of scrutiny at the Shop, where its apparently flickering portrait turns an ordinary payment into a sign of Andy's strained power and the fugitives' likely whereabouts.

The Bill as Fare and Instrument

When Andy changes his mind and asks the cabdriver to take him and Charlie from New York City to Albany, the request meets resistance: the driver says he cannot take a fare that far. Andy has only one dollar in his wallet. The bill matters in a practical way, but the scene makes clear that money alone cannot account for the ride. Andy offers the driver five hundred dollars and uses the push to secure his cooperation, pressing hard even as he fears that he has exhausted his ability.

The payment depends on perception as well as persuasion. Andy hands the driver a bill while pushing, and the driver accepts the journey; later, Al Steinowitz explains that the bill was a one-dollar note and that the driver received a five-hundred-dollar check. The gap between the amount Andy claims to offer and the bill he actually has is not merely a financial discrepancy. It shows how the push can make a desired transaction seem real enough to carry out, even when Andy's material resources do not match the promise.

That success comes at a bodily cost. As the push takes hold, Andy feels the familiar steel-dagger pain; his stomach seems to gain weight, his bowels lock, and he wonders whether he might vomit or die. The bill therefore marks a double exchange: it helps buy the fugitives time and distance, while Andy pays for that advantage through a debilitating exertion. Seeing Charlie asleep and trusting him intensifies the emotional consequence: the ride offers escape, but also confronts him with the sense that they are still running from the same danger.

A Portrait That Appears to Change

The bill's second role begins after it has passed from the cabdriver to the Shop. Albert Steinowitz takes it from a limp plastic case and identifies it as what Andy used to pay the fare. Cap Hollister first treats the object as a curious detail, then looks at it again with renewed attention when he hears that Andy traveled to Albany from New York City on a one-dollar bill.

Under their scrutiny, the note appears to shift. Cap says that for a moment it did not look like a one-dollar bill; he later sees George Washington's face seem to grow glasses or otherwise change. Al Steinowitz reports a similar experience, saying that he too saw the face as Benjamin Franklin, though the effect no longer registers for him. The distinction between the physical note and the observers' experience remains important: the bill is still a one-dollar bill, and the apparent alteration is described as a hallucination rather than a change in the currency itself.

The details make the disturbance specific rather than abstract. Benjamin Franklin is associated with a hundred-dollar bill, not a five-hundred-dollar bill, and Cap's first impression is that the portrait has changed from George Washington. When Cap looks again, he sees only Washington. He stares for nearly two minutes, and the flicker returns just as he is about to pass the bill back. This time, he suspects that the disturbance lies in his own mind, not in the note. The ordinary portrait becomes unstable for an instant, then settles back into its familiar image.

Evidence, Limits, and Narrative Significance

The bill also allows the Shop's observers to compare reactions. Steinowitz says he showed it to about six people that morning; a couple thought they saw something, but their response was not as strong as that of the cabdriver and the woman he lives with. The effect, he says, is dissipating. Their differing experiences suggest that the bill's odd appearance is not a durable alteration visible to everyone, but a fleeting perceptual effect whose strength varies among observers.

For Cap Hollister and Al Steinowitz, that fading effect becomes evidence about Andy's condition. When Cap asks whether Andy pushed too hard, Steinowitz agrees and doubts that he could keep going. He reasons that Andy and Charlie may have slept in the woods, stayed at an outlying motel, or broken into a summer cabin in the area, and concludes that they are likely nearby and can be found. The bill does not reveal their exact refuge, but it links the Albany journey to Andy's apparent overexertion and gives the Shop grounds to renew its search.

Its narrative force comes from the contrast between what the object is and what it seems to show. It remains a single dollar from Andy's nearly empty wallet, yet its passage through the cab ride and into the Shop carries the effects of the push beyond the moment of use. First it helps turn an implausible offer into a means of escape; afterward, its flickering portrait makes Andy's power perceptible to those pursuing him. The bill is a modest physical remainder of a costly act, and its unstable image leaves the Shop with a clue that is simultaneously revealing and uncertain.