Three-six-nine, the goose drank wine

Origin and First Appearance

The rhyme first appears in the novel as an ordinary children's skipping chant, heard by Ralph Roberts as he sits on his porch on a Tuesday morning in early October. A young girl in an oversized white tee-shirt jumps rope in a vacant lot between Frank's Bakery and Vicky Moon's Tanning Salon, her small hands penduluming up and down as she chants: "Three-six-nine, the goose drank wine..." . The rhyme initially seems a harmless piece of street life, part of the usual "streetlife serenade" of Harris Avenue .

Transformation into a Threat

The rhyme's innocent character shatters when Ralph, in a heightened state of perception, realizes the figure jumping rope is not a little girl but one of the malevolent "little bald doctors" — Atropos, the agent of random death. The creature wears Bill McGovern's missing Panama hat and grins at Ralph with an expression of pure evil. As it jumps, the rhyme continues in Ralph's mind, but now the words carry a sinister charge: "Three-six-nine, hon, the goose drank wine, / The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line..." . The line breaks, the monkey chokes, and "they all died together in a little row-BOAT!" . The rhyme has become a death chant, a premonition of the random destruction Atropos embodies.

Association with Atropos and Random Death

The rhyme becomes a verbal signature for Atropos, recurring at key moments of threat and violence. When Ralph later thinks of the creature, the rhyme echoes in his mind: "Three-six-nine, hon, the goose drank wine" . It surfaces again as Ralph and Lois walk to Lois's house after their confrontation with Atropos in the park: "Three-six-nine, hon, the goose drank wine" . The rhyme is inextricably linked to Atropos's identity as the "joker in the deck" , the agent of the Random who cuts life-cords prematurely and takes souvenirs from his victims. The childish cadence of the rhyme contrasts grotesquely with the horror of Atropos's actions, emphasizing the perversion of innocence that defines his character.

Connection to Ed Deepneau's Madness

The rhyme also connects to Ed Deepneau's paranoid delusions. During his road rage incident in July 1992, Ed chants a variation: "Hey, hey, Susan Day, how many kids did you kill today?" , a twisted version of the anti-Vietnam War protest chant "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" This chant, which Ed later repeats during his confrontation with Ralph after beating Helen , links the skipping rhyme's pattern to Ed's obsession with abortion and his belief that Susan Day and the "Centurions" are murdering babies. The rhyme's structure — a question about killing children — becomes the template for Ed's mad accusations.

The Jump Rope as a Token of Atropos

Atropos's jump rope itself is a token of his power and his collection of souvenirs from the random dead. When Ralph and Lois descend into Atropos's underground den beneath the old oak tree, Ralph finds a red plastic jump rope handle on the floor , a physical remnant of the rhyme's performance. The rhyme "Three-six-nine, the goose drank wine" is thus not just a sound but a material object, a piece of evidence linking Atropos to the random deaths he causes. The jump rope, like McGovern's hat and Lois's earrings, is a trophy, and the rhyme is its accompanying theme song.

Thematic Significance

The rhyme "Three-six-nine, the goose drank wine" functions as a leitmotif for the novel's central themes: the randomness of death, the fragility of innocence, and the hidden malevolence lurking beneath the surface of ordinary life. Its progression from a child's game to a death chant mirrors Ralph's own journey from a grieving widower suffering from insomnia to a man who sees the hidden world of auras and battles cosmic forces. The rhyme's final association with Atropos — the agent of random death who "plays" with his victims before cutting their life-cords — encapsulates the novel's bleak vision of a universe where senseless tragedy is not an exception but a constant, and where even a child's skipping rhyme can be a harbinger of doom.