Deke Bradford

Deke Bradford is the kind-hearted head of Castle Rock’s Public Works Department whose decision to keep Hugh Priest employed ends in dismissal. His exchange with Alan Pangborn at the Town Garage sets Deke’s humane patience against Hugh’s persistent drinking, while the unloading of twenty cases of explosives gives the scene an ominous civic backdrop.

Identity and Role

Deke runs Castle Rock’s largest and most expensive operation, Public Works. He is a short, stocky man, but Alan regards him as one of the sweetest and kindest people he has known. The contrast between his formidable appearance and his generosity is reflected in the patience he has shown an employee whom others might have given up on sooner.

Deke and Hugh Priest

When Alan asks after Hugh, Deke says Hugh has not been in all day and asks Alan to tell him he is fired if he sees him first. Deke admits that he kept Hugh longer than he should have because he believed a good man was hidden inside him. He remembers that, when Hugh was neither drunk nor hung over, nobody in town would work harder for an employer.

Deke had hoped that a steady job might help Hugh straighten out and stop drinking. That hope is now exhausted: the firing is not an impulsive rejection of Hugh’s better qualities, but the painful end of Deke’s attempt to give them room to prevail. Deke’s own account makes clear that he has seen both Hugh’s capacity for hard work and the hold his drinking has over him.

The Town Garage and the Explosives

The conversation takes place outside Town Garage #1 on a hot afternoon. Nearby, workers unload small, heavy wooden cases from a Case Construction and Supply truck; each bears the red diamond used to mark high explosives. Deke warns the men not to treat the cases roughly. The unusual sight of an air conditioner running inside the shed, late in the year, reinforces the sense that Castle Rock has entered an exceptionally strange week.

When Alan remarks on the quantity, Deke explains that the town has twenty cases and plans to use explosives to blast a granite jar-top at a gravel pit on Route 5. He adds that the surplus would be enough to blow Hugh to Mars, a joke that turns the material’s destructive force back toward the man whose whereabouts and employment are under discussion. The scene links Deke’s personal disappointment to the larger, increasingly dangerous atmosphere surrounding the town, without suggesting that Deke intends to use the explosives against Hugh.