Ralph Fallon’s Intoxicated State

Ralph Fallon’s intoxicated state governs the narrator’s last approach to him, first disrupting the expectation of finding him alone and then turning a planned killing into a late-night conversation. Fallon’s drinking is presented through observable conduct, the narrator’s watchful calculations, and the growing tension between Fallon as a target and Fallon as an engaging, capable man.

Signs and Expectations

Before Fallon returns, the narrator guesses that he is spending the evening at one of the two bars in Arcadia, where he might eat a hamburger or pizza after work. The narrator expects him to arrive not completely sober and reasons that driving toward Arcadia would risk missing him on the road. Instead, he watches the house and driveway from the office, choosing a position where he can see the windows without being silhouetted.

When Fallon’s dark-colored Subaru station wagon turns into the driveway, the narrator reads its movement as evidence of drunkenness before he can see the driver. Fallon steers with what the narrator calls excessive caution around the curve, then jolts to a stop outside the house. The carefulness does not reassure the watcher: it is precisely the conspicuous deliberation of the driving that gives away Fallon’s condition. At this point the narrator is already considering ways to kill him with objects in the house and to make the death appear accidental, preferring that possibility to another murder of a paper-mill manager.

An Unexpected Arrival

The narrator’s expectation that Fallon will come home without his family is overturned when Fallon goes around the car and opens the passenger door. Cindy gets out, weaving and holding the door for support; the narrator judges her to be about as drunk as Fallon. Her confusion about where she is prompts Fallon to identify the house as his own and insist that she knows it. They move toward the house, and Fallon fumbles with his keys.

Her presence changes the immediate circumstances of the planned attack. The narrator recognizes that Fallon has picked her up at a bar and that this has happened before, then decides not to act that night. The interruption is practical, but it also makes the narrator’s earlier watchful certainty less secure: he had prepared for Fallon’s return as a solitary opportunity, while the actual arrival brings another intoxicated person into the scene. Fallon’s drinking is thus not only a condition the narrator observes; it affects when the narrator believes he can proceed.

Drinking at the Kitchen Table

Later, Fallon and the narrator sit across from one another at the kitchen table and talk about the production line. Fallon begins asking about the narrator’s extruder, interrupts himself to fetch the rye bottle, and brings two more cans of beer from the refrigerator for later. The ordinary details of the table—the bottle between them and beer placed at each seat—make the drinking part of their extended conversation rather than a brief sign of the earlier night out.

Fallon had already been drunk when he arrived. During the time they sit together, he drinks eight more beers, each heavily mixed with rye. The narrator drinks five beers without adding whiskey, while pretending to do so each time. This contrast establishes that Fallon is drinking substantially more, although the narrator also feels the beer, the late hour, and the strain of being near the end of his sequence of trials. The evidence describes a sustained, escalating bout of drinking, not simply the narrator’s first impression at the driveway.

The Change in the Narrator’s View

Fallon eventually falls asleep, but the narrator is sorry when the conversation ends. He has enjoyed their discussion and assesses Fallon as crude beside the college-educated people he knows, yet bright and deeply knowledgeable about the work. Fallon describes methods he has used on the Arcadia line, and the narrator thinks he will keep them when he takes over. Intoxication has not prevented Fallon from making a strong impression through his practical expertise; the conversation gives the narrator a concrete view of the competence he has otherwise treated as an obstacle.

The narrator’s response becomes emotionally conflicted. He feels a foolish sentimental attachment to Fallon and imagines alternatives in which Fallon lives while the narrator still gets what he wants: Fallon might retire, offer him a co-manager position, or reveal that a second shift will require a night manager. The narrator dismisses these possibilities as fantasies, but their appearance matters: after observing Fallon’s drinking as a vulnerability and potential opportunity, he has spent hours talking with him and now regrets the prospect of acting. Fallon’s intoxication therefore marks both physical susceptibility and a temporary intimacy that unsettles the narrator’s intention. When the pleasant, beer-soaked discussion ends, the narrator concludes that it is time to become serious; the passage stops at that threshold, before showing what he does next.