The Lincoln Highway

Driving along the Lincoln Highway, Woolly reflects on how kind it was of Emmett to allow them to borrow his car, indicating that Duchess has lied to him about the circumstances. Duchess claims that his only intention had been to travel to St. Nicholas’s in Lewis and return the car saying, “I did feel a little bad about Emmett having to make the journey to Lewis and back. If I’d known he’d kept his keys above the visor, I’d have saved him the trip (134).” Duchess explains to Woolly that if they find Duchess’s father in New York City, travel to Woolly’s family camp in the Adirondacks, and can be back in good time, they are even in a sense doing Emmett a favor by bringing back Woolly’s trust equivalent because he will need the money for his California home.

Woolly’s neurodivergence renders him unable to read the map and navigate the way that Billy had. Duchess suggests instead that Woolly listen to the radio. Woolly turns the dials continuously, seeking out only commercials, listening with rapt attention, enjoying the conflicts depicted and the resolutions offered over the brief duration of the advertisements. When Woolly hears a commercial for Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, Woolly comments that it sounds delicious, and Duchess is repulsed by the idea that Italian food would be served in this manner. Painting a thorough picture for Woolly, Duchess launches into a description of a restaurant in East Harlem called Leonello’s, where he spent time as a boy while his father worked as the maître d’. All the tables at Leonello’s are always reserved, paid for in advance. It’s an exclusive location with a new menu every night, dictated by the chef, unless one asks for the house specialty, Fettuccine Mio Amore. The impeccable service and exceptional atmosphere had made a significant impression upon Duchess as a boy. Duchess interrupts his story when the Studebaker coasts to a stop, out of gas. Without funds aside from the change he stole from Mr. Watson’s desk, Duchess decides his best option is to steal from a liquor store up the road. Woolly asks Duchess if he might have a dose of his medicine, and Duchess obliges. Checking the trunk for a tool he can use to break into the store, he finds the tire jack and handle and spies the white of the envelope Emmett had hidden.

Emmett decides their only option is to stow away inside a boxcar. Billy offers his collection of silver dollars for payment, but Emmett declines. Concerned by how impressed Billy seems to be by Duchess, Emmett explains that the story Duchess told about sneaking out to go to the movies included intentional omissions. Emmett reveals it was Duchess who recruited other boys to sneak out. One rainy night, Duchess convinced Emmett’s bunkmate Townhouse to go see the John Wayne movie Hondo. When they reached an overflowing river, Duchess refused to go any further. When Duchess hitched a ride back to Salina and was reported missing, Townhouse’s absence was discovered. Townhouse received eight lashes as punishment. Emmett tells Billy, “Duchess is full of energy and enthusiasm and good intentions too. But sometimes, his energy and enthusiasm get in the way of his good intentions, and when that happens the consequences often fall on someone else (147).” Billy feels badly for Duchess; to Billy, it is clear that Duchess cannot swim, would not admit it, and that this is why he refused to cross the river.

Leaving Billy in the station lobby with instructions not to interact with anyone, Emmett sneaks into the freight yard to determine the schedule of the trains. Emmett approaches several railroad workers, but none of them are willing to help. A panhandler who is disabled catches his attention and tells Emmett that he worked for the railroads until his profession resulted in the loss of his legs, and if there is anything that Emmett wants to know he need only ask him. The panhandler reveals that the Sunset East train will provide ample room for them to stow away on its trip to New York.

When Emmett rejoins him, Billy mentions a woman with whom he chatted in Emmett’s absence. Emmett insists that it doesn’t make them friends. Billy asks, “How much longer do you need to talk to a stranger before they become your friend?” (155) Emmett initially posits 10 days, but they agree on at least three days requirement. Emmett finally takes interest in Professor Abernathe’s Book, Professor Abacus Abernathe’s Compendium of Heroes, Adventures, and Other Intrepid Travelers. A large, colorful volume, it is a collection of the stories of the lives of heroes from history, mythology, and literature. Emmett finds the two blank pages marked You, and Billy explains that this is the part of the book in which Professor Abernathe invites the reader to write their own story among the company of other heroes. Emmett suggests that Billy start writing while they wait at the station. Billy says he wants to begin in medias res, in the middle, but he needs to wait, as he feels their journey is just beginning.

West of Chicago, Woolly and Duchess have spent the night at a Howard Johnson’s. Despite his extensive travels through Europe as a young man, he was wholly unfamiliar with the hotel and restaurant chain. He was mesmerized by the hotel room, quickly settling in to watch cartoons. After a while, Woolly asks Duchess about Leonello’s. Woolly considers the hypothetical scenario in which he, Duchess, Billy, and Emmett are sitting on a booth at the restaurant. Inquiring of Duchess, Woolly asks who else might be there. The mayor, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, and gangsters, Duchess replies. Duchess then goes on to describe the owner, Leonello Brandolini, who at 8 o’clock would, as is his custom, visit each table and extend his warm welcomes to each person present. Duchess reveals that if he had $50,000, he would open his own restaurant, just like Leonello’s, and when Woolly asks where it would be, the idea suddenly unfolds in Duchess’s mind that Los Angeles, California, with all of its newness and glitz and glamour, would be the ideal location for a “fresh start.” First, however, Duchess believes that he must settle his accounts and collect his debts. 

Just before midnight, Emmett and Billy are poised beside the tracks, waiting for their train to arrive. Finding an empty car, they open the hatch above and settle in for their trip. Getting a drink from the canteen in Billy’s backpack, Emmett happens upon the envelope containing their mother’s postcards. As he looks through them more carefully, he is drawn into recollections of their mother.

In his childhood, “Emmett would never have described his mother as unhappy. Not to another person and not to himself. But at some point, at an unspoken level he had come to know that she was (169).” He perceived her dejection and despondency through her tendency to leave tasks unfinished, and the daze in which he often found her. When Emmett was eight, their mother, who had cherished the nights she spent on Cape Cod watching the July 4th fireworks, had learned about an impressive annual fireworks display in the town of Seward. When they arrived, the enormous crowds had gathered in advance, and there were no spots left to be had. Emmett recalls the following year, when he followed his mother up to their attic to make advance preparations for attending the Seward fireworks. Among their other belongings from their previous life in Massachusetts, Emmett’s mother found the picnic basket they had been gifted for their wedding. Leaving well in advance, the picnic basket packed, the three found the perfect location to sit and watch the fireworks. Billy was born seven months later, and afterward Emmett’s mother began showing signs of serious incapacitation, of such an impact that a local woman from town came to the house to take over the household duties and care for Billy.

Eventually her visitors waned until she was no longer assisting in the household. By July, Emmett’s mother told his father that she may not want to attend the fireworks in Seward, and “Emmett didn’t think he had ever seen his father so heartbroken,” (173) but she went along with them, Emmett’s father having made all the preparations. His mother interacts with them, tending to Billy and asking their father to tell stories about his relatives in Boston. Emmett thought her happy and grateful when he saw tears streaming down her cheeks at the fireworks display, but the next morning his mother was gone. Gossip over her disappearance, difficulties with their harvest, and financial problems persisted for them, none of their burdens heavier than knowing that his mother had been inspired by the fireworks to seek happiness elsewhere.