Breakfast on Pluto

While he climbs the walls of his cell, Pussy imagines himself and his mother on a deserted island, where they enjoy the sun and sip cocktails. Braden’s mother tells him to forgive Father Bernard, but he realizes he cannot. As the doctor at the police station warns that Braden should be medicated, the young man swears vengeance upon his father and the whole community of Tyreelin.

Braden imagines appearing in Tyreelin as the Lurex Avenger, “Stench-Banisher, Perfume-Bringer, Flower-Scatterer, Ender of the Darkness” (145).

The Nolan family sits down for lunch as a strange scent pervades their room. It is Chanel No. 19, which the Avenger likes to wear. She has come to remove the age-old stench of the little town, which has been present so long the residents have become accustomed to it and do not recognize its toxicity.