Chapter 20 Summary

The doctor gets a telephone call, and a voice tells him in Spanish that his daughter has been kidnapped. He is having trouble sorting out the past from the present. Hallie has been kidnapped and taken to Honduras where the contras are camped. He asks for a phone number so he can call back, and the voice suggests that he call the U.S. president, since this country has been funding the Contras, or perhaps the Ministry of Agriculture, either of this country or Nicaragua.

Chapter 20 Analysis

Readers' knowledge of what has happened to Hallie is limited to what the mind of Doc Homer is able to take in. His mind is frustratingly cobwebby, and the frustration is at both ends of the phone line. As readers, we feel it also. We want to know more.