Hot-Walking Machine

Medicine Ed believes the hot-walking machine represents the lost soul of Indian Mound Downs. He indicates how the machine blocks the back entrance of the racetrack keeping anyone from leaving through the gate. There are two hot walking machines of importance in the novel. In the final chapter of the book Maggie finds the abandoned, washed out track where another hot walking machine had been dumped. When Tommy hits Joe Dale with a car, Joe Dale is thrown into the machine and dies. Eerily, the machine works for a moment before quitting.

The Winnebago

The crushed-in Winnebago that Zeno lets Medicine Ed keep at the racetrack is a symbol of Ed’s home and the good life he has with Zeno. After Zeno died Medicine Ed was forced to move the Winnebago off racetrack grounds. Tommy Hansel moved it for him and paid his rent...