| “ | Every hour wounds. The last one kills. | ” |
–Old saying | ||
In Chapter Three, Shadow meets back up with Wednesday at a motel and encounters Laura, returned from the grave.
Plot[]
Shadow checks in at the Motel America and meets back up with Mr. Wednesday, telling him how he was taken captive by a "fat kid in a limo." He delivers the fat kid's message that Mr. Wednesday is forgotten while the kid is riding in his limo. Mr. Wednesday shrugs it off and Shadow goes to his own room. He takes a bath, orders a pizza, and watches Jerry Springer.
As Shadow falls asleep, he tries not to think of Laura and attempts to distract himself with thoughts of coin tricks before falling asleep and having a nightmare of the old gods who were forgotten. He wakes up from his dream, noticing it's 1:03 am, and goes to the bathroom. When he returns to the bedroom, he sees Laura sitting on the edge of the bed. He tells her she is dead and confronts her about her affair with Robbie Burton. She asks him to get her cigarettes so Shadow goes to the front desk and buys some.
When he returns, Laura explains to him how she and Robbie started their affair after a drunken night thirteen months after Shadow was locked away and continued it on over the past two years. She was breaking it off with Robbie because Shadow was coming home and was giving Robbie one last blowjob when they got into the accident. She tells Shadow she's watching out for him and thanks him for her present: the gold coin from Mad Sweeney that Shadow dropped into her grave. She kisses him goodbye and tells him he will one day ask her to stay "before all this is over." She exits the motel, leaving a trail of mud behind her.
Shadow knocks on Mr. Wednesday's door, disturbing him with the blonde front desk clerk who checked him in. He tells Wednesday that he saw Laura and is willing to leave Eagle Point tomorrow. He returns to his room and cries himself to sleep.
Coming to America[]
- Main article: Coming to America#Chapter Three
Thirty Norsemen arrive somewhere in North America. They set up a hall to worship their gods, specifically Odin.
Dreams[]
Shadow dreams of walking through rooms and hallways, seeing statues and carvings and images. Each statue has a name burned into the floor in front of it. A voice tells him they are the forgotten gods who are only remembered there. Gods die when they pass out of memory, unmourned.
Places[]
- Eagle Point, Indiana
People[]
- Shadow
- Mr. Wednesday
- Laura Moon
- Tyr (mentioned)
- Thor (mentioned)
Notes and Trivia[]
- Names of gods Shadow saw in his dream
- Leucotios
- Hubur
- Hershef