‘The Stone Boy’ leaves us expecting a drastic and frightening change for the direction Arnold’s life is expected to take. Not only does the sheriff suggest that Arnold may need to return in a few years, but his response to his mother at the very end leaves the reader believing that his character, personality, and all around attitude will be drastically changed for the worse. For this reason, I like to think that ‘Car Crash While Hitchhiking’ is a follow-up to ‘The Stone Boy.’
The narrator of ‘Car Crash While Hitchhiking’ has the personality one would expect of an Arnold grown up and embittered by time and memories. His life has been spent dwelling on the death of his brother, whose death, with the support of his uncle, has fallen onto his shoulders as his fault. His lack of care for the well-being of those involved is reminiscent of that which Arnold expressed after Eugie’s death. I say reminiscent because he has grown into a new person, and now his lack of direction has found direction towards a bitter and forced apathy. ‘And you, you ridiculous people, you expect me to help you,’ is his shot at the world. He directs his anger at this family who has given him a ride. He is angry at himself for killing Eugie, angry at his family for turning him away, angry at this family for not knowing they were to die, not knowing they were picking up a killer, and most of all for being the family that he couldn’t have.
His pleasure derived from the woman’s scream at the end, reminds of him of something. Maybe it is the scream his own mother made when Eugie died. Maybe it’s the scream he wished someone would express for him, the scream signifying love for someone, that love which he no longer had, or felt he no longer deserved. His fascination with that woman’s scream is not disturbing in my mind; it’s a desire. The desire to be loved, one of the most powerful feelings in the world, is his driving force. He feels no love. He has no one, even the people who pick him up leave him for someone else. Or it could be a reminder of his brother whom he loved a long time ago. This scream could remind him of the scream Eugie received; bringing him back to a time when he wasn’t the person he is now.
Alternately, Arnold may not necessarily have become this person. The narrator is in touch with something somewhere, distant as that feeling may be. Growing up, Arnold would have looked to sever any attachments he had, as he has a lot of reasons to avoid being tied down to people emotionally. The narrator has some memory worth keeping, deep in his subconscious though it may be. His obsession with the scream is too well-thought out to be discounted as anything other than something of great importance to him.
Arnold, however, would have no reason to want or try to keep such memories. He was betrayed, turned aside, looked down on and done something to make him hate himself. He was holding the gun that killed his brother, and at the young age of 9, he has no reason to not think he is directly responsible. His uncle only reinforced that idea by being so heartless towards the accident of a young boy. The sheriff’s remark would be beyond disturbing to someone Arnold’s age in that vulnerable emotional and mental state. He feels horrible enough for the irreversible act of taking a life, but now he has the idea that he has started down a road which he could not turn back from. And his mother’s rejection was the ultimate blow. There is a connection between mothers and young boys that is stronger than any other connection. The mother is supposed to forgive, no matter what trespass the boy may have committed. When she turned him away that night, that connection broke. He lost whatever desire he may have had to remain attached to that family.
Whatever the case, it is difficult to say Arnold and the narrator have nothing in common. They are both haunted by something dark and personal, and the narrator is definitely a possible future Arnold. ‘Car Crash While Hitchhiking’ is a very strange and almost surreal dark story whereas ‘The Stone Boy’ is more of a tragic dark realist story. But it makes sense that the most surreal story would have roots in a tragically real story.