How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"It's not really his truck he is in love with. He loves the feel of power when he is sitting high in his cab controlling a mighty machine. He loves the excitement of never knowing where this next trip will take him." (34.3)
Dad finds it very confining to have a 9-to-5 job, a car, and to come home every evening to the same house. He's got a little cowboy in him.
Quote #5
I felt so terrible about Bandit riding around with a strange trucker and Dad taking another boy out for pizza when I was all alone in the house with the mildewed bathroom when it was raining outside and I was hungry. (39.2)
So Dad's got the freedom to go wherever with whomever, which is cool for Dad but which hurts our boy something fierce. It's not just the physical isolation of being stuck in the house with nothing to eat that's making Leigh feel terrible. It's Dad choosing not only to not be with Leigh but to give his attention to some other boy.
Quote #6
"Things weren't too happy at home with your grandfather drinking and all, so your Dad and I ran off to Las Vegas and got married. I enjoyed riding with him until you came along, and—well, by that time I had had enough of highways and truck stops. I stayed home with you, and he was gone most of the time." (39.11)
Mom found her ticket out of a bad family situation by running off to get married. In trying to escape from one kind of stuck-ness (we just made that word up), she ended up in another: married to a man who didn't want to grow up.