The Power of One: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

When Peekay wakes up on the train in the morning, there’s a note from Hoppie pinned to his shirt. It contains 11 shillings—his wager and his winnings from the fight. It also contains Hoppie’s little nugget of wisdom, “First with the head and then with the heart, that’s how a man stays ahead from the start.” Peekay likes the sound of that. Gradually, he becomes aware that there’s someone else in the compartment, and when he looks over the edge of the bunk, he’s surprised to see Big Hettie, reeking of alcohol, passed out on the bunk below. Peekay climbs over her and visits the lavatory. When he comes back, she has fallen onto the floor and become wedged between the lower bunks. He’s trying to figure out what to do when the new conductor, a small, sanctimonious man named Pik Botha, enters the carriage.

Pik is irritated that Hoppie didn’t punch Peekay’s ticket, and he’s horrified to find Big Hettie on the floor. He sputters about others’ disregard for the rules as he takes Peekay—whose ticket includes meals on the second day of the trip—to the dining car for breakfast. Botha is really upset because he’d bet on Jackhammer and lost money on the fight, even though he also maintains that he’s morally opposed to gambling and fighting as a Christian. When Pik Botha returns Peekay to carriage, Big Hettie has regained consciousness. But, despite Peekay’s and Pik’s best efforts—ultimately aided by Hennie Venter, a friendly dining car waiter—she remains firmly wedged. She is more than six-and-a-half feet tall and hundreds of pounds, after all.

Hennie Venter brings Hettie breakfast, which she polishes off while still lying on the floor. Then she and Peekay talk about Hoppie and what it takes to make a truly great fighter. Brains are important, Hettie says, but so is the fuel of pure, blind hatred. She reminisces about a featherweight boxer who used to be her lover. Matched against bigger men, he’d almost always lose his fights, then get drunk and beat her. She’d let him because she wanted him to win sometimes, she says, and because violence is sometimes the price of love. When she gets hungry again, she has Peekay open the picnic basket she brought along and hand her the chocolate cake she has stashed inside. She stuffs it into her mouth nearly whole. She is clearly ashamed of not sharing, but Peekay senses she can’t help herself.

Finally, the train reaches Kaapmuiden, where Peekay will transfer to the branch line to Barberton. A group of railroad engineers enters the carriage and removes the lower bunks that have trapped Big Hettie, but she’s too heavy for them to lift. They go to fetch a pulley, and Peekay stays with his friend. But while they’re gone, she suffers a heart attack. Peekay shouts for help, and Hennie Venter runs to fetch a doctor, but it’s too late. Peekay holds Big Hettie’s hand, and in a few moments, she is dead.