The Simple Gift: Chapter 8: Closing In Summary & Analysis

Old Bill and this town. Every day, Old Bill now wakes up early and eats a proper breakfast before taking long walks. Sometimes he goes to the river with Billy to wash and swim; other times he walks through town looking at the houses, shops, parks, and people going about their lives. Sometimes, even, people nod and smile and say hello as if Old Bill is one of them instead of “an old drunk.” And every day, he walks back to his train car planning the next day’s walk, and where he will go to keep from thinking about getting drunk.

Nothing’s easy. Old Bill complains to Billy that whenever his walks take him past a pub, his hands start shaking with desire to get drunk. Billy reminds him that nothing is easy and suggests that he just stop walking by pubs. Old Bill agrees that nothing is easy.

Closing in. One day in town, two police officers stop Billy and ask him a lot of questions. They clearly suspect he’s a runaway or a truant from school and they don’t buy his story that he’s 18 and just staying with a friend in Bendarat while on his way out west. The older police officer gives Billy the card of a local welfare officer and says he’ll be waiting for Billy there at 4:00 the following afternoon. If Billy doesn’t show up and the officer never sees him again, he'll know that Billy has moved on like he said. But if Billy doesn’t show and the officer finds him in town again, he will have more questions, and he will want answers. Billy agrees and flees back to his train car where it feels like the walls are closing in on him.

Old Bill’s long walk. The same day, Old Bill walks past Jessie’s old school. Since he saw it last, it has a new coat of paint and a new library. He watches the children playing at recess. One little girl starts to climb a tree in the playground and Old Bill is just about to say something to her when a teacher calls her back down to the ground. His hands start to shake, and he must walk home with care, scrupulously avoiding routes that take him past any pubs.

Early, or late. Early the next morning, Billy carries breakfast and coffee to Old Bill only to find his friend awake and shaving. They sit together over breakfast in the sunshine and Billy tells Old Bill about the police and the welfare officer. Billy doesn’t know what to do. He thinks that moving on is the only answer, but he doesn’t want to leave the first place he’s ever felt at home. And he doesn’t want to leave Caitlin.

Home. Old Bill promises to help Billy out of his bind. Then he leaves his young friend in the Freight Yard to go on a long walk around the familiar streets and through the suburbs of Bendarat, with their neatly painted and landscaped houses.

So obvious. Old Bill walks for hours until he finds himself on Wellington Road across from his house—from Jessie’s house. He wishes he could have a drink to help him make up his mind, but he knows that Billy doesn’t have much time. The solution is so simple, and so obvious—but so painful it makes Old Bill tremble.

To help people. Looking at his house, Old Bill remembers the time when an eight-year-old Jessie rescued an injured parrot. They wrapped it in a soft towel and put it in a box. She nursed the bird for two days, keeping it warm and feeding it sugar syrup, until it recovered enough to fly away. As she watched it flutter up and perch in the trees, she turned to Old Bill and told him that she wanted to be a vet when she grew up so that she could care for other animals and “help people.”

Peace. Old Bill unlatches the gate and lets himself into the overgrown backyard. A pair of swallows are nesting in the rafters of the verandah. Before retrieving the lawnmower from the shed and addressing the knee-high grass, Old Bill sits and enjoys the sunlight filtering through the tree branches onto the peaceful verandah and watching the swallows swoop in to feed their babies. When he feels ready, he gets to work.

The neighbors. The next-door neighbors don’t know Old Bill, and they come over to introduce themselves and chat. He tells them he owns the house but lives elsewhere and that a family friend (Billy) will move in soon to take care of it. The house, Old Bill explains, is too big for an old man like him. Finally satisfied by his answers, the neighbors eventually wander off.

War. During History class, Caitlin looks out the window and sees Billy across the road, looking despondent. She longs to run to him, embrace him and go back to the train car with him. She wants to embrace the hippy slogan and make love not war, and she feels like a prisoner of war sitting inside and learning about the Vietnam War while Billy sits in the park needing her.

Not moving. All morning, Billy sits outside of Bendarat Grammar School, wishing for Caitlin to walk out of the gates so they can run away together to a place where no nosy welfare officers ask you uncomfortable questions plastered over with a thin show of friendliness. He waits to hear Old Bill’s plan, too, but he guesses that Old Bill will just give Billy whatever money he has left from the cannery and put him on a train to elsewhere like he’s a bad cowboy being run out of town by the sheriff. 

Old Bill’s suit and tie. Before meeting up with Billy again, Old Bill stops at the Salvation Army store and buys a clean shirt, pants, and tie. He stuffs his old clothes into a plastic bag and walks out looking like a businessman.

Near. Old Bill walks quickly—mowing the lawn, buying the new outfit, and getting the electric service reestablished to the house took longer than he expected. By the time he rounds a corner and sees Billy, he’s exhausted. But, catching sight of the forlorn teenager, a sense of pride—something he hasn’t felt in years—reinvigorates Old Bill.

All that knowledge. Once upon a time, Old Bill dressed in suits and ties and worked in the city as a lawyer. He made a lot of money. But all his knowledge and training couldn’t stop Jessie from falling out of the tree and dying, couldn’t stop his wife from dying, and didn’t stop him from drinking to forget his past life. But today he’s using his old knowledge to help Billy assert his legal rights and to make sure he has a safe place to stay.

Old and young. Old Bill offers to buy Billy coffee to show his gratitude for all the breakfasts Billy has shared. Billy comes along reluctantly—he wants to wait for Caitlin to get out of school so he can tell her about his predicament. In the coffee shop, Old Bill notices the first signs of defeat in Billy’s eyes and feels certain that he made the right decision. He tells Billy his plan all at once.

Old Bill’s plan. Old Bill’s plan is to tell the welfare officer that Billy lives at the house on Wellington Road mostly alone. Old Bill is a family friend helping him out as Billy makes his escape from a dangerous alcoholic father and figures out whether he wants to go back to school or find a job. He and Billy will talk nonstop and not let the welfare officer get a word or a question in edgewise. Afterward, they’ll go straight to the house so Billy can start his new life.

Billy. Billy holds the keys to the house in his hands as he listens to Old Bill reiterate the plan, trying to convince himself and Billy that it will work. Billy feels hopeful that it will work, but he also feels incredibly sad because he knows that Old Bill is giving him more than just a place to stay, and he worries that taking the gift will leave Old Bill with nothing left to hold on to.

Caitlin. Caitlin rushes out of the building after school, but Billy has left the park. She goes to the train car, but he isn’t there either. She knows something is wrong. She walks home, making plans to return to the train car after her shift that night with apple pies and coffee so she can listen about Billy’s problem.

Liars. Luckily, the police office doesn’t stick around after making sure that Billy shows up for his appointment with the welfare officer. The welfare officer asks a lot of questions, but Old Bill is a great liar. He convinces the officer that Billy is 18, that he lives in a normal house with a responsible adult, and that he’s getting his life in order. The welfare officer shakes Billy’s hand and wishes him luck. But Billy knows he doesn’t need it—he’s already as lucky as can be. In the bright sunshine outside, Billy asks Old Bill how he got so good at lying, and Old Bill says he used to do it for a living.