Chapter 19

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.

Page numbers refer to editions with 369 pages, where the story begins on page 1. Not sure if there are other editions with variant pagination. Please let us know otherwise.

Page 340

Doc had been on the phone...around noon
Midday Wednesday, May 6, 1970.

It was toward sunset
Early evening, May 6, 1970.

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a mural depicting the arrival of the Portola expedition in 1769 at a bend of the river near what became downtown L.A.
A real or imagined mural?

The pictorial style reminded Doc of labels on fruit and vegetable crates
Southern California used to be full of fruit/vegetable orchards. And local farms would develop their own crate labels. Here are some examples.

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St. John's Episcopal Church
Since 2008 referred to as St. John's Cathedral. The reference may seem odd, as the church is now - and was in 1970 - a very liberal one. Of course, Crocker Fenway would have been married there in the 1940s, before its transformation from "an upper-level parish church controlled by businessmen" had occurred.

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Wikimedia Commons

Patek Philippe moonphase
An expensive watch, obviously: characteristics include a high value and a very complex and precise mechanism. Crocker Fenway's watch would, today, fetch a significant price: a 1968 watch (with some unusual characteristics) went for over $183,000 at a Christie's auction in November 2008. Older, and particularly rare, models have sold for over a million dollars.

Parking lot at the May Company shopping mall...tomorrow evening.
This conversation happens the evening of Wednesday May 6, 1970.

Doc brought Denis along
Evening, Thursday May 7, 1970. May 7 is the Feast of the Ascension in 1970. Jesus Christ, having been resurrected, returns bodily to heaven on this day.

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1953 Buick Estate Wagon

Photo from Wikipedia