The Crossing
Chapters - Cormac McCarthy
Part: Part I
Section: Early Years
Billy Parham and his younger brother Boyd grow up on their family's ranch in the Peloncillo Mountains of Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Billy watches wolves on the winter plain as a boy and keeps the experience secret. When Boyd is fourteen, they encounter a wandering Indian by the river who demands food and coffee. Their father Mr Parham discovers a she-wolf has crossed from Mexico and is killing cattle. He and Billy ride to the SK Bar ranch to borrow wolf traps from the absent trapper Echols, and they boil, wax, and set the traps across the high country.
On page: Billy Parham, Boyd Parham, Mr Parham, Mrs Parham, Mr Sanders·Mentioned: Mr Echols
Section: The Wolf Hunt
The she-wolf systematically digs out and springs every trap Billy and his father set, outwitting them at each turn. Billy visits an old Mexican man named Don Arnulfo who once knew Echols, and the old man speaks philosophically about wolves and the impossibility of truly knowing them. Billy studies the wolf's habits and finally constructs a set based on the old man's cryptic advice, placing a trap where 'iron is already in the earth.' He catches the pregnant she-wolf alive and resolves not to kill her but to take her back to the mountains of Mexico where she came from.
On page: Billy Parham, Boyd Parham, Don Arnulfo, Mr Parham
Section: Crossing into Mexico
Billy sets out alone with the wolf on a rope, crossing the international border into Sonora. He stops at a ranch where a kind rancher and his wife help treat the wolf's injured leg and give Billy supplies for the journey. He travels south through the mountains and desert, camping with the wolf chained beside him, speaking to her and feeling her unborn pups move beneath her skin.
On page: Billy Parham, The Carretero
Section: The Wolf Seized
Billy arrives at a small Mexican settlement and falls in with a caravan of country people heading to a fair at Colonia Morelos. At the fair he discovers the wolf has been seized and put on display in a cart as a man-eating curiosity. Before he can reclaim her, a local strongman called the alguacil arrives with a hunting party and dogs, and the carretero flees with the wolf. The dogs give chase, and the wolf is eventually taken to the alguacil's hacienda and chained in a stable. Billy follows and finds the wolf, but he is powerless to free her.
On page: Billy Parham, The Carretero, The Alguacil
Part: Part II
Section: Wandering and Return
The alguacil stages a spectacle in which the wolf is set upon by dogs in a pit while the locals wager on the fight. Billy watches in horror as the wolf fights the dogs. Unable to bear it, he leaps into the ring and shoots the wolf with a borrowed rifle to end her suffering. He carries her body away and buries her in the mountains. He returns home to New Mexico to find the family ranch dark and abandoned - his parents have been murdered and their horses stolen while he was gone.
On page: Billy Parham·Mentioned: Mr Parham, Mrs Parham
Section: Billy and Boyd Reunite
Billy rides to Lordsburg and finds Boyd, who has been placed with neighbours. They reunite, both now orphans. Boyd is fierce and guarded, carrying the trauma of their parents' murder. They set out together to recover the family's stolen horses, crossing into Mexico a second time and riding south into the border country.
On page: Billy Parham, Boyd Parham, The girl, The Heretic of Caborca
Section: Recovering Keno
Billy and Boyd track down their family's horses and recover the horse Keno from the men who stole it. They ride through the Mexican countryside, encountering various people and taking work where they can find it, always searching for the remaining stolen horses.
On page: Billy Parham, Boyd Parham
Section: The Girl
The brothers encounter a young Mexican girl who has been beaten and abandoned on the road. Boyd is drawn to her immediately. They take her with them and she travels in their company. Boyd becomes increasingly devoted to the girl while Billy grows worried about the trouble she may bring.
On page: Billy Parham, Boyd Parham, The girl
Part: Part III
Section: At the Hacienda
Billy and Boyd work at a hacienda in Mexico, seeking to recover the last of their stolen horses. The girl stays with them. Boyd has become reckless and defiant, and tensions between the brothers deepen as Boyd takes greater risks and grows closer to the girl.
On page: Billy Parham, Boyd Parham, The girl, Quijada
Section: Boyd Is Shot
Boyd is shot by men pursuing them after a confrontation over the stolen horses. The bullet strikes him and he falls from his horse. Billy manages to get his wounded brother to safety and seeks help from local people.
On page: Billy Parham, Boyd Parham, Quijada, The Blind Revolucionario
Section: The Doctor and Recovery
Billy finds a doctor to treat Boyd's gunshot wound. Boyd lies gravely ill while Billy tends to him and waits. The girl stays and helps care for Boyd during his slow and uncertain recovery.
On page: Billy Parham, Boyd Parham, The girl
Section: Boyd Vanishes
Boyd recovers enough to travel but vanishes one night with the girl, leaving Billy behind. Billy searches for them but cannot find them. He is left alone in Mexico, abandoned by the brother he came to save. He eventually returns to the United States alone.
On page: Billy Parham, Quijada·Mentioned: Boyd Parham, The girl
Part: Part IV
Section: The War and Rejection
Billy tries to enlist in the army after Pearl Harbour but is rejected due to a heart murmur. He drifts through the war years working odd jobs and ranch work. He remains haunted by the loss of Boyd and his failure to bring him home.
On page: Billy Parham·Mentioned: Boyd Parham
Section: Third Crossing
Billy crosses into Mexico a third time, searching for Boyd. He travels through the countryside hearing fragments of corridos - folk ballads - about a young American gunfighter and his Mexican girl. He learns that Boyd has become a figure of legend among the people, but that he is dead.
On page: Billy Parham, Quijada·Mentioned: Boyd Parham, The girl
Section: Exhuming Boyd
Billy locates Boyd's grave in Mexico and exhumes his brother's bones. He wraps the remains and loads them onto a horse for the long journey home, determined to bury Boyd in their family's country in New Mexico.
On page: Billy Parham, Quijada·Mentioned: Boyd Parham
Section: Ash Wednesday
Billy carries Boyd's remains across the border and buries him in a cemetery at Animas, New Mexico, on Ash Wednesday. The sheriff helps him obtain a death certificate. Afterwards Billy drifts through ranch work across New Mexico and Arizona. Months later, sheltering in an abandoned waystation, he drives away a crippled dog and weeps in the road. He wakes before dawn to a strange darkening and brightening of the sky - a new and terrible light on the world he has known.
On page: Billy Parham·Mentioned: Boyd Parham