“Alice didn’t see much of anything today, until she passed by the house of Lord and Lady Montberclair. And even then it was not the stucco house she saw, or the trees or the fountain. In one of the little crystal balls of rainwater on her sleeve, just as she passed this fine house, she did see something, though. Alice hadn’t even meant to be looking at the drop of rain, let alone looking into it. It only lay there before her, on her sleeve, perched like a million other drops of rain. In it, Alice saw the image of a child in the river, some river, running water, anyway. She thought the child must have drowned.” (80)
Chapter 4 of Nordan’s Wolf Whistlecontains several seemingly random and puzzling scenes that, when analyzed, provide more insight about the characters and their relationships as well as potential foreshadowing. In particular, the scene depicting Alice’s vision, which is quoted above, suggests a foreshadowing of certain events to come. When Alice saw the image of a drowned child within the raindrop, she was passing the Montberclair’s house. Based on the fact that the vision came when walking by the Montberclair’s and Lady Montberclair had given Bobo a ride home, and also Runt saying that the Delta rivers are full of colored people, a reasonable assumption would be that the boy was none other than Bobo. And if the vision is in fact a reality and Bobo is actually found dead, it would not be hard to believe that he was murdered for whistling at Sally Anne. Because the vision occurred where it did, perhaps Lord Montberclair will have some sort of involvement if Bobo is murdered. I think Alice’s vision implies that she will have some sort of a connection with Bobo in the future, but I’m not sure how that will come to form.
