On the Road

Back in New York, alone and depressed, Sal travels to Denver in the spring to work in a fruit market. However, the hard work doesn’t appeal to him, and he quickly becomes lonely because all his friends have left the city. As he walks through the streets, he envies the simple and happy lives of the people who have immigrated to Denver from Mexico, Japan, and elsewhere. He tries to picture Dean and his other friends as children in Denver. One evening, he attends a community softball game in which kids from different ethnic backgrounds play together. Sal envies their happiness. Shortly thereafter, he spends an evening with a well-off woman he knows, who gives him enough money to get to San Francisco. 

Dean is living with Camille in a house in San Francisco when Sal shows up at their door in the early morning hours. Dean answers the door naked. He welcomes Sal into the house and talks about his life: He now works as a mechanic but still often thinks about Marylou. He worries that she has seen many men since he left her and complains that she married a used car salesman. Dean was so concerned about Marylou that in a drug-induced stupor, he contemplated killing her or himself (but did not).