The Secret History of Twin Peaks: A Novel by Mark Frost

Author:Mark Frost [Frost, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Published: 2016-10-17T16:00:00+00:00

After speaking with all the principals, I believe I’ve discovered why Big Ed and Norma, who were so obviously in love, never married. Again, I find Hank Jennings is responsible. Here’s how:

With American involvement in the Vietnam War at an all-time peak, Big Ed Hurley enlisted in the Army after graduation and headed out of town for basic training. Everyone assumed that Norma and Ed would marry first, but Big Ed--displaying a tendency to hesitate at crucial personal moments that never showed up on the football field--neglected to pop the question before embarking for Fort Dix. Norma hadn’t yet realized that reticence was as much a piece of Big Ed as his inability to articulate his reasons for it. Sweet-natured Norma, who’d stuttered as a child and suffered from low self-esteem, simply assumed she wasn’t good enough. That fall Big Ed left the States to begin a two-year hitch in the command HQ motor pool in Saigon.

With Big Ed out of the picture, Hank--who’d gone out with Norma briefly during junior year--began circling his prey. Hank’s own mother, Jolene, had been one of the original Double R waitresses, and he’d worked there himself all through high school--where Norma was now pulling shifts on the weekends while attending community college--so they’d known each other all their lives.

Hank approached her as a friend who shared her sorrow at the absence of Big Ed. That struck a chord with Norma. Like any good sociopath, Hank could simulate sincere emotions, without actually feeling them; with Norma, “empathy” and “sincerity” went a long way. Hank was also patient and armed with a surplus of dirty money, which he wasn’t shy about using to impress her. Norma grew to like the attention and by November they’d progressed from weekly lunches to occasional dinners, and then Norma invited Hank over to the house for Thanksgiving.

Norma claimed later that by then the daily letters she’d been getting from Big Ed by military post had stopped; she hadn’t heard a word from him for over six weeks. A period during which Big Ed later said he dropped her a line every day, addressed to the diner, and couldn’t figure out why his best girl wasn’t writing him back. It wasn’t in Big Ed’s nature to write his friends back home to check on Norma. Ed assumed the worst, that he wasn’t good enough and her affections had changed. I believe it’s because, at this point, you could add a felony charge of “tampering with the U.S. mail” to Hank’s criminal résumé.

Big Ed was supposed to come home for Christmas leave, but since he hadn’t heard from Norma he canceled the trip. He wrote one last letter asking for clarity, but Norma never got it, so while Ed spent the holiday drowning his sorrows in a Saigon PX, Norma was in the arms of Hank Jennings at the annual tree-lighting ceremony in the Twin Peaks town square. That night, as the townsfolk sang carols and a fresh sprinkling of snow

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