In the chap­ter “Eleven: Joe” from “The Berry Pick­ers,” Joe finds him­self in a lim­i­nal space between real­i­ty and dreams, grap­pling with mem­o­ries and regrets as he inter­acts with his estranged wife, Cora, and their daugh­ter, Leah. Joe awak­ens to Leah bring­ing Cora to see him, bring­ing a flood of emo­tions as they con­front the years that have sep­a­rat­ed them. Joe’s obser­va­tions of Cora reveal the pas­sage of time – her aging fea­tures remind him of their once-vibrant love.

As they engage in uneasy con­ver­sa­tion, Joe attempts to apol­o­gize for the wrongs he has com­mit­ted but strug­gles with express­ing him­self. Cora can­did­ly acknowl­edges the pain he has caused and asserts that his fail­ures are in the past. Joe reflects on his long absence — believ­ing Leah was bet­ter off with­out him, even when tragedy struck their fam­i­ly. Cora press­es him on why he nev­er came home, espe­cial­ly after learn­ing about Leah’s exis­tence, prompt­ing feel­ings of guilt and inad­e­qua­cy.

The nar­ra­tive then shifts to Joe’s mem­o­ries of run­ning away after a vio­lent inci­dent that left last­ing scars. He dri­ves aim­less­ly through var­i­ous Cana­di­an land­scapes, seek­ing to escape his past. His jour­ney leads him through moments of des­per­a­tion, includ­ing a stop at a truck stop for a show­er, attempt­ing to cleanse the blood on his jeans but unable to cleanse his spir­it. Here, Joe recalls fleet­ing encoun­ters and a grow­ing sense of lone­li­ness, marked by inter­ac­tions with strangers that high­light his inner tur­moil.

Joe recalls a sig­nif­i­cant meet­ing with a woman in the grass­lands, who chal­lenges his per­cep­tions about him­self and his her­itage. She offers a per­spec­tive that pro­motes self-for­give­ness, steer­ing him to acknowl­edge the nar­ra­tive of his own painful his­to­ry with­out label­ing him­self as inher­ent­ly flawed.

By the chap­ter’s end, as Joe recounts his con­tin­u­ing jour­ney away from home, a dia­logue with Leah under­scores his endur­ing absence. Leah’s pres­ence evokes a sense of long­ing for famil­ial con­nec­tion that he feels he has for­feit­ed. Ulti­mate­ly, the chap­ter reflects on themes of regret, iden­ti­ty, and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of redemp­tion woven through the haunt­ing tapes­try of mem­o­ry and loss.