he had been red - haired , wandering along the middle aisle of the dark little market next to a man who just about had to be his father - same green-and-black-checked hunting jacket , more importantly the same carroty red hair , the man 's now thin enough to show the scalp underneath , and he had given them a look , the kind that says do n't you say nothing about my kid unless you want trouble , and of course neither of them had said anything , they had come the twenty or so miles from hole in the wall for beer and bread and hot dogs , not trouble , and besides , they had once known duddits , still knew duddits in a way - sent him christmas presents and birthday cards , anyway , duddits who had once been , in his own peculiar fashion , one of them .