American Gods

Shadow drives Wednesday to Wisconsin on Christmas Eve. They stop at a diner, and Wednesday stares lecherously at a waitress who looks “scarcely old enough to have dropped out of high school” (156). As they eat, Wednesday talks about his favorite scams. After eating, Wednesday attempts to arrange a meeting with the waitress. Shadow warns that she is underage, and Wednesday does not care; he feels a need to sleep with a virgin to restore his energy. He gives Shadow a bus ticket and $1,000 to go to a small town in Wisconsin named Lakeside. There is an apartment in town where Shadow will hide out under the name Mike Ainsel. Wednesday, posing as Mike’s uncle Emerson Borson, will pick Shadow up in a week. Shadow returns to the discussion of scams and grifts. He notes that Wednesday’s favorites all involve two people. Wednesday laments that he once had a partner and now he doesn’t. When he clamps his hand on Shadow’s shoulder, Shadow has a vision of Wednesday in a different place, at a different time, wandering between snow-covered settlements to check on the people inside.

Shadow rides the bus to Lakeside. He sleeps and dreams again about the man with the buffalo head.