times in the story where she vocally seems to favor one side over the other, and in both instances it is clear her decision is far from steady. In both instances, as well, he immediately follows by saying that he doesn't want her to go through with anything if she doesn't want to. They are both trying to set the difficult and painful choice on the other's shoulders so as to be free of the guilt that they seem to instinctually know will follow. He wants the decision to be hers, so he can be safe that it was her decision. She wants him to say with certainty that he wants her to go through with it, so she can not have to make the decision herself. Five times in the text she tries to place the burden of their choice's outcome on him, and both times she states that she will do it, she amends those declarations with the words "I don't care about me".In getting a murky, if not apathetic response from the girl, thus having no other recourse and not knowing what else to do, he carries forward the path on which they were already traveling. There is little else for him to do in this situation, as their mutual uncertainty leaves them in a state of perpetual stagnation. Picking up their heavy bags and carrying them to the other side of the station, the hopeful, bountiful side, with a shadow of a cloud moving across the field of grain, the symbolic setting of the story effects him as well. He looks up the tracks but does not see the train - which seems to add to his hesitation, as he doesn't return directly to the girl, but instead stops at the bar for a drink on his way back to their table. "He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train" (324). Reasonably is the focal word in that sentence, and stands out with striking contrast to the awkward emotions that seem to run through him in the moment. Leaving the bar in the next sentence, he returns to the girl at the table, who smiles at him with all...
