The second
book in the Ray Series, Working
for Ray takes up the story of the man from In
Light of Ray who has lost or thrown away everything
in his search for a meaningful life. Only gradually does he
begin to realize that he'd been looking in the wrong places
for the wrong answers.
Adopting
a child should be fairly straightforward, but Sam takes a
girl from Wreck Beach in Vancouver where her mother has abandoned
her, and their relationship is complicated by his circumstances
and her need. Sam is homeless and possibly suicidal and the
girl is traumatized by her abandonment and feelings of loss.
As
they travel together, her fears and anxiety combine with his
own feelings of disconnection in ways that both strengthen
and threaten their growing bond.
This fraught
relationship is further tangled by Ray's almost clairvoyant
intuition. From a distance, Ray seems to be orchestrating
their relationship and interfering in their future. Sam is
torn between the claustrophobia of Ray's strangely perceptive
concern and his wish to make a future from the vague remnants
of his own childhood.
For his
daughter's sake, Sam struggles to be the stable one in the
relationship, but his own problems are difficult to define.
As they try to work through their past on a cross-Canada trip,
it becomes less obvious who is healthy, and finally, as need
turns to love and Ray's influence weakens, what health might
mean to people who only have each other.