“On Little Terry Road” by Tom Franklin was an extraordinary read. The damsel in distress and its parallel of using Dibbs as a scapegoat was a cunning and vicious turn of events. It was a fun and abnormal technique wielded by the author to elicit a visceral response in the reader. I was struck by the relationship between Dibbs and Ferriday. The utter desperation that Dibbs feels towards Ferriday and the lengths to which he will go to help her are intriguing and beguiling. In a way, Dibbs is a dangerous and desperate man with a compulsive need to help his stepdaughter.
As the relationship between Dibbs and Ferriday unfolded, I was enraptured by the backstory that Franklin revealed. Learning that Dibbs was technically Ferriday’s stepfather through his marriage to Barbara, I became more apprehensive of their frankly inappropriate relationship. Ferriday and Dibbs exhibit signs of sexual tension between the two, particularly from Dibbs’ side. It was hard to determine if Ferriday was genuinely attracted to Dibbs or if she was manipulating his repressed feelings to her benefit – perhaps it was both.
While a common cliche, Dibbs’ torment was that of a law enforcement officer forced to choose between the law and his desperate loved ones. The reader is lured into Dibbs’ dilemma as he attempts to compartmentalize the situation and justify his actions. The whole story is magnified the moment that Dibbs goes from an enforcer of the law to a criminal. The second that he walks into the house without calling it in, he commits a crime; however, if he called it in, he’d either have to tell the supervisors the truth and expose his stepdaughter to the consequences of her actions, or continue to lie and hope he doesn’t get caught. Dibbs chooses to enter the house and in the eyes of the law, becomes a criminal.
The final page of the short story was mind-blowing to me. The pure brutal way in which Dibbs leaves Little Terry to die knowing it’s likely that Ferriday used him to get away with her crime. The idea that Dibbs was okay with Ferriday using him as long as he felt that he could help or maybe he was enjoying the fact that she was asking for his help highlighted the lengths at which Dibbs was willing to go for Ferriday. Nonetheless, the fact that Dibbs sat there smoking a cigarette and waiting until he was sure that Terry was dead shows that he feels that he must save Ferriday from her actions.