Half-Blood Blues

Signs that Sid is uncomfortable with his past appear from the start. His recollection of the day that Hiero was captured by the Nazis foregrounds Sid’s insecurities, including his sense that he could or should have intervened. Meanwhile, some of the elderly Sid’s comments take on extra significance in light of his own regrets. When he is “shocked” to see “a disease long-conquered showing up in [Chip’s] features,” we can only assume that he’s also thinking of himself in his subsequent observation that “it’s like that, I guess, when the past come to collect what you owe” (22). A passing comment from a cab driver about living without regrets also strikes him. Later, at the premiere of the documentary, which promises to take him into the past, a “strange dark feeling” (55) of foreboding overwhelms him. Similarly, his entire journey to visit Hiero is marked by a mounting sense of dread.

Yet Sid’s search for resolution is not fruitless. At one point on their way to meet Hiero, Chip reminds Sid, “It’s early yet. It’s always early, while you still alive” (194). When he finally reunites with Hiero and realizes that Hiero knows nothing of his regrettable actions, Sid must decide whether to confess.