The Night Watchman

Wood Mountain takes Patrice into town to see a nurse, who tells her that she could have gone blind before giving her an ointment for her eyes. Afterwards, Patrice thinks about what being blind would have meant, saying, “What a terrible thing. I would lose my job. I couldn’t chop wood. I don’t know what else. I would miss all of everything” (341). Sensing Wood Mountain’s hope that she would miss seeing him too, she says that she would.

On the way home, she and Wood Mountain kiss, and he asks her to marry him. She doesn’t say anything, and she feels relieved that she didn’t commit to anything. He feels grateful she didn’t say no. She thinks about how she wanted to say yes.

Zhaanat believes that “[t]hings started going wrong […] when places everywhere were named for people—political figures, priests, explorers—and not for the real things that happened in these places—the dreaming, the eating, the death, the appearance of animals” (345). She thinks that this has caused plants to grow poorly and animals to stay away. Plus, “once people talked of taking land it was as good as gone” (344).

The two Mormon missionaries, tired of each other’s company, find refuge at Mrs. Hanson’s, a widow. They continue sharing a room.

Elnath thinks about how he saw Vernon sneak out to find Grace while they were at Louis’s house. He considers telling their superiors on Vernon but thinks about what would happen to him. He would be disgraced, and it would affect Vernon’s standing in the community. He decides to address it directly with him.

Patrice remembers getting into the car with Bucky and his friends and how they tried to rape her. She had been the one to suggest going to the lake, flirting to get them to comply. Once there, Bucky took her shoes so she couldn’t run, but she did anyway, diving in and swimming out to her uncle’s boat.

Eventually, she hears how Bucky’s face has physically changed and how the condition is spreading; she believes it is caused by her hatred for him.

Juggie tells Barnes to get over Patrice and offers to set him up with Valentine instead. The next day, she goes to see her and tells her that Barnes is tired of Patrice. Valentine says that Barnes can ask her himself, but then Juggie feigns changing her mind about the match.

The next day, Barnes tells Juggie that Valentine came and asked him out.

Thomas tells Rose that he saw Roderick on his way home from work, and so she decides to come with him that evening. There, he says that he’s going to take a break once the hearing in Washington is over, and she says that his routine can be hard on his family, to which he replies that he notices that. He is grateful for her, and she tells him to sleep, which he does.

Roderick watches Rose, thinking of how he worked in the bakery, where he could periodically steal extra food. Eventually, he was caught and was fired, “[s]o he no longer cared and all the bad he had resisted came right out” (361). That’s how he ended up getting in trouble, and, eventually, sick. He is tired of being a ghost.

Thomas wakes to find Rose sleeping. He starts writing letters again.

Vernon and Elnath have been reassigned and are leaving soon, which is good because Vernon sleepwalks, and he is worried that he will sleepwalk right back to Grace. One night, on his way home, he saw two people—Betty and Norbert—having sex and is “disappointed with himself for not having intervened to stop two souls from sinning. Now they were lost” (364).

Juggie finishes retyping a copy of Mille’s economic survey. She then tells Millie about how a man came to count “Indians,” and he knowingly only counted those that were “full-bloods,” reducing the number of people down drastically (366). As a result, there isn’t enough food or land. Millie notes: “The government was operating on a set of assumptions tantamount to wishful thinking […] I suspect as always they simply want our land” (366). Millie also thinks about her identity as an Indigenous person, especially since she had been raised away from the reservation.

This chapter takes an anonymous view of what’s happening in Turtle Mountain, beginning by asking, “On this night who is awake in the hills?” (369).

Millie continues copying her study while Vernon sleepwalks. Zhaanat rubs bear grease on the baby while Barnes is out with Valentine. LaBatte plays poker and discusses converting to Mormonism. Wood Mountain is asleep, as is Rose. Pixie purchases a watch from a magazine. Bucky walks home while Thomas continues his letters.

Roderick refuses to be assimilated. He followed his coffin home, but it was too long of a journey to make it to the afterlife in time. He had gone to Patrice’s father’s funeral to try to accompany him, but that didn’t work. He misses home.