Three Day Road

Niska prepares a sweat lodge to try and heal Xavier. He is so weak that she wonders if he will even survive the night. To try and keep him conscious, she tells him a story about himself. In the story, she sees Xavier in visions even before he comes to live with her. Their first winter together, she takes him hunting, and they follow the tracks of a bull moose. At one point, they are separated, and though Xavier follows the tracks he sees, he comes to realize that they are the moose’s tracks, not Niska’s. Though he is afraid, he keeps following the tracks. He tracks the moose, but when he allows himself to become too confident, the moose flees from him, as if sensing his cockiness.

Xavier is afraid, but he remembers the stories he has been told about fear consuming people, and so he trudges on. At one point, he witnesses the rare mating dance of the grouse, which confirms for him the symbolism of the circle, and how all of life is connected. He then shoots and kills a grouse, and as he prepares to cook it, Niska appears, revealing that she has been watching him all along and that he will make a fine hunter. They later track the bull moose and kill it, then invite other bush Indians to share the meat. When Xavier reenacts the mating dance, the rest of the Indians follow him in the dance, and he receives the nickname “Little Bird Dancer.”

Throughout the telling, Xavier is delirious, crying out the names of his friends who have died in the war. Niska feeds him, and realizes that he is halfway between life and death. When she finished the story, however, she sees that Xavier is still alive. She drifts off and tries to dream what he dreams. She sees Xavier and other soldiers running from fear. When they look back to see the fear, it is Elijah.

In “Dying”, Xavier awakens and finds that he feels better. Niska has been telling him about a time before Elijah joined them. Now Xavier realizes that he cannot escape Elijah, and so thinks back to their final day together. The C.O. hatches a plan that is ill-prepared, and that will send many men to their deaths. Xavier is visibly upset, which is unusual as he is known as the silent one. In his anger, he rips off his ID tags and tosses them into a field. The offensive begins, and many of the men die, leaving Fat, Elijah, Xavier and some others pinned down. Elijah is left in command, and sees a crater that he and Xavier can make it to. From the crater, they can take down the machine gunners.

Elijah and Xavier make it to the crater, though Xavier is shot in the arm in the process. Elijah seems to be in his element, and even calls the moment “beautiful.” Elijah is erratic in his shooting, and is acting even stranger than usual. Xavier can see that he is truly mad. Elijah tells Xavier that he was always the better shot, surprising Xavier, and then tells Xavier to leave, that one of them can make it out alive. Xavier is shocked. Elijah then tries to hug Xavier, but Xavier pushes him back. This angers Elijah, and he tries to hug Xavier again. The two end up fighting, and Xavier pins Elijah down and tries to suffocate him. Elijah reacts and strikes out, then tries suffocating Xavier. Xavier hits him with the butt of a rifle, then manages to straddle Elijah again and commences strangling him with the rifle. This time, he kills Elijah, and then takes the contents of Elijah’s pockets, including his ID tags. When he crawls out of the crater, overcome with grief at what he has done to his best friend, a shell lands and sends him flying.

Xavier ends up in hospital; he eventually realizes that his leg is gone. Overcome with pain, he is given more and more morphine. He discovers why Elijah liked the drug so much. He feels numb to the pain and sadness. Xavier must learn to walk with crutches, and learns that he has been mistaken for Elijah. He is confused, angry that Elijah seems to be playing a trick on him even in death, but then remembers that he threw his own ID tags away and took Elijah’s after killing him. He is considered a war hero now, though everyone thinks he is Elijah. He is discharged from the hospital, given passage home and an envelope of morphine.

“Home” returns to the present, Niska prepares a sweat lodge, which the two of them enter. Niska hopes that Xavier is strong enough to endure the ritual. Inside, Niska sees visions of Elijah and Xavier leaving for war, and darker visions of them fighting, of the death leveled upon the earth, of inhumane ways of killing. During the third round, Niska finds herself consumed by Xavier’s pain, which seeks to infect her as well. She keeps praying and refuses to let the pain in. Suddenly, the two find themselves in the presence of a third, and Niska realizes that it is Elijah’s spirit. He is neither angry nor serene, but talks with Xavier, who apologizes for killing him. After a time, Elijah’s spirit departs. Niska and Xavier crawl into the lodge once more, and this time Niska sees a vision of the future, of happy children, of herself looking down from above. They then leave the lodge and lie on the beach, knowing they will be home by the next day.