Three Day Road

In “My Father”, Niska notes that Xavier slept outside the night before. She senses his pain, and sees that he is taking morphine. She wishes she knew which herbs would heal him, but realizes that his body has been destroyed in Europe and that she does not know how to heal him of his affliction. She remembers her father, who was a great storyteller. His stories were what kept the tribe alive during the toughest times. Niska decides to tell Xavier a story from her childhood in the hopes of keeping him alive.

At the time, nearly thirty Anishnabe Indians live together in Hudson Bay’s harsh North Country. As winter approaches, Niska feels that a curse has been placed upon the tribe. She has already begun to have shaking fits, which indicate she had the gift of vision, like her father. In time, the group’s hunters return with no game. The hunters are worried, and Niska listens in secret as they consult her father. Eventually, things become so bad that the hunters kill a bear, angering those from the bear tribe. Niska’s mother and father must prepare a special ceremony for honoring and killing the bear, then the group feasts on the bear meat, taking great care to respect every part of the animal lest it return to haunt them.

One day, a young hunter named Micah takes his wife and child out into the bush alone as he thinks he might fare better. When his wife looks for him one morning, she finds him dead. Facing starvation, the wife eats her own husband’s flesh and feeds some to her child. The wife returns to the group, though Niska’s parents immediately know something is wrong. The woman eventually descends into madness, and it is confirmed that she is turning windigo from the act of eating human flesh. Niska’s father is tasked with killing the woman and her child to protect everyone else. Niska watches and her father later explains that he let her watch because one day she might have to do the same thing. The event triggers Niska’s period, which marks her entry into womanhood. However, the coincidence between the death of the windigo and Niska’s entry into womanhood marks her as strange in the eyes of the tribe. As a result, she keeps to herself and remains quiet.

Spring returns and the clans come together again. Niska’s clan learns that the wemistikoshiw (the Cree name for white men) have heard about her father killing the woman and child, and are upset. They want to talk with her father about the matter. Though the Cree all shrug this development off, soldiers arrive and take Niska’s father away. They later learn that he has died, though they are not given the body. Niska then notes that she is the second to last windigo killer now, but that there is still one more. Niska says that, even as a child, she saw visions of destruction, of a great many men being killed. In these visions, men rose from the earth, satiated by killing, like windigo.

“Fire” begins when Xavier awakens in the canoe and realizes that he and Niska are in the same place where he and Elijah once almost died in a fire. He sees the fire line, and flashes back to the event. He and Elijah are traveling to enlist in the army, and have gone further from home than they ever have before. They notice a great fire raging in the bush, but it is burning in the opposite direction, so Elijah says they have nothing to worry about. They make camp, and when Xavier is awakened by Elijah kicking him, he sees that they are surrounded by flames. The wind has changed course, and the fire consumes everything around them. They make it to the river, though they are still unable to move due to the smoke and ash. All they can do is hold on to the canoe and try and stop it from catching fire. Amidst all the chaos and possibility of death, Xavier notices that Elijah seems to be enjoying the destruction, which worries Xavier. The two find a sandbank and sleep, though the fire is still devastating everything around them. They eventually make it away from the fire which has burned out. They wonder if the fire has reached as far as their home. Xavier asks if they will separate the two of them, and Elijah says resolutely that the army had better not try to separate them.

In “Raiding Party”, Xavier awakes in the trenches and realizes that the Germans have just conducted a trench raid, killing some of the Canadians and dampening the spirits of others. A soldier, Gerald, is blamed for falling asleep at his post and subsequently disappears. Meanwhile, Corporal Thompson teaches Elijah and Xavier more about surviving in the trenches. The battalion later learns that Gerald was in fact court-marshaled and shot. The soldiers are sent back to the trenches and warned about the enemy’s use of gas. Xavier notes that Grey Eyes is a morphine addict, and that Elijah seems drawn to the medicine.

The battalion is sent to the Saint-Eloi craters. One night, Xavier and Elijah are selected for a raiding party. The party from the previous night hasn’t returned, however, so the soldiers are on edge. The party is tasked with seeing which craters are theirs and which belong to the Germans (Fritz). The party goes into no man’s land, and begins crater hopping. They make it to their target, and find an injured Canadian soldier, whom they manage to get out of the crater as the Germans begin shelling them. They head for better cover, moving closer to the German line. They make it to a parapet and trenches, and make camp. As night descends, the group decides it is safe to head back. Elijah takes an old German helmet, and as they leave, they throw Mills bombs into the trench as a few German soldiers enter. Graves then shoots the German soldiers with a machine gun, while Xavier wonders at how easily he kills. The next day, Thompson asks Elijah how he likes killing, and Elijah replies that “it’s in my blood” (69). Xavier wonders at Elijah’s answer, but also wonders why Thompson does not ask him the same question.

In “Learning”, Xavier is dealing with the effects of morphine, which includes anger and his subsequent remorse for lashing out at Niska. He talks about the strangeness of seeing fields, where countless soldiers died, bloom again with red flowers. He flashes back to the war and the trenches, and recalls when he, Elijah and Thompson return from the crater raid. He is at a loss, wondering if he has killed someone. Elijah is happy, however, and has brought back a German helmet as a souvenir. He parades around with the helmet on, brags and speaks in a British accent. Xavier realizes that Elijah has become a hero to the other soldiers, even though Xavier knows that Elijah, too, was scared during the raid. Xavier relates how Lieutenant Breech, whom the men call Bastard Breech, hates him, and how Elijah is partly to blame. Due to Xavier’s limited grasp of English, Elijah taught him how to ask Breech that he be allowed to sleep outside with the animals. He does not say the phrase correctly, thus making him seem haughty, and angering Breech.

Grey Eyes tempts Elijah with morphine, but Elijah refuses. Xavier sees that Elijah is interested, though; Elijah’s eyes “told me all I needed to know” (74). Xavier notes that Grey Eyes appears dead when he takes the medicine, though sometimes he can function. Meanwhile, Sean Patrick is proving himself to be a good shot, and Gilberto wants nothing to do with taking chances. Although, the battalion is soon relieved, Xavier can sense that something big is going to take place soon. Thompson begins to teach Elijah and Xavier the art of sniping, and they realize that they enjoy it. Xavier says that they are made for it. It is essentially hunting, so they both have the skill set. One night when they are out, Xavier spots a German soldier rebuilding his section of trench. He calls out the location and Elijah shoots the soldier. Xavier throws up, though Elijah seems elated.