Summary: A Yellow Raft in Blue Water: A Novel

The sto­ry is nar­rat­ed through the expe­ri­ences of Ray­ona, Chris­tine, and Ida, three unique Native Amer­i­can women. It begins with Ray­ona at the hos­pi­tal, play­ing cards with her fre­quent­ly hos­pi­tal­ized moth­er, Chris­tine. Chris­tine, who strug­gles with alco­holism, fre­quent­ly argues with Ray­on­a’s father, Elgin. One par­tic­u­lar dis­pute push­es Ray­ona to wan­der into the park­ing lot, where she catch­es Chris­tine try­ing to break into their car to cause an acci­dent for the insur­ance mon­ey. Ray­ona foils this plan, and they depart from Seat­tle, head­ing toward Christine’s child­hood home on a reser­va­tion in Montana.

Their car breaks down near their des­ti­na­tion, forc­ing them to walk the remain­ing dis­tance. Upon arrival, they are met with a cold recep­tion from Christine’s moth­er, Ida, whom they both refer to as Aunt Ida. Chris­tine aban­dons Ray­ona with Ida and leaves. Ray­ona strug­gles to find accep­tance on the reser­va­tion; she faces ridicule for her dark com­plex­ion and only finds solace at the local mis­sion, where Father Tom con­vinces her to join a reli­gious youth group called the God Squad. Father Tom invites Ray­ona to a reli­gious event, lead­ing to a stop for a swim at Bearpaw Lake, dur­ing which Father Tom behaves inap­pro­pri­ate­ly towards Ray­ona. They decide to return to the reser­va­tion, but Ray­ona dreams of going back to Seat­tle. Though Father Tom arranges a train tick­et for her, Ray­ona pur­pose­ful­ly miss­es the train and spends the night by the tracks. The next day, she meets Sky, a gas sta­tion work­er, and through him, she secures a jan­i­to­r­i­al job at Bearpaw Lake State Park. Ray­ona fab­ri­cates a false fam­i­ly back­ground, claim­ing her par­ents are away, until Eve­lyn, Sky’s wife, dis­cov­ers the truth and plans to return her to the reser­va­tion. How­ev­er, Ray­ona is con­vinced they can find her moth­er at a local rodeo. At the rodeo, Ray­ona ends up par­tic­i­pat­ing after sub­sti­tut­ing for a drunk rid­er named Foxy Cree. Her excep­tion­al per­for­mance earns her recog­ni­tion and a prize for her tenac­i­ty. Day­ton, the own­er of the horse she rode, and Christine’s on-and-off part­ner, takes Ray­ona home. Con­fronta­tions between Ray­ona and Chris­tine occur, cul­mi­nat­ing in Chris­tine reveal­ing her own strug­gles post a failed apoc­a­lyp­tic sce­nario. The nar­ra­tive then shifts to Christine’s per­spec­tive, reveal­ing her youth marked by her close bond with her broth­er, Lee, and her fas­ci­na­tion with Day­ton, who is more inter­est­ed in Lee. Fol­low­ing high school, Chris­tine works for the trib­al coun­cil and engages in mul­ti­ple rela­tion­ships. When Lee decides to avoid mil­i­tary ser­vice dur­ing the Viet­nam War, Chris­tine per­suades him to enlist to pro­tect his image and ambitions.

After Lee goes miss­ing in action, Chris­tine moves to Seat­tle, where she learns about his fate. She then starts a rela­tion­ship with army cor­po­ral Elgin, becomes preg­nant, and mar­ries him. The mar­riage faces chal­lenges, and just before giv­ing birth to Ray­ona, she receives news of Lee’s death. Chris­tine leaves Elgin when Ray­ona is only nine months old. Chris­tine faces blame for Lee’s death as she had encour­aged him to join the mil­i­tary. She tries to raise Ray­ona in Seat­tle while deal­ing with health issues. After being giv­en six months to live, Chris­tine attempts to stage anoth­er acci­dent for insur­ance mon­ey but ends up strand­ed due to run­ning out of gas, prompt­ing her return to the reser­va­tion. Chris­tine leaves Ray­ona with Ida and goes to Day­ton’s res­i­dence. Their rela­tion­ship remains strained but improves slight­ly dur­ing a road trip. The nar­ra­tive then tran­si­tions to Ida’s past, detail­ing her life sto­ry. Ida’s aunt Clara con­ceives a child with Ida’s father, Lecon. To avoid scan­dal, they pass off the child as Ida’s, and Chris­tine is born in a Col­orado moth­er­house. Ida takes Chris­tine back to Mon­tana instead of allow­ing Clara to put her up for adop­tion, legal­ly becom­ing her moth­er. Ida’s famil­ial rela­tions dete­ri­o­rate, with her moth­er pass­ing away, her father leav­ing, and her sis­ter mar­ry­ing. She becomes involved with Willard Pret­ty Dog, a war vet­er­an she admired dur­ing high school, and has a son named Lee. Chris­tine, now devout­ly reli­gious and fear­ful of an impend­ing apoc­a­lypse, is humored by Ida, but Lee mocks their beliefs. The sto­ry ends with Ida and Father Hurl­burt sit­ting on her roof in dark­ness while she braids her hair.

Chapter 1

“A Yel­low Raft in Blue Water” com­mences with Ray­ona recount­ing her time at a Seat­tle IHS hos­pi­tal, play­ing cards with her Native Amer­i­can moth­er, Chris­tine. Their inter­ac­tion is inter­rupt­ed by the arrival of Elgin, Ray­on­a’s father, caus­ing dis­com­fort for Ray­ona. Elgin and Chris­tine engage in a heat­ed exchange regard­ing Christine’s health and his respon­si­bil­i­ties upon her dis­charge. While Ray­ona agrees with Elgin’s assess­ment of Christine’s health, ten­sions rise, ulti­mate­ly lead­ing to Chris­tine dis­miss­ing Elgin with a racial­ly charged insult. Alone once more, Ray­ona reflects on Christine’s fre­quent hos­pi­tal vis­its, often fol­lowed by exces­sive par­ty­ing despite warn­ings from her friend Char­lene. Ray­ona then pon­ders the cir­cum­stances of her par­ents’ sep­a­ra­tion, yearn­ing for her father’s atten­tion. In the park­ing lot, Ray­ona dis­cov­ers Chris­tine, dis­guised as a nurse, attempt­ing to break into the car. Chris­tine reveals a plan to stage a car acci­dent for insur­ance mon­ey, echo­ing pre­vi­ous threats of self-harm at Elgin’s cho­sen spot. Despite her doubts, Ray­ona accom­pa­nies her moth­er in the car. Their jour­ney is obstruct­ed by an emp­ty fuel tank, lead­ing to a con­fronta­tion and a walk to a near­by gas sta­tion, after which Christine’s demeanor lightens.

Chapter 2

Ray­ona and Chris­tine hasti­ly refu­el their car, intend­ing to vis­it Aunt Ida. Christine’s sole tie to Seat­tle is a life­time mem­ber­ship at Vil­lage Video, cur­rent­ly held by Ray­ona due to a deal that caused a scene with an envi­ous woman at the store. The rec­ol­lec­tion of Chris­tine say­ing “Till death” dur­ing the sign-up depress­es Ray­ona, par­tic­u­lar­ly as Chris­tine lands in the hos­pi­tal there­after. Lat­er that night, they pre­pare for the trip, pack­ing essen­tials in trash bags. Eager to rent movies for the jour­ney, they await the video store’s open­ing. Dur­ing the dri­ve, Chris­tine informs Ray­ona about Aunt Ida, whom she regards as her bio­log­i­cal moth­er. Chris­tine acknowl­edges Ray­on­a’s lack of ties in Seat­tle, attribut­ing it to their tran­sient lifestyle pre­vent­ing last­ing con­nec­tions. After a long dri­ve, they reach Mon­tana only for their car to break down just shy of Aunt Ida’s res­i­dence. Aunt Ida, unim­pressed by Christine’s arrival, demands a jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for wel­com­ing them. Christine’s actions and choic­es are ques­tioned by Aunt Ida as ten­sions rise.

A rude reply pro­vokes her to storm away, desert­ing Ray­ona. A vehi­cle picks up Chris­tine and Ray­ona is left alone. After a while, Aunt Ida arrives to col­lect Ray­ona and they make their way back to the house together.

Chapter 3

Ray­ona and Aunt Ida find it dif­fi­cult to live togeth­er. Ray­ona takes over her mother’s for­mer room, untouched since her moth­er left, and fre­quent­ly wears her moth­er’s out-of-date cloth­ing. She comes across an old diary belong­ing to her moth­er, filled with dreams of dif­fer­ent sur­names, and a box of aged pho­tographs. She exam­ines these in search of resem­blances between her­self and her moth­er but real­izes her moth­er is much more vir­tu­ous. Aunt Ida spends her days engrossed in TV shows, bare­ly mask­ing her dis­like for the char­ac­ters. She com­mu­ni­cates with Ray­ona only in her native lan­guage, which Ray­ona calls “Indi­an.” An elder­ly man, Father Hurl­burt, vis­its Aunt Ida, reveal­ing to Ray­ona that her moth­er is resid­ing with her for­mer boyfriend, Day­ton. Hurl­burt, a priest at a near­by mis­sion, rec­og­nizes Ray­ona from her infan­cy and pro­pos­es she join the local youth group at the mis­sion, the “God Squad.” Short­ly after, Father Tom Novak, a new­ly posi­tioned priest at the mis­sion, picks up Ray­ona for her inau­gur­al God Squad gath­er­ing. Two Native Amer­i­can elders mock Tom in their lan­guage, ceas­ing only when they real­ize Ray­ona can under­stand them. The only oth­er par­tic­i­pants, Annabelle Stif­farm and Rayona’s cousin Foxy, are dis­tant and dis­mis­sive toward Ray­ona, and quick­ly depart. Ray­ona starts school the fol­low­ing week, feel­ing out of place in her over­sized hand-me-downs. She is ridiculed for her mixed-race back­ground. Tom takes Ray­ona under his wing, teach­ing her some Indi­an phras­es, unknow­ing­ly using vul­gar ones, as a prank played on him by a mem­ber of the trib­al coun­cil. Ray­ona val­ues his kind­ness. She becomes the sole con­sis­tent attendee of the God Squad, which, despite its stat­ed themes, con­sis­tent­ly revolves around “The Won­ders of the Human Body,” Tom’s indi­rect ref­er­ence to sex. While dri­ving Ray­ona home from a meet­ing, Tom asks if she has had any sen­su­al dreams, leav­ing her per­plexed as he dri­ves away.

Chapter 4

Ray­ona makes a deci­sion to depart from the Indi­an reser­va­tion and skips school to pre­pare. How­ev­er, Father Tom arrives at her home and dis­cov­ers her plan. Ini­tial­ly, he indulges her but Ray­ona sens­es he is plan­ning to deter her. To avoid a con­fronta­tion, she opts to attend school. Father Tom invites her to a Teens for Christ Jam­boree, view­ing it as a chance to depart from the reser­va­tion. As they leave, Father Tom takes Ray­ona to Aunt Ida’s abode to pack. She real­izes Chris­tine has vis­it­ed as some items are miss­ing. Feel­ing increas­ing­ly aban­doned by her moth­er, Ray­ona gath­ers her belong­ings and takes tapes from Vil­lage Video. Dur­ing their jour­ney, Father Tom inquires about Ray­on­a’s fam­i­ly. She lies that her moth­er is deceased and her father is a pilot. Father Tom reveals he grew up with­out a father. Ray­ona reminds him that she actu­al­ly has a father, and ques­tions his deci­sion to join the priest­hood. He responds that he felt sum­moned to be “God’s helper.” They trav­el late into the night, and Ray­ona falls asleep. Ray­ona awak­ens at a gas sta­tion she rec­og­nizes from a pri­or trip with her moth­er. Father Tom informs her they are ear­ly for the jam­boree and can relax. They camp at Bearpaw Lake State Park and attempt to have a pic­nic, but the grill won’t ignite. They opt to swim instead. Ray­ona jumps into the lake and reach­es a yel­low raft. Father Tom fol­lows but cramps up mid-swim. Ray­ona res­cues him and pulls him onto a dock. They embrace in an uncom­fort­able moment, and Father Tom labels it as “an occa­sion of sin.” Father Tom insists they return to the reser­va­tion, express­ing wor­ry about pos­si­ble mis­un­der­stand­ings regard­ing their rela­tion­ship. Ray­ona declares she’s head­ing to Seat­tle, which Father Tom sup­ports. He gives her mon­ey, arranges a train for her, and promis­es to inform Aunt Ida of her where­abouts. That night, he dri­ves her to the train sta­tion, gifts her a bead neck­lace, and states they will recon­nect. After he departs, Ray­ona opts not to board the train and dis­cards the neck­lace. She spends the night wait­ing, feel­ing odd­ly content.

Chapter 5

Upon wak­ing up, Ray­ona heads to Bearpaw Lake State Park. She comes across a sign advis­ing lost hik­ers to remain sta­tion­ary and decides to fol­low it. Soon, she meets a man named Sky, whom she recalls from a gas sta­tion. Sky wel­comes her into the park office, offers cof­fee, and shares a joke. Ray­ona invents a sto­ry about her back­ground, stat­ing she’s from Seat­tle, her par­ents are on vaca­tion, her father is a pilot, and she ran away from a priest to evade con­ver­sion. The only truth in her tale is about her Uncle Lee, who per­ished in the Viet­nam War. Sky reach­es out to his wife, Eve­lyn, a park cook, to find a job for Ray­ona. After feed­ing Ray­ona, Eve­lyn directs her to Mr. McCutcheon, the head of park main­te­nance. He assigns her the duty of col­lect­ing trash and pro­vides her with a uni­form, com­ment­ing on her slen­der fig­ure. As there is no mir­ror in the women’s restroom, Ray­ona uses the men’s restroom to adjust her uni­form and hair­style. There, she encoun­ters Andy, Dave, and John, fel­low work­ers who envy her assign­ment in Zone Sev­en due to an attrac­tive life­guard there. Ray­ona is irked by their treat­ment, feel­ing more like one of the guys than a lady, but acknowl­edges that her moth­er’s beau­ty did­n’t serve her well. Col­lect­ing trash in Zone Sev­en proves unevent­ful as there isn’t much lit­ter around. As she gets ready to leave, Ray­ona dis­cov­ers a crum­pled half-let­ter addressed to an unknown camper from “Moth­er & Pops,” express­ing love and long­ing. Envi­ous, Ray­ona intends to dis­card the let­ter but can­not bring her­self to do it. Instead, she holds onto it in her wal­let. The let­ter stirs up home­sick­ness in her for the rainy weath­er of Seattle.

Chapter 6

As night falls, Ray­ona, Sky, and Eve­lyn return to the cou­ple’s trail­er. Eve­lyn’s attire reminds Ray­ona of her moth­er, and she falls asleep on the couch, miss­ing the mac­a­roni din­ner. While she sleeps, the cou­ple checks Ray­on­a’s pock­ets, sus­pect­ing she may be a run­away. How­ev­er, upon find­ing a let­ter she retrieved dur­ing work, they con­clud­ed she must be truth­ful. The next morn­ing, Ray­ona is ener­get­i­cal­ly pre­pared for work, while Sky and Eve­lyn are fatigued. At work, Eve­lyn once more pre­pares break­fast for Ray­ona, strength­en­ing their blos­som­ing friend­ship. Dur­ing her rounds at work, Ray­ona comes across the lake where she and Father Tom went swim­ming. She con­tem­plates swim­ming but notices a girl on the yel­low raft, who she rec­og­nizes as Ellen. Ray­ona feels envi­ous of Ellen, per­ceiv­ing her as every­thing she ought to be. Fol­low­ing a brief exchange with some­one on shore, Ellen dives into the water. Ray­ona grad­u­al­ly accli­mates to her job, some­times find­ing lost items in the trash. Giv­en a three-week peri­od for claim­ing lost items, she begins to amass a new wardrobe. She also comes across use­ful items for Sky and Eve­lyn. One day, she holds onto a blan­ket desired by a col­lege stu­dent, Dave, for Eve­lyn. Trou­bled by her fas­ci­na­tion with Ellen, Ray­ona tries to learn more about her. Eve­lyn dis­likes Ellen due to her veg­e­tar­i­an­ism, and Sky only knows super­fi­cial details about Ellen, like her red Toy­ota Cel­i­ca and her father’s cred­it card. Andy’s remarks about Ellen are objec­ti­fy­ing, and Dave sees her as super­fi­cial. Hence, Ray­ona gath­ers most of her infor­ma­tion about Ellen from her interactions.On Inde­pen­dence Day, Ellen and her par­ents meet Eve­lyn and Ray­ona for a morn­ing meal. Ellen sur­pris­es every­one with her knowl­edge about Ray­ona and intro­duces their fam­i­ly’s spon­sored Native Amer­i­can child, Rocky. The con­ver­sa­tion shifts to Ellen’s fond­ness for chil­dren and ani­mals, and Ellen’s moth­er men­tions their soli­tary pet, Ras­cal. Upon hear­ing this, Eve­lyn remem­bers the names from the let­ter Ray­ona had dis­cov­ered. In a moment of pan­ic, Ray­ona dis­cards the let­ter, but even­tu­al­ly retrieves it, rem­i­nisc­ing about her own kin.

Chapter 7

Ray­ona gazes at the yel­low raft when Eve­lyn approach­es her. Ray­ona shares her tale with Eve­lyn, feel­ing a sense of relief after­ward. Per­suad­ed that Ray­ona should return home, Eve­lyn plans to dri­ve her there along with Sky. After pick­ing up Sky from the fill­ing sta­tion and pack­ing her belong­ings, Ray­ona decides the local Indi­an rodeo might be where she could reunite with her moth­er. Upon arrival at the rodeo, she notices Foxy, who remains as unpleas­ant as ever. Eve­lyn and Sky depart, leav­ing Ray­ona to engage with Foxy, who is too ine­bri­at­ed to par­take in the rodeo. Per­suad­ing Ray­ona to ride for him, he lends her his attire to dis­guise her gen­der. In this sce­nario, she encoun­ters Annabelle, evok­ing mem­o­ries of her moth­er’s younger self and Ellen, although Annabelle over­shad­ows her. Ray­ona exhibits deter­mi­na­tion at the rodeo, repeat­ed­ly mount­ing the horse named Babe despite falling off. This expe­ri­ence leaves her feel­ing trans­formed and dis­tanced from her recent his­to­ry. Her courage at the rodeo earns her admi­ra­tion. Annabelle dubs Ray­ona as “crazy” but with a warm under­tone. By day’s end, Ray­ona, dis­guised as Foxy, is bestowed a “hard-luck buck­le” award. Upon receiv­ing the acco­lade, Ray­ona dis­cards her dis­guise and is met with cheers from Eve­lyn and the onlookers.

Chapter 8

After being hon­ored with the award, Ray­ona encoun­ters Foxy, Father Tom, and a robust cow­boy named Day­ton, who turns out to be Christine’s inter­mit­tent beau and the pro­pri­etor of the horse she rode. Ray­ona intro­duces her pals from Bearpaw Lake State Park, Sky, and Eve­lyn, to them. Father Tom is tak­en aback by the men­tion of the park. Annabelle, too, arrives, whom Ray­ona timid­ly presents as a friend. Eve­lyn and Father Tom lock eyes, the lat­ter real­iz­ing she is privy to his inter­ac­tions with Ray­ona, and he evades into the crowd. Day­ton vol­un­teers to dri­ve Ray­ona home, and she departs with Sky and Eve­lyn to retrieve her belong­ings. She gifts Eve­lyn with a blan­ket from the park before bid­ding her farewell. Foxy’s ani­mos­i­ty towards Ray­ona is inter­rupt­ed by Annabelle. As they dri­ve to Day­ton’s ranch, Ray­ona learns about his friend­ship with her uncle, Lee. Upon arrival, Chris­tine is stunned and infu­ri­at­ed, accus­ing Ray­ona of caus­ing her dis­tress and ail­ment. The heat­ed exchange between moth­er and daugh­ter con­cludes when Day­ton inter­venes. They set­tle down to watch the news, show­cas­ing Ray­on­a’s rodeo accom­plish­ment, which aston­ish­es Chris­tine. After a reli­gious pro­gram, every­one retires for the night. The sub­se­quent day, Ray­ona awak­ens sore from the rodeo. Recall­ing Day­ton’s remark about rid­ing a frac­tured horse, she opts to ride Babe, the rodeo horse, who sub­se­quent­ly throws her off. Out­side, Chris­tine and Ray­ona engage in a con­ver­sa­tion. Chris­tine divulges her cri­sis of faith due to a pur­port­ed let­ter from the Vir­gin Mary. She had braced her­self for the antic­i­pat­ed dooms­day by delv­ing into the Bible, but when noth­ing mate­ri­al­ized, she was left per­plexed. Her inquiries at the mis­sion school were brushed off as a “puz­zle.”

Chapter 9

The sec­ond seg­ment of “A Yel­low Raft in Blue Water” now fol­lows Chris­tine, shift­ing the nar­ra­tive focus from Ray­ona. Chris­tine com­mences her sto­ry after the proph­e­sied cli­max of the world. Remorse­ful for miss­ing a gath­er­ing due to her apoc­a­lypse prepa­ra­tions, she resolves nev­er to miss anoth­er one. Her broth­er, Lee, gar­ners con­sid­er­able atten­tion for his looks and pop­u­lar­i­ty, unlike Chris­tine, who con­sid­ers her­self lack­ing in attrac­tive­ness. Doubts regard­ing whether they share the same father per­sist, and they are instruct­ed not to refer to their Aunt Ida as “mom” due to her unmar­ried sta­tus. Renowned for her resilience in grade school, Chris­tine is often dared by boys to under­take per­ilous tasks. One such chal­lenge leads her across a lofty nat­ur­al stone bridge, where fear over­takes her until Lee res­cues her, prompt­ing Chris­tine to rede­fine the risks she should under­take. As she tran­si­tions into high school and gains promi­nence, a boy of mixed her­itage named Day­ton Nick­les relo­cates to their reser­va­tion and becomes insep­a­ra­ble from Lee. Mis­in­ter­pret­ing Day­ton’s demeanor as a roman­tic inter­est, Chris­tine attempts to seduce him dur­ing an event. Day­ton rebuffs her, declar­ing his regard for her as akin to a sib­ling, elic­it­ing anger from Chris­tine and strain­ing their rela­tion­ship. Lee, hailed as the prospec­tive Indi­an JFK excels in rodeo, but their Aunt Ida thwarts his aspi­ra­tions of pur­su­ing it pro­fes­sion­al­ly. Upon grad­u­a­tion, Chris­tine col­lab­o­rates with the trib­al coun­cil and dates fre­quent­ly. Embark­ing on a two-week sojourn with Dia­mond, a father of two, incites ire in Ida after Dia­mond’s moth­er accus­es Chris­tine of imped­ing her access to her grand­kids. This prompts Chris­tine to relo­cate and cohab­it with Pauline, Ida’s sib­ling. Near the cul­mi­na­tion of high school, Lee and Day­ton affil­i­ate with the mil­i­tant “Red Pow­er” move­ment. Voic­ing her dis­ap­proval, Chris­tine artic­u­lates her con­cerns to both Lee and Aunt Ida. Ida reas­sures her that Lee is unharmed, leav­ing Chris­tine feel­ing dis­re­gard­ed and forsaken.

Chapter 10

The Viet­nam War rages on, prompt­ing Chris­tine to inquire of Day­ton about his draft clas­si­fi­ca­tion. Clas­si­fied as “4‑A,” denot­ing exemp­tion from the draft due to being a wid­ow’s sole son, Day­ton relays his sta­tus to Chris­tine. Chris­tine also probes Lee about his post-mil­i­tary future, to which he dis­clos­es no inten­tion of enlist­ing, fur­ther assert­ing will­ing­ness to evade the draft if required. Chris­tine deems Lee’s deci­sion as cow­ardice, spark­ing a vehe­ment dis­pute cul­mi­nat­ing in her slap­ping him. Spec­u­la­tion sur­round­ing Lee’s enlist­ment leads to dis­cord between Chris­tine and Aunt Ida, who advo­cates for Lee. One day, Chris­tine notices a notice for trib­al elec­tions, real­iz­ing that dodg­ing the draft could jeop­ar­dize Lee’s can­di­da­cy. Shar­ing this insight with Day­ton, he, hav­ing penned Lee’s polit­i­cal career in his plans, resolves to per­suade Lee to enlist. Lee and Day­ton abscond for sev­er­al weeks, return­ing on the eve of the Labor Day fes­ti­val with Lee hav­ing enlist­ed and sport­ing a fresh hair­cut. He social­izes with a nov­el cir­cle of acquain­tances while Day­ton main­tains his 4‑A sta­tus but joins Lee in shear­ing his locks. Feel­ing sti­fled by the reser­va­tion, Chris­tine opts for a work ini­tia­tive in Seat­tle, bid­ding a for­mal adieu to Ida and an emo­tion­al one to Lee, who heads to boot camp short­ly after. In Seat­tle, Chris­tine befriends many but finds her job monot­o­nous. Despite shift­ing jobs and res­i­dences fre­quent­ly, she grap­ples with find­ing con­tent­ment. She hears from Lee twice, via a post­card from Hawaii and a mis­sive from Viet­nam. Sub­se­quent­ly, Day­ton appris­es her of Lee’s MIA (miss­ing in action) sta­tus, leav­ing her agi­tat­ed and appre­hen­sive about forth­com­ing com­mu­niqués. One evening, anx­ious about Lee, Chris­tine seeks solace in a bar, grad­u­al­ly real­iz­ing she’s the sole non-black patron. Cor­po­ral Elgin A. Tay­lor, in uni­form, approach­es her, treats her to a drink, and prof­fers solace con­cern­ing Lee. They spend the night togeth­er in Elgin’s lodg­ing, mark­ing a nov­el expe­ri­ence for Chris­tine, who implores Elgin to stay by her side forever.

Chapter 11

Fol­low­ing her meet­ing with Elgin, Chris­tine under­goes a trans­for­ma­tion. She eager­ly awaits his dis­charge from the mil­i­tary. When he returns, despite being late, she is thrilled to be reunit­ed. The pair spends numer­ous close weeks in Taco­ma, resid­ing on Elgin’s sav­ings. Want­i­ng to have a child, Chris­tine dis­con­tin­ues her birth con­trol. After inti­ma­cy in Point Defi­ance Park, she is con­vinced she is expect­ing. Shar­ing the news with Elgin leads to a pro­pos­al. As Elgin’s finances dwin­dle, he secures a job with the post office. Chris­tine gives up drink­ing and smok­ing and goes to bed ear­ly. She resumes her occu­pa­tion, cre­at­ing black box­es for air­planes. As her preg­nan­cy becomes more evi­dent, she con­tem­plates their nup­tials. They choose a cour­t­house wed­ding fol­lowed by a fes­tive gath­er­ing at a club, where they are warm­ly wel­comed as new­ly­weds. Even though Elgin becomes dis­tant dur­ing their walk home, he car­ries her the last two blocks to their hotel, dis­pelling her wor­ries. She writes to Aunt Ida about her mar­riage but receives no reply. Elgin starts com­ing home late, prompt­ing Chris­tine to accuse him of being unfaith­ful. His sud­den dis­ap­pear­ances remind Chris­tine of a sit­u­a­tion where one of her pre­vi­ous part­ners had left her for some­one else. When Elgin is away for three days, she refrains from ques­tion­ing him upon his return. A week past her due date, Chris­tine receives a let­ter from Day­ton inform­ing her of Lee’s pass­ing. As she process­es this infor­ma­tion, she goes into labor and hur­ries to the hos­pi­tal. Elgin is absent dur­ing her labor. Despite her pain, Chris­tine gives birth. While she ini­tial­ly planned to name the baby Ray­mond, it turns out to be a girl. Elgin selects the name Diane, after his moth­er. How­ev­er, Chris­tine prefers “Ray­ona” and uses Diane as her mid­dle name. Insist­ing on keep­ing Ray­ona close by, she receives a pri­vate room from the nurs­es. Ini­tial­ly, Elgin and Chris­tine bond­ed after Ray­on­a’s birth. How­ev­er, Elgin begins stay­ing out late once more. When Ray­ona reach­es nine months, Chris­tine returns to work and finds her own place. Elgin spo­rad­i­cal­ly reach­es out, express­ing a desire to recon­nect. Some­times she enter­tains his efforts, and some­times she does not.

Chapter 12

Lee’s body is ulti­mate­ly brought back to the reser­va­tion for his funer­al, which Chris­tine and her daugh­ter Ray­ona attend. They jour­ney in Christine’s new Volaré car through a late-night snow­storm, dur­ing which Chris­tine envi­sions see­ing Lee on a gold­en stair­case beside the road, caus­ing her to swerve off the road. After tend­ing to Ray­ona, they con­tin­ue their voy­age. Upon reach­ing the reser­va­tion, they dis­cov­er Lee’s body at Aunt Ida’s res­i­dence. Chris­tine is struck by the resem­blance between Ida and Ray­ona. Lee’s wake is heav­i­ly attend­ed, but Day­ton is absent. Although Chris­tine feels pre­pared to for­give Day­ton for his deci­sion not to engage in the war, she acknowl­edges that some indi­vid­u­als blame her for Lee’s death. For the first time, Ida dis­plays affec­tion towards Ray­ona when Chris­tine inquires where the baby can sleep. The funer­al takes place the next day. Father Hurl­burt leads the pro­ces­sion to the church. Chris­tine lingers at the back, as she has not vis­it­ed church since the antic­i­pat­ed dooms­day failed to mate­ri­al­ize. She notices Day­ton among the atten­dees and show­cas­es her wed­ding ring. With the ground frozen, the guests throw pot­ting soil on Lee’s cas­ket. Ida brush­es off the earth and adorns it with cedar in a six-point design, plac­ing Lee’s cham­pi­onship buck­le there. Over­come with grief, Chris­tine strug­gles to par­tic­i­pate until Day­ton encour­ages her to join in. She man­ages to cast earth onto the cof­fin. Fol­low­ing the funer­al, Pauline hosts a gath­er­ing. How­ev­er, Chris­tine and Day­ton choose to dine in town instead, shar­ing a peace­ful meal. Chris­tine dis­cuss­es her life in Seat­tle. Sub­se­quent­ly, a cer­e­mo­ny hon­or­ing Lee is held at the mis­sion gym, where vet­er­ans, includ­ing Ida, Chris­tine, Day­ton, and Ray­ona, com­mem­o­rate Lee through a dance.

Chapter 13

Chris­tine and Ray­on­a’s trip back to Seat­tle from the reser­va­tion is leisure­ly. Upon arrival, Chris­tine yearns for a night out. How­ev­er, with no babysit­ter avail­able, she takes Ray­ona to her usu­al bar, the Sil­ver Bul­let. There, she encoun­ters Elgin with anoth­er woman. Fol­low­ing a con­ver­sa­tion, they leave togeth­er, and he stays with them for two weeks. Despite Elgin’s incon­sis­tent pres­ence in Christine’s life, she always wel­comes him back. She engages in oth­er rela­tion­ships and main­tains a vari­ety of jobs and friends, but Ray­ona remains her sole con­stant. From a young age, Ray­ona demon­strates remark­able self-suf­fi­cien­cy. A call from Aunt Ida noti­fies Chris­tine of her impend­ing vis­it due to Clara’s ill­ness. Ray­ona, who has no rec­ol­lec­tion of Ida, acts timid­ly around her. Ida play­ful­ly teas­es Chris­tine about her sin­gle sta­tus but shows kind­ness to Ray­ona, even gift­ing her a doll. Dur­ing a vis­it to the ail­ing Clara, Ray­ona and Chris­tine encounter numer­ous elder­ly Native Amer­i­cans. Sad­ly, Clara pass­es away before they can make anoth­er vis­it. Chris­tine per­suades Ida, who had intend­ed to return to the reser­va­tion, to stay for din­ner. Ida takes the lead in prepar­ing the meal, and when Ray­ona refers to her as “Grand­ma,” she prompt­ly cor­rects her to “Aunt Ida,” irri­tat­ing Ray­ona who then exits the kitchen. Elgin reap­pears the fol­low­ing day, pledg­ing his sup­port to Chris­tine. She strives to out­do Ida as a par­ent to Ray­ona, a goal she feels she large­ly achieves. She becomes frus­trat­ed when Elgin dis­ap­points Ray­ona with his absences. Chris­tine har­bors a deep love for Ray­ona and is res­olute in ensur­ing she does not expe­ri­ence neglect like she did because of Lee. How­ev­er, her emo­tions nev­er reach the inten­si­ty she felt with Elgin or any­one else dur­ing their time at Point Defiance.

Chapter 14

Chris­tine is informed by a physi­cian at Indi­an Health Ser­vices that her liv­er and pan­creas are dete­ri­o­rat­ing, giv­ing her approx­i­mate­ly six months left to live. Instead of react­ing, she requests a deck of cards. Despite the doc­tor advis­ing her to pre­pare Ray­ona for her impend­ing death, Chris­tine insists on the deck of cards. Her actions attract the atten­tion of two Native Amer­i­can women shar­ing the ward. Anx­ious about dis­cussing her immi­nent pass­ing with Ray­ona, Chris­tine awaits the arrival of her daugh­ter. Upon Ray­on­a’s arrival, Chris­tine braids her hair and teach­es her a card game. Although Chris­tine desires Elgin to stay when he arrives to drop off the Volaré, he prompt­ly departs, leav­ing her dis­heart­ened. To escape her des­o­la­tion, Chris­tine dons a nurse’s uni­form and sneaks out of the hos­pi­tal, where she encoun­ters Ray­ona while attempt­ing to break into the Volaré. Chris­tine tries to per­suade Ray­ona that she intends to crash the car for insur­ance mon­ey, but Ray­ona sees through her ruse. Ray­ona joins her in the car, and they dri­ve to Point Defi­ance in Taco­ma. An argu­ment ensues upon arrival, cul­mi­nat­ing in the real­iza­tion that the car is out of gas. Chris­tine acknowl­edges that what­ev­er actions she takes from this point on must involve Ray­ona, and they head to the gas sta­tion. Chris­tine plans to leave Ray­ona with Aunt Ida upon her pass­ing. They pack up, and Chris­tine asks her neigh­bor, a phar­ma­cy employ­ee, to mail her pain relief med­ica­tion. Want­i­ng to leave Ray­ona a mean­ing­ful memen­to, Chris­tine lends her a film from Vil­lage Video for her to cher­ish. They then head towards Aunt Ida’s home. Their vehi­cle breaks down a mile away from Aunt Ida’s house, prompt­ing them to walk the final leg of the jour­ney. Once there, Chris­tine is request­ed by Ida to present three grounds for her accep­tance. Chris­tine dis­clos­es that she is Ida’s sole sur­viv­ing off­spring and requires accom­mo­da­tion. How­ev­er, she declines to con­fess her pri­or errors to Ida in Ray­on­a’s pres­ence, instead opt­ing to belit­tle her moth­er before departing.

Chapter 15

Chris­tine hitch­es a ride with her rel­a­tive, Foxy Cree, who extends an invi­ta­tion to vis­it her moth­er Pauline’s res­i­dence. Nev­er­the­less, Chris­tine choos­es to vis­it her kin, Day­ton, whose moth­er has deceased, yet he per­sists in dwelling on her estate. Despite Foxy’s pecu­liar reac­tion to Day­ton’s name, he oblig­es, set­ting the atmos­phere of the expe­di­tion with San­tana melodies from his car sound sys­tem. Upon reach­ing Day­ton’s abode, Chris­tine gains entry using a spare key. To her sur­prise, she stum­bles upon a pic­ture of her­self amid the exhib­it­ed pho­tographs. Feign­ing slum­ber upon Day­ton’s arrival, she scru­ti­nizes his rest­less demeanor and endeav­ors to con­verse about her health con­cerns. Day­ton con­sents to her shel­ter­ing, and she with­draws to the guest cham­ber for a refresh­ing slum­ber. Awak­en­ing to an unoc­cu­pied house­hold and a mis­sive from Day­ton, Chris­tine embarks on a quest to locate doc­u­ments that Day­ton had hasti­ly con­cealed. Her explo­ration leads her to a laun­dry area where she unearths alarm­ing news­pa­per arti­cles about Day­ton being accused of mis­con­duct, result­ing in a five-year penal term. Sub­se­quent­ly, he was grant­ed free­dom for exem­plary con­duct and ven­tured into an account­ing voca­tion with the tribe. Fol­low­ing her dis­cov­ery of Day­ton’s his­to­ry, Chris­tine spends the remain­der of the day explor­ing his abode. With her med­i­c­i­nal reserves wan­ing, she con­tacts her acquain­tance based in Seat­tle, Char­lene, who appris­es her that the refill had been dis­patched to Aunt Ida’s. Chris­tine orga­nizes for Day­ton to chauf­feur her to Ida’s dur­ing Ray­na’s school hours. Upon arrival, a dis­pute erupts with Ida, cul­mi­nat­ing in her dis­clos­ing her lack of desire for Chris­tine. Chris­tine departs, advis­ing Ida to look after Ray­ona, leav­ing Ida incensed and solitary.

Chapter 16

Day­ton and Chris­tine find com­fort in each oth­er’s com­pa­ny, evad­ing dis­cus­sions about Christine’s well-being, Elgin, and Ray­ona. Father Hurl­burt and Aunt Ida pay a vis­it one day, appris­ing Chris­tine about Ray­on­a’s dis­ap­pear­ance. Post their vis­it, Chris­tine becomes fix­at­ed on thoughts of Ray­ona. In July, Foxy arrives to escort Day­ton and his equine com­pan­ion Babe to a rodeo. Chris­tine spends a serene evening in soli­tude and eager­ly antic­i­pates hear­ing about the rodeo upon Day­ton’s return. Under the influ­ence of med­ica­tion, she con­fus­es Ray­ona with her sib­ling Lee. Fol­low­ing a brief alter­ca­tion, they col­lec­tive­ly observe the rodeo’s news cov­er­age. Day­ton departs after con­sol­ing Chris­tine at night, and she dis­cerns a new­found com­mand over her agony. She encoun­ters Ray­ona asleep in Babe’s enclo­sure the sub­se­quent morn­ing and ten­der­ly enfolds her. Chris­tine, Day­ton, and Ray­ona form an insep­a­ra­ble trio, rel­ish­ing film screen­ings and invit­ing Ida for sup­per. Day­ton restores the Volaré, and Chris­tine imparts dri­ving lessons to Ray­ona. Upon glimps­ing an adver­tise­ment in the news­pa­per, Day­ton resolves to offer Babe for stud ser­vices. Father Tom makes a vis­it to Chris­tine while Day­ton and Ray­ona are absent, depart­ing hasti­ly after fur­nish­ing her with pain alle­vi­a­tors. Upon their return, Ray­ona ini­ti­ates learn­ing to oper­ate a man­u­al trans­mis­sion. Chris­tine insists on retriev­ing Babe per­son­al­ly and par­takes in a heart­warm­ing moment with Ray­ona at a din­er. Upon arriv­ing at the equine ranch, they ascer­tain that Babe has cul­ti­vat­ed an affin­i­ty for anoth­er horse.

Chapter 17

Ida delin­eates her exis­tence as one suf­fused with ani­mos­i­ty, yearn­ing that she had grasped the art of utter­ing “No.” She insin­u­ates that her account sig­nif­i­cant­ly impacts her fam­i­ly’s chron­i­cle. Com­menc­ing her nar­ra­tive, her moth­er is ail­ing, and her aunt Clara has arrived to pro­vide assis­tance. Ida is cap­ti­vat­ed by Clara but is unset­tled by her con­tent­ment at her moth­er’s infir­mi­ty, which sum­moned Clara. Ida’s father, Lecon, har­bors appre­hen­sions about the com­mu­ni­ty’s reproach due to his inca­pac­i­ty to care for his ail­ing spouse, con­trary to Clara’s pres­ence. They fab­ri­cate a tale that Clara is des­ti­tute to engen­der soci­etal endorse­ment. Ida forges a con­nec­tion with Clara, exchang­ing con­fi­dences and receiv­ing scholas­tic aid, while her sib­ling Pauline remains aloof, engrossed with the nuns at the mis­sion. A predica­ment aris­es when Clara unveils her preg­nan­cy by Lecon, result­ing in a vehe­ment dis­pute among the adults. Sug­gest­ing that the infant could be ascribed to Ida to deflect sus­pi­cion, Clara secures Ida’s com­pli­ance even before an inquiry is made. They enlist the aid of Father Hurl­burt, renowned for his dis­cre­tion, who orches­trates for Clara and Ida to reside in a moth­er­house in Col­orado dur­ing Clara’s ges­ta­tion. Clara reas­sures Ida that their time in Col­orado will be enriching.

Chapter 18

The nuns at the Den­ver moth­er­house, moved by Clara’s ordeal nar­ra­tive, com­mence regard­ing her as either a saint or a mar­tyr. Ida, mas­querad­ing as Clara’s sib­ling, under­takes man­u­al labor in exchange for sus­te­nance. The nuns aspire for Clara to assume the habit of a nun and relin­quish her child for adop­tion. Ida yearns for a return to nor­mal­cy and repose. Pauline’s cor­re­spon­dence appris­es Ida of famil­ial dis­cord and her dis­con­tent­ment at home. Clara begets a daugh­ter, Chris­tine, chris­tened by the nuns. Ida, pre­tend­ing to be defi­cient in Eng­lish com­pre­hen­sion, is informed that she is now “Aunt Ida.” Insist­ing on con­vers­ing with Clara, she vehe­ment­ly oppos­es the adop­tion pro­pos­al. Threatewed­ding Dale Cree. Ida’s abode under­goes enhance­ments after she rents out her prop­er­ty. Willard Pret­ty Dog, a once attrac­tive and con­ceit­ed young man from the reser­va­tion, comes back from the war with severe dis­fig­ure­ment caused by a land­mine. Ashamed of his appear­ance, he cov­ers his car win­dows with paint to avoid being seen. Father Hurl­burt pro­pos­es that Ida pay Willard a vis­it, think­ing he might feel at ease in her com­pa­ny. Plans are made for Father Hurl­burt to escort Willard to Ida’s res­i­dence. In antic­i­pa­tion of their arrival, Ida splurges on gro­ceries and pre­pares her home. Upon their arrival, Ida per­suades Willard to enter her home with­out direct­ly gaz­ing at him. Once inside, he starts to feel more relaxed, and they spend the night togeth­er. Willard moves in with Ida, caus­ing Pauline to fret about rumors. Ida refutes any roman­tic involve­ment between them, but it is appar­ent. Dur­ing a vis­it, Father Hurl­burt refrains from crit­i­ciz­ing Ida, and even Willard’s moth­er appears to grasp their bond, treat­ing Ida more like a care­giv­er than a girl­friend. Willard goes back to the hos­pi­tal for fur­ther surg­eries. Dur­ing his absence, Ida learns of Lecon’s pass­ing and real­izes she is expect­ing a child. She intends to use the preg­nan­cy news to uplift or con­sole Willard post-surgery. To every­one’s sur­prise, the surg­eries restore Willard’s hand­some appear­ance. His moth­er assumes he no longer requires Ida’s assis­tance, but Willard insists on return­ing to her. How­ev­er, Ida is wound­ed by Willard’s depic­tion of her and choos­es to end their rela­tion­ship. When spec­u­la­tions arise about the father of Ida’s unborn child, she nei­ther con­firms nor denies them, except when accused of Father Hurl­burt being the father. Striv­ing to set a good exam­ple for Chris­tine, Ida aban­dons pre­tend­ing to be naive or fee­ble. Chris­tine delights in the idea of the baby and inquires about the name. Despite Pauline’s sug­ges­tion to hon­or their ances­tors, Ida names the baby boy Lecon, lat­er short­ened to Lee, who turns out to be an excep­tion­al­ly beau­ti­ful child.

Chapter 20

In con­trast to Chris­tine, Lee is pre­cise and requires addi­tion­al care. Chris­tine will­ing­ly embraces the role of his “lit­tle moth­er.” With Father Hurl­burt assum­ing the lead­er­ship of the mis­sion, he no longer has time for his reg­u­lar meet­ings with Ida. Ida ded­i­cates this time to her chil­dren, who are eager to learn about their her­itage, but Ida evades their queries. Mean­while, Willard Pret­ty Dog mar­ries his nurse. Occa­sion­al­ly, Chris­tine teas­es Ida by call­ing her “moth­er,” and Ida only responds when addressed as “Aunt Ida.” Ida con­vers­es with her chil­dren in their native lan­guage, while they speak in Eng­lish. She cher­ish­es them both equal­ly, even though they require dif­fer­ent types of care. Chris­tine becomes deeply engrossed in her Catholic faith, align­ing with the mar­tyred saints. This con­cerns Ida, but Pauline believes it’s Christine’s way to com­pen­sate for the cir­cum­stances of her birth. Christine’s pro­found faith con­trasts sharply with her adven­tur­ous side, par­tic­u­lar­ly evi­dent around Lee. Ida dis­cour­ages Lee from emu­lat­ing Christine’s behav­ior. One day, a trans­formed Chris­tine returns home, with Lee claim­ing to have res­cued her. Fol­low­ing this inci­dent, Lee gains con­fi­dence while Chris­tine becomes more cau­tious. Chris­tine fre­quent­ly express­es her fear of fac­ing damna­tion. Seek­ing guid­ance, Ida con­sults Father Hurl­burt, who attrib­ut­es Christine’s anx­i­ety to a pur­port­ed let­ter from the Vir­gin Mary pre­dict­ing a bleak future. He asserts that the chil­dren are tak­ing the prophe­cy too seri­ous­ly. When Ida dis­cuss­es the let­ter with Chris­tine, her con­vic­tion remains stead­fast. In an attempt to pla­cate her, Ida lists her trans­gres­sions and com­mits to stay­ing home on New Year’s Eve. Lee doubts Christine’s faith, and Ida refrains from jus­ti­fy­ing it. Sur­pris­ing­ly, Chris­tine makes an effort to enhance Ida’s appear­ance, lead­ing to a moment of aston­ish­ment for Ida. How­ev­er, Lee’s con­temp­tu­ous laugh­ter damp­ens the mood, and Chris­tine admits that noth­ing sig­nif­i­cant will occur. Dur­ing din­ner, Lee endeav­ors to uplift Christine’s spir­its and plan to stay awake until mid­night to prove her wrong. Chris­tine iso­lates her­self in her room with the radio play­ing. That night, Father Hurl­burt vis­its Ida, and they step out onto the roof. When queried about Christine’s behav­ior, Ida con­firmed she had a chal­leng­ing night. In the dark­ness, Ida begins braid­ing her hair.