Most recent public comments by Teertha S https://nowcomment.com/users/135730 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072029 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072029 Thu, 25 May 2023 00:24:32 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072028 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072028 It’s been 10 months since Daunis’s hospitalization. Powwows aren’t ceremonies, but they’re healing nevertheless—and at the annual powwow on the third week of August, Daunis’s community needs healing. During the most recent tribal election, a banishment referendum barely passed. With its passage, any tribal member convicted of a felony drug crime will attend a banishment hearing and face a banishment of up to five years. It’s supposed to get rid of drug dealers while offering compassion to those who are in recovery. Banished members are still members, but they can’t receive any benefits—including per-cap payments. Dana Firekeeper will be the first person to appear at a hearing. She pled guilty in federal court in exchange for no jail time, and last week she was found guilty in Tribal Court of dereliction of justice for all her meth mistrials. She won’t go to jail, but she’s been charged the maximum fines. Public opinion is split on whether she got off easy or is being used as an example of what happens to powerful women. That Friday, Daunis picks up Granny June and drives to Auntie and Art’s house. At the clearing, they join over 100 women. Auntie tells a story about a young Nish girl who’d gather pansies with her nokomis every summer. The girl’s nokomis would set aside the yellow pansies, but she wouldn’t tell the girl why. Finally, when the girl became a woman, she stopped asking about the yellow pansies. She couldn’t tell her nokomis that a man hurt her. At the end of that summer, the nokomis took the woman to a clearing, where women all took a yellow pansy and prayed. The girl then understood what the pansies were for, and she prayed and “released her pain.” Daunis takes a pansy and watches woman approach the fire to offer their pansies. She thinks of what Grant did to her and prays. When she sits back next to Granny June, Granny June says that Lily was always thankful that Daunis never attended this ceremony—Lily started coming to this ceremony when she came to live with Granny June. Daunis cries: Lily had secrets, and she tried to protect Daunis from them. But on the way back over the ferry, Daunis realizes with relief that Macy wasn’t at the ceremony. She offers semaa to the river and prays thankfully for all the Nish women and girls who didn’t have to come. On Sunday, Daunis peruses the vendor stalls and refuses to tell anyone who asks about Levi anything. From Auntie, who she believes is in contact with Ron, Daunis knows that Levi is being held without bond until his trial. He hasn’t accepted plea offerings, but that might change now that the prosecution has a “star witness.” That person isn’t Daunis, and it’s not Stormy, who has said nothing in English since his arrest. (Stormy’s parents speak to him in Anishinaabemowin when they visit daily, and they drum outside the prison each night.) Mike is still at large; his parents divorced. The star witness is Coach Bobby. When he accepted the plea deal to testify against Levi, Daunis started having nightmares about not being able to crash Coach Bobby’s car and being taken to cook meth. She burns sweetgrass, prays, and wears Dad’s choker when she has those dreams. On Sunday, Daunis prays for love. Today her mourning period for Lily ends, and she’ll dance for the first time since Uncle David died. Daunis asks to braid Pauline’s and Perry’s hair for the Grand Entry so she can tell them about her college plans: she’s going to the University of Hawaii to study ethnobotany. Ethnobotany “look[s] at things with Indigenous eyes,” and she’ll also apprentice with Seeney Nimkee so she can eventually be a traditional medicine practitioner and a scientist. Pauline and Perry ask if they can go to museums and surf when they visit. Then, Pauline asks if college is like a boarding school. Daunis asks why she asks, and Pauline describes how the government used to take kids, not give them back, and punish them for speaking Anishinaabemowin. Daunis is emotional. Art and Auntie clearly decided Pauline and Perry were ready for “the talk,” and she’s sad these bright girls now know about the trauma their community has suffered—and still suffers. But she’s also proud, because the girls are making the ancestors’ dreams come true. She explains that college isn’t like that kind of boarding school; she can study what she wants and leave if she doesn’t feel safe. Hugging the girls, Daunis says it’s good to know their history, even if it’s sad. The girls trill perfect lee-lees and run to get dressed. Daunis puts on her red Jingle Dress, with the 365 cones that Daunis sewed on one per day for a year as Auntie taught her about being a strong Nish kwe. She puts on a leather belt from Gramma Pearl, a beaded bag from Auntie, and a velvet yoke beaded with yellow pansies. Finally, she adds Dad’s choker, blueberry earrings from Mom, the strawberry bracelet from Jamie, and GrandMary’s red lipstick. Auntie attaches an eagle feather to Daunis’s head. Daunis joins Perry and Pauline for pictures and thinks of the envelope she received recently, which contained two postcards and no return address. One postcard of a Minnesota lake said, “The kids are all right,” and the other, of University of Wisconsin, said, “Someday.” Daunis dances simply as she enters for the Grand Entry. She leads Pauline, Perry, and Auntie through the honor beats. Late in the afternoon, the emcee calls for Jingle dancers with red dresses to dance and tells the Jingle Dress’s story. A sick girl’s father experienced a vision: a dress with jingly cones, which would heal the girl as she danced. The Jingle Dance, the emcee explains, represents healing, and the red dresses represent Anishinaabe women—specifically those who are murdered or missing. Seven girls and women, ranging from ages five to 50, enter the arena. Daunis sees Mom smile. Mom knows now that letting Daunis go isn’t losing her. Daunis remembers Granny June telling her about boats made for oceans and rivers, and those that can go anywhere “because they always know the way home.” She recalls telling Seeney about the ethnobotany program after Seeney invited Daunis to be her apprentice. Daunis asked if she could study both ways, and Seeney said they’ve always adapted. Daunis studies her community and then dances and prays for Lily, Robin, Heather, herself, and all the girls who are seen as invisible and expendable. She introduces herself to Creator and asks them to keep her community strong and safe. She thanks Creator for her good life. When the song ends, Daunis is ready to start her next journey. Thu, 25 May 2023 00:23:59 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072022 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072022 Thu, 25 May 2023 00:13:21 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072021 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072021 Thu, 25 May 2023 00:12:14 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072020 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072020 Thu, 25 May 2023 00:11:28 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072019 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072019 A small boy visits Daunis. The boy’s eyes remind her of Grandpa Lorenzo’s, and he has brown curly hair with strands of copper. Daunis takes the boy’s hand, and a bigger hand appears on top of hers. For a moment, everything is perfect. Daunis wakes up to Jamie’s hand on hers, 12 days after she died on Sugar Island. He apologizes for taking so long to visit; he had to wrap up investigation stuff. They discuss that when Daunis gets out of the hospital tomorrow, she’ll move into a nearby apartment with Mom so she can more easily come to appointments. When Mom goes home, Daunis will stay here. Jamie begins to cry. He apologizes for involving Daunis and for Lily and Uncle David’s deaths. Daunis doesn’t comfort him; he needs to know that investigations have consequences and hurt people. Loving her doesn’t change that he also thought it was okay to use her to boost his career. When he stops crying, Daunis tells Jamie he needs to find his own community. He says he really is Cherokee, and everything they shared felt realer than his real life. Daunis maintains that Jamie isn’t cut out for undercover work, if only because he doesn’t know what’s true and what’s a lie. Frantically, Jamie says he wants to be with Daunis. They can go to any school she wants and pretend to meet as strangers. He insists that his feelings for her have been real from the beginning, and he can’t find where he came from without her. Daunis knows she wants to be with Jamie—but she also remembers Travis telling Lily that he needed her and couldn’t do it without her. Granny June’s warning that “Things end how they start” also plays through her head. Daunis and Jamie’s relationship started with deception, but Daunis decides to end it with the truth. Daunis tells Jamie that she loves him and wants him to find himself, but they both have to do the work to better themselves. They both have to learn to stand on their own, and love means wanting your partner to live a good life, even if you’re not in their life. Jamie sits for a minute and then finally kisses Daunis’s hand and nose. He leaves the room without looking back. Once Daunis has imagined Jamie driving away, she says that they named their son, the boy from her dream, Waabun. That’s the eastern direction. But Daunis realizes she doesn’t know what their son’s last name would be. Thu, 25 May 2023 00:10:21 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072003 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072003 Wed, 24 May 2023 23:56:42 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072002 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072002 Three days after she almost dies, Daunis wakes up foggy and can tell instantly that something is wrong. Mom says that GrandMary died this morning, but Daunis says she died after a party. Mom continues that Daunis can’t go to the funeral because she’s at the University of Michigan ICU; Auntie is home making the arrangements for GrandMary. She suggests that GrandMary has been “in between” since Daunis graduated, and maybe she waited until Daunis was away to actually die. Daunis says that’s weird, not comforting. Several days later, Daunis describes her race off the ferry and crashing Coach Bobby’s car in great detail. She continues that the crash tore her liver, and she eventually went into shock due to blood loss. Now, she says that after three days unconscious and three more in the ICU, she’s here answering Dr. Roulain’s questions. The doctor says that Daunis is clearly just fine mentally, but she’ll need to stay in the hospital for a week. Fortunately, the liver is the only internal organ that can regenerate, but Daunis will need to not play hockey for six months to a year for her safety. Daunis says she gave up hockey due to nerve damage. Once Dr. Roulain is gone, Daunis prepares herself and then, remembering that Mom said Daunis doesn’t need to protect her feelings, begins telling Mom her secrets. She says that Uncle David was helping the FBI research hallucinogenic mushrooms that might’ve been added to meth. He’d gone to see Dana about Levi when he went missing. Mom says that David will be happy knowing that she, Daunis, and his students know the truth—his death was the result of foul play. Auntie visits with medicine: sage, cedar, sweetgrass, and tobacco. Daunis knows now that Auntie has been a great friend to Mom for Daunis’s entire life. Auntie followed GrandMary’s wishes regarding her funeral plans. Daunis also knows now that she and GrandMary love each other—when loved ones die, the love stays alive. Ron visits soon after Daunis moves to the regular hospital ward. Mom scolds him for putting Daunis in danger, and Auntie asks who his tribe is and if his family knows what he does. Ron says he’s an agent because they need “good people” in these agencies to help the tribes. Auntie just scoffs. He says nobody in local Tribal law enforcement was involved; involving Tribal officers hasn’t gone well in the past, as officers have alerted family members. Then, Ron tells Daunis what he can: Levi has been charged with several crimes, and Daunis will have to go to court, too, since Levi used her name for the wire transfers. They found Heather’s flip-flop in Levi’s closet. Daunis says it wasn’t there when she searched his closet; she’s sure Mike put it there. She tells Ron to watch Levi’s face when they question him about the flip-flop; he’ll know he’s been set up, though he might not turn on Mike. Ron continues that Mike is missing. He’s probably in Canada, and his parents are devastated. Daunis asks about Stormy, and Ron says that Stormy has stayed silent since they took him into custody. If he never talks, which seems likely, Stormy will be held in contempt of court and stay in jail. Daunis realizes that Levi and Stormy are going to sit in jail while Mike goes free. Ron apologizes. He says that Coach Bobby has been charged, too. Daunis realizes she missed the signs, like his fancy car and his cabin’s renovation. She still doesn’t know how he could be so kind to her for years and then betray her, though Levi’s betrayal continues to hurt the most. Ron continues that Dana has been charged by the feds, and the Tribe will likely prosecute her for various crimes. When Daunis asks about Dana drugging and kidnapping her, Ron says that the trailer was on land that the Tribe purchased and put in federal trust. Auntie gasps: she says this means that since Daunis was an enrolled citizen, the feds get to choose whether to press charges. Clearly, they’re only going to press charges for Jamie’s kidnapping. Enraged, Daunis asks if Jamie shared that Grant raped her at Shagala. She says that Jamie is naïve—he expected the feds would help her more than they normally help Native women. She also says she suspects that Grant planned to rape her the moment he learned about her enrollment in the Tribe, since he knew he could get away with raping her on tribal land. Daunis is exhausted. She asks Ron to go and then leans against Auntie and Mom. After a minute, she tells Auntie that there will be a blanket party, and she’s coming. Looking old, Auntie agrees. Wed, 24 May 2023 23:56:17 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072001 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072001 Daunis wakes up to beeps, buzzes, and pain. She can identify Mom’s voice, but she can’t stay awake long enough to respond. Finally, Daunis hears Mom ask her to come back and feels Mom kiss her forehead. Daunis feels Mom spreading lip balm on her lips—or she hopes it’s lip balm and not pink lipstick. Mom would totally do that. Wed, 24 May 2023 23:45:23 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072000 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3072000 Daunis is on a large rock in the woods. It’s rained recently, and there are fires lit to her east and south. There are no fires yet to the north or west. Pansies sing to Daunis, and the world is beautiful. A drum joins in as the pansies start to dance. The flowers morph into dancing women—and then suddenly, Lily is behind Daunis. Lily is “more” now than she was in life. Everything begins to spin around Lily and Daunis as Lily puts a lei of pansies around Daunis’s neck. Lily kisses Daunis’s cheek and everything fades. Wed, 24 May 2023 23:44:45 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071999 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071999 Daunis attacks Stormy until Ron pulls her off and leads Stormy outside. Jamie is unharmed and leads Daunis outside, where officers are ushering Stormy away. Daunis raises an imaginary feather at Stormy in thanks for saving Jamie, and he nods in return. Then, she tells Jamie what happened with Coach Bobby, and Jamie says that Mike did nothing when the two-hour deadline passed. Mike left and hours later, Stormy arrived with the hatchet. Stormy said nothing until he screamed when Daunis attacked him. Hearing another scream, Daunis sees Auntie running for her. Auntie says she’s here because Seeney called and said Daunis was on the ferry with Levi and looked scared. Mom had reported Daunis missing, but nobody took it seriously. TJ approached Auntie and said that Dana and some officers were letting people clearly involved in the meth ring go free. Daunis says that Seeney, Jonsy, and Minnie saved her on the ferry, and Auntie says the Elders set up a group text after the Tribal Youth Council helped them learn to use their cell phones. Daunis is overwhelmed with love for her Elders. They’re the community’s greatest resource, and they connect the young to the past. Daunis feels giddy and dizzy, and she realizes her stomach is rock hard. She’s elated; her community will get justice—and hopefully, Grant Edwards will, too. Suddenly, Daunis gasps and collapses. She can’t catch her breath, but the sky and the fall leaves are so beautiful. It doesn’t make sense why Auntie and Jamie look scared, because nothing hurts now. The sky is purple, Mom’s favorite color. Daunis dies. Wed, 24 May 2023 23:44:04 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071996 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071996 Wed, 24 May 2023 23:39:49 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071991 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071991 Wed, 24 May 2023 23:25:21 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071990 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071990 Wed, 24 May 2023 23:25:08 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071989 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071989 Wed, 24 May 2023 23:15:16 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071988 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3071988 Coach Bobby tells Daunis to be smart. He’s always helped and defended her, but now he says that Jamie is “done” and Daunis will go to the middle of nowhere. If she cooks great meth, Mom will stay alive. Daunis knows they’ll keep threatening her loved ones as Coach pulls over to let Levi into the car. He sits behind Daunis and puts a hand on her bruise. Though Daunis feels angry and betrayed, she remembers Coach Bobby’s coaching: she can’t control bad calls on the ice, but she can control how she reacts and decide what to do next. When Levi and Coach look back toward the sound of sirens, Daunis looks forward and sees TJ—one of the good guys—coming toward them in his cruiser. Daunis jerks the wheel, causing the BMW to hit a tree and spin. She’s bleeding within moments and crawls out the driver’s side of the car. TJ has Coach Bobby at gunpoint, and his partner cuffs Coach. TJ ignores Daunis as he runs to the other side of the car. When he finally turns to her, he says paramedics are coming. He says he knows now that she’s not part of the meth ring—she and Jamie were recently reported missing and in danger, and the FBI hasn’t been telling the Tribal Police everything. Daunis finally notices Levi on the ground, his leg at an odd angle. Levi begs Daunis to tell TJ that Coach Bobby forced him to help, but Daunis backs away. She tells Levi she loves him enough to tell the truth. Then, she tells TJ who’s involved in the meth ring and that they were likely involved in Uncle David, Heather, and Robin’s deaths. Then, she says she has to go back for Jamie. To her surprise, TJ lets Daunis go. Daunis races for the ferry, passing the Elders. She asks Minnie to borrow her Mustang, ignoring Ron when he appears and asks to drive. On the ferry ride over, Daunis tells Ron everything. She drives the Mustang off the ferry before the ramp is all the way down. They reach the spot where the truck was parked and continue on foot. As they open the trailer door, Daunis screams: Stormy is bringing an ax down on Jamie’s ankle. Wed, 24 May 2023 23:03:36 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070139 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070139 Daunis leaps out of Levi’s truck and into Seeney’s car, and Seeney moves her car to block Levi from following Daunis. With Seeney’s flip phone, Daunis calls Ron and tells him where Jamie is. When she gets out of Seeney’s car, she sees that Jonsy is blocking Levi’s truck on the other side. Minnie calls Daunis to get in her car. From there, Daunis watches Seeney get out and lee-lee. Minnie joins in as Levi finally breaks free from his truck. He races for Seeney and knocks her over as he leaps off the ferry, but Seeney doesn’t stop. Daunis tries to chase Levi, but he’s too far ahead. She notices Grant’s car; he must be here to get Levi. Then, Coach Bobby pulls up. Daunis asks for help chasing Levi and to use his phone. He agrees and lets her in, but he moves his phone further away. Seeing that Grant’s car hasn’t moved, Daunis realizes that Coach Bobby lied. Grant loves publicity. If he’d donated the dream catcher pucks, he’d want everyone to know, but Coach said Grant wanted to keep that donation quiet. Sat, 20 May 2023 23:24:13 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070138 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070138 Daunis follows Levi along the shore and almost falls into the water once. She takes the opportunity to turn the watch’s tracker on. They reach a beat-up truck hidden in some pines, and Daunis recognizes it as the truck Dana used to bring her to Sugar Island. As they drive, Levi says he thought Daunis was too good to cheat. She says Grant raped her, but clearly, Levi believes what Mike told him—even when Daunis shows him her bruise. Daunis notes passing landmarks as she says that this is all so wrong. She asks if Levi was involved in Uncle David’s death, but Levi explains that Mike figured David would be more willing to make good product once he tried the meth. Mike believes David injected too much on purpose. Daunis asks about the pucks in her closet and if Levi will go along with it when Mike tries to convince her to cooperate. Though Levi insists Mike wouldn’t hurt Daunis, Daunis says that Mike is untrustworthy and disloyal. Levi takes a right turn—they’re headed north, where the tracker can pick up a signal. Daunis asks who else is involved. She’s angry, but relieved, when Levi says it’s him, Mike, and three other poor Zhaaganaash guys—it’s not just an “Indian thing.” Then, Daunis asks why Levi is involved when he gets per-cap money. Levi says that according to Dana, the casino will eventually go out of business. This way, they won’t be poor again. Dana always says to chase what you want. Daunis asks if that’s how Dana got Dad and asks why Levi lied about the scarf. Suddenly scared, Levi says that Dana told him Mom gave the scarf to Dad to remind Dana that Dad belonged with her. Levi didn’t want Daunis to wear it and anger Dana, who wanted Dad so bad that she had a friend get Dad drunk and hoped she’d get pregnant from the ensuing sex. Focusing, Daunis says that she’s not mad at Dana because she got a brother, whom she loves. Levi suggests that he and Daunis could buy the others out and run the meth operation themselves; they’d be “unstoppable.” Daunis feels her heart break as they board the ferry. Daunis asks if they’d be unstoppable because Levi gets away with everything—she knows Travis took the blame for the BB gun incident. Suddenly stoic, Levi calls someone and tells them to meet him at the ferry launch. He makes Daunis put on a baseball cap, and Daunis thinks about what Uncle David would tell her to do. She notices Seeney Nimkee in the car next to them, and Daunis gives Seeney a pleading look. When the ferry reaches the other side, the car in front of Daunis and Levi—Minnie’s Mustang—doesn’t move. Seeney mouths to Daunis to go. Sat, 20 May 2023 23:15:48 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070137 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070137 Levi and Mike enter and stoke the fire with a small log. Then, Daunis says she doesn’t trust Levi, so she’ll need Mike to assure her that Jamie will be safe. She hisses at Levi that she found Dad’s scarf, so she knows he’s a liar. Mike tells Daunis to let him unlock her chain while Jamie lies down on the bed. Daunis feigns relief, but her shock is real when Mike says that Daunis is awfully concerned about a guy she cheated on—he knows she had sex with Grant at Shagala. Mike thinks it was consensual. Jamie plays along and acts hurt, but Levi is genuinely upset that Daunis “cheated.” Mike explains that Grant won’t let him date during hockey season, but Grant has sex with lots of women, including Robin and Daunis. Mike is clearly pleased. He says he’ll stay with Jamie while Levi takes Daunis to their meth lab. Turning to Jamie, Daunis winks and apologizes for her “stupid mistake.” She hopes Jamie realizes she’s telling him again that Levi is the weakest link. This is exactly what she hoped would happen: she can deal with Levi, and she’s made Mike feel powerful. Mike says something bad will to happen to Jamie if Levi isn’t back in two hours, but Daunis remains privately gleeful. Sat, 20 May 2023 23:00:45 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070136 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070136 Mike picks up the story. He says that Travis started using his own product, added psychedelic mushrooms, and then added more “wild stuff” while he was hung up on Lily. Annoyed, Mike says that Levi was bad at using meth—and at pitching the business plan to Daunis last year. He tells Daunis that had she been involved, they could’ve gotten Travis help, and Lily would still be alive. Daunis realizes Mike is in charge, not Levi. Mike says that Daunis isn’t as smart as he thought, but he’s going to follow Grant’s advice and play the long game. As Levi leaves, Mike says Daunis has a choice: she can help Levi and save Jamie, or Jamie will die. Insinuating that he knows that Grant raped Daunis, Mike says they expect an answer tomorrow. Daunis dreams that she’s a tiger watching Jamie, a panther far from home, fail to fight off an attack from Levi, Stormy, and Mike. Ron shouts that he can’t find Jamie, but when Daunis tries to fight the boys, she realizes she’s chained to a bed. She watches Jamie die as a snake slithers up her leg. Daunis wakes up terrified. Jamie is holding her and though Daunis knows he’s not Grant, his breath on her shoulder still scares her. After getting up, Daunis sorts through her thoughts. She knows that the guys, Grant, and Angie are responsible for the meth, and Dana is involved. Levi is the weakest link, and though Mike promised to let Jamie go if Daunis cooperates, Jamie won’t go free. Daunis doesn’t know many more things, including whether Levi was involved in Uncle David’s death and how to stop loving her brother. Just after dawn, Jamie gets up to pee, and Daunis realizes that he’s also been awake most of the night. But he suggests they sleep, since nobody will come back for hours. Daunis asks him to face the wall and asks if she can spoon him. Praying for courage, she says that Grant tricked her by saying he had a security video of her snooping in his office, and then he raped her. After a long silence, Jamie says that Daunis will get out of here today. Ron will help, the FBI will get Grant, and Daunis will be okay. Daunis relaxes and falls asleep. She and Jamie wake when they hear voices outside. Terrified, Daunis promises to find Ron and come back for Jamie. She says Levi is the weakest link and that she loves Jamie. Somehow, telling the truth right now seems important. Sat, 20 May 2023 22:52:25 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070135 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070135 Moments later, Daunis and Jamie hear Mike and Levi approaching the trailer. Quietly, Jamie slips his watch onto Daunis’s leg. She must leave with the guys if she has the opportunity. Levi enters the trailer first, avoiding looking at Daunis. As Mike adds a log to the woodstove, Daunis notices the tape lines on the floor delineating how far captives can reach with the chains. Levi empties his backpack of water bottles and protein bars, and Daunis and Jamie chug a bottle each. Then, Daunis asks Levi what’s going on. He says they need Daunis’s help with a business opportunity. When Daunis screeches with rage, Levi says he tried to bring it up on the day the hockey player insulted Daunis. Daunis retorts that she thought Levi was talking about buying a house to rent to college kids, but Levi says that he used to sit outside Uncle David’s classroom while David and Daunis talked about chemicals. He realized just how brilliant Daunis is. Daunis is torn between loving the praise and feeling betrayed. Mike picks up the story and says it all started in Coach Bobby’s business class, when the guys started to wonder why city drug dealers got more money than the locals. Mike sits and urges Levi to tell Daunis how it all started. Levi says that Angie Flint started dating a guy from Vegas who dealt meth. She started selling to friends, and Travis started using. He said that the meth just made him skate faster. Mike says the guy from Vegas started hitting Angie for not meeting her quotas, and Tribal Police couldn’t do anything about it because he wasn’t Native, and he only hit her on the reservation. The Tribe got rid of him at the end of his probation period, but Travis started helping Angie with the business. Levi says that he and the guys only “invest[ed] in a growing business.” Daunis realizes Levi doesn’t know she knows he did more than invest, and she thinks that he’s behaved like this because he always got special treatment and had Travis to blame for his mistakes. Mike picks up the story. He says that Travis started using his own product, added psychedelic mushrooms, and then added more “wild stuff” while he was hung up on Lily. Annoyed, Mike says that Levi was bad at using meth—and at pitching the business plan to Daunis last year. He tells Daunis that had she been involved, they could’ve gotten Travis help, and Lily would still be alive. Daunis realizes Mike is in charge, not Levi. Mike says that Daunis isn’t as smart as he thought, but he’s going to follow Grant’s advice and play the long game. As Levi leaves, Mike says Daunis has a choice: she can help Levi and save Jamie, or Jamie will die. Insinuating that he knows that Grant raped Daunis, Mike says they expect an answer tomorrow. Sat, 20 May 2023 22:36:14 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070134 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319374?scroll_to=3070134 At first, Daunis smells pleasant smells she associates with camping. But she realizes she’s in a small aluminum trailer, and she can smell a piss pot. Jamie says Daunis’s name and pulls her close, but his breath smells awful, and she tells him so. Amused, he observes that she cares about his breath when they’ve been kidnapped. This wakes Daunis up the rest of the way. Jamie says that he totally deserved Daunis’s punch. He was just trying to boost his career, but then he got to know her. Continuing, Jamie says that Levi and Mike came to his house last night and invited him to a party. Mike tasered him and he woke up here this morning. Daunis has been here about six hours. Realizing that Dana drugged her with a date-rape drug, Daunis asks if Dana said anything when she brought Daunis here. Jamie is shocked—a guy in a snowmobile helmet dropped Daunis off and tasered Jamie again before chaining Daunis to the bed. Daunis asks if it was Grant, but Jamie doesn’t know. She flinches when Jamie tries to touch her and then says that soon, Mom and Auntie will contact Ron, and they’ll all discover that Daunis and Jamie are missing. Jamie says that Ron should be getting the satellite tracking info from Jamie’s watch. Daunis stands and listens. She can hear gentle waves and asks if Jamie has heard any Kelvin wakes. He hasn’t. They realize they’re on the east side of Sugar Island, in the cliffs and caves, where there’s no service. Nobody is coming for them. Sat, 20 May 2023 22:05:55 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070133 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070133 Sat, 20 May 2023 20:57:30 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070132 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070132 Daunis wants to be like her Auntie, a wise Nish Kwe. Her Auntie is one of Daunis's role models in life. Sat, 20 May 2023 21:18:57 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070131 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070131 Sat, 20 May 2023 20:49:50 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070106 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070106 Daunis shows Dana in and gives her a paper bag to breathe into. Then, she makes Dana a cup of tea and pours one for herself when Dana says they have a lot to talk about. Daunis grimaces at her first sip—it tastes like the soap didn’t get all rinsed out—so she pours in more milk. Finally, Dana says that Levi is mixed up in something bad, and it has to do with Travis and Lily. She talks about him going to Sugar Island to talk sense into Travis; Daunis knows now that Levi went to pick up meth to distribute. As Dana describes how insistent and selfish Levi has become, Daunis finds that she can’t hear Dana anymore. She can just hear Ron’s voice in her head, asking if she’s seen Jamie. Dana says that a teacher came to visit her as Daunis excuses herself. But when Daunis gets up, she falls. Dana helps Daunis up and says that “All you Fontaines ever do is mess things up.” As they get in a pickup truck, Daunis realizes that Light Bulb’s mom wasn’t Angie Flint. Sat, 20 May 2023 21:50:47 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070105 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3070105 It’s Dana, not Levi. Waylon barks and a squirrel in the windowsill scolds Daunis—and then leaps into the room, exciting Waylon even more. Daunis is so scared that she knocks over a lidded basket. Inside is Dad’s scarf. Levi has been lying to her. Daunis pockets the scarf and can hear Dana calling 911. Daunis exits through the garage just as Dana breaks into Levi’s room and shrieks at the squirrel. Once Daunis gets home, she locks herself in the bathroom and vomits. Remembering a word Auntie taught her, which translates to “To be wise is to live with an abundance of sight,” Daunis realizes she knows now that she didn’t realize how hard it would be to be a strong Nish kwe. She’s been searching for Levi this whole time. He’s hurt so many people, and knowing this hurts her. When Mom gets home, Daunis tries to hide the sound of her retching. But Mom offers Daunis some Gatorade and asks if Daunis is pregnant. When Daunis says she’s on birth control, Mom says she’s glad Daunis has Auntie, but Daunis can also come to her for help. Daunis lets Mom in and leans on her shoulder. She desperately wants to tell Mom her secrets, but she decides instead to say that she doesn’t want to tell Mom things because she doesn’t want to cause Mom even more pain. Mom is surprised, and Daunis says that it’s her fault for being born that Mom is “stuck in limbo.” Mom assures Daunis that children are never at fault for their parents’ choices. Hugging Daunis, Mom says that she’s making choices about her life, and nothing is Daunis’s fault. Mom runs Daunis a bath. Afterward, Daunis dresses in a sports bra that will hide the bruise on her shoulder. As she pulls a shirt on, she hears Grant telling her that the security cameras will show that she went with him willingly. Will she ever be able to forget that night? Mom approaches Daunis’s room to ask about Shagala and the gift Levi left for Daunis. Daunis says she and Jamie had a fight and then shows Mom the photo. Mom smiles; she’s clearly still in love with Dad. Then, she asks what else Levi left. He had two boxes. Daunis shrugs and Mom leaves for EverCare. Then, Daunis searches for the second box. Under her hockey gear bag, Daunis finds a box of hockey pucks. They’re the smeared dream catcher pucks, and Daunis finds them enraging—both because of the bad printing and because they’re not regulation weight. Then, she realizes the puck in her hand has a lid. Inside is poor-quality crystal meth. This is how Levi has been distributing meth in other communities, but why would Levi leave a box of pucks in Daunis’s bedroom? Daunis sits with Dad’s scarf around her shoulders and inventories what she knows. She realizes that Uncle David intended the FBI to continue on a wild goose chase after discovering the meth wasn’t hallucinogenic. He went missing after visiting Angie Flint, Travis’s mom, so Angie needs to be questioned. Grant is involved if he’s donating the pucks, and Levi is trying to set Daunis up by planting the pucks here. Just as Daunis wonders what Levi will do next, her BlackBerry buzzes and someone knocks on the door. Hiding Dad’s scarf and the puck, Daunis reads a text from Ron asking if she’s seen Jamie since last night. Daunis figures Ron is at the door, but why would he be texting if he’s here? Dana is on the doorstep, but she’s not angry to have caught Daunis breaking in. She’s afraid and says that she thinks Levi is in trouble. Sat, 20 May 2023 21:24:44 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069659 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069659 Fri, 19 May 2023 08:45:32 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069658 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069658 Fri, 19 May 2023 08:45:02 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069585 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069585 Fri, 19 May 2023 01:27:27 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069584 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069584 Ron, assuming Daunis is shivering from the cold, wraps her in a blanket and helps her into the front seat. She asks him to drive her home, and they sit in the driveway. It feels comforting to Daunis; it reminds her of when Coach Bobby would drive her home after games. Ron asks if Daunis can say what happened with Jamie, but Daunis wonders to herself why she’s so mad at Jamie and not at Ron. Ron acts like a professional agent, but Jamie makes Daunis feel important. But maybe Jamie just isn’t cut out for undercover work. Daunis says she confronted Jamie about the fake relationship; the fight was one-sided. Ron sighs that Jamie should change careers before he looks like Quasimodo. They both laugh. Inside, Daunis discovers that Mom is sleeping at GrandMary’s house, seemingly to give Daunis and Jamie privacy. When Daunis is ready for bed, she soothes herself by touching the beads on Dad’s choker and saying her Spirit name again and again. When she falls asleep, she’s back in the night Travis shot Lily. Lily is dead, and Travis tells Daunis that “They” are so mad at him. Lily, he says, is the only person who ever loved him, but she wouldn’t try “it.” “This” is the only way. When Travis lifts the gun to his head, he says that his life ended when he said he shot that BB gun. Everyone loved Levi, and Levi told Travis he’d be grateful if Travis took the fall. Not even Lily told Daunis the truth, which is why Travis had to kill her. Travis pulls the trigger. When Daunis wakes in the morning, she notices the gift Levi left on her desk. Fingering Dad’s choker, Daunis thinks of everything that happened last night—and her dream about Travis and Lily. The gift is a framed photo of Levi, Dad, and Daunis. As she studies it, Daunis hears dream Travis saying that everyone loved Levi, and Levi said he’d be grateful if Travis took the fall. Is Levi not the person Daunis thinks he is? Daunis dresses and goes outside to pray, but she’s not sure what to pray for. Asking for something could have unintended consequences, so Daunis drops the semaa and confesses that she’s afraid. She runs to the place where she and Jamie had sex. What if what Travis and TJ said about Levi is true? Mom isn’t back yet when Daunis gets home. Daunis decides to check the emailed bank statement from Canada, and if it hasn’t arrived yet, she’ll take a bath. She wants real proof; she doesn’t want to let her suspicions poison her relationship with Levi like she did with Uncle David. But when Daunis opens the statement, she sees that Levi deposited $20,000 into the account and wired it to Panama. Levi is the mule. Daunis stands in front of Dana Firekeeper’s house, which should be empty. She enters through the garage and soothes the dog, Waylon. Letting herself in, Daunis plays fetch with Waylon and discovers that both doors to Levi’s studio apartment are locked. Daunis ignores her painful shoulder, leaps to the garage roof, and pries the screen out of a window. Daunis studies the room. She can tell which parts of it are for Stormy and Mike, and she identifies what must be Travis’s old gaming chair. Daunis digs through Levi’s closet and finds his paper bank statements. Starting last October, he wired at least $10,000 per month to Panama. This coincides with when Levi became a Supe—and when Daunis turned 18. He’s been making transfers in her name. Daunis hears the garage door open. Fri, 19 May 2023 02:02:42 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069583 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069583 Daunis walks ahead of Grant to the hotel. She decides that she’ll let him tell her what he knows and then alert Jamie and Ron if need be. They get into the side elevators—Grant doesn’t want to be seen with Daunis. Daunis thinks about Jamie on the elevator ride up and then refocuses: she’ll say she was in his office to take photos of Grandpa Lorenzo’s furniture. She’d like to buy the furniture back. But when Grant opens his room, Daunis is shocked. It’s a normal room, not the Edwardses’ usual suite. Suddenly, Grant shoves Daunis face-first onto the bed and says that “hockey girls” are his weakness. Daunis wonders if he harassed Robin, too. But Daunis has no leverage to fight back. She watches from above as Grant rapes her. As Daunis takes the elevator back down, she combs her hair and blinks until it seems like nothing happened. She rejoins Jamie in the ballroom and tells Jamie she wants to dance. Daunis lets herself get lost in the music. When the DJ cues up a drumbeat for an honor song, she giggles at Jamie’s awed expression. Though Daunis can’t dance, she holds Dad’s choker up. Stormy, a wolf dancer, dances next to Daunis, and nearby Zhaaganaash men whoop back at him—they don’t get the dance’s significance. As Levi dances toward Daunis, Daunis feels lucky to have such a great brother. During the next slow dance, Jamie tries to kiss Daunis’s shoulder. She jerks away, unwilling to tell him what Grant did. He helps her put Dad’s choker on, and Daunis imagines she’s a kid dancing with her dad again. As Shagala winds down, Daunis tells Jamie she wants to go home, not to Levi’s after-party. When they pass Macy exiting the restroom, Daunis pushes Macy back into the restroom and growls at her to never be alone with Grant Edwards. Jamie asks about Daunis’s behavior when they’re safely in the truck, but Daunis refuses to say anything. Thinking back on what Grant and Mrs. Bailey said, Daunis is certain Grant harassed Robin. She tells Jamie to park so they can talk. In her head, Daunis thinks about how the conversation will go: she’ll tell Jamie that Grant is involved with the meth cell and at least helped get Robin addicted to painkillers. She knows because he offered to get her something for her shoulder right before he raped her. And after, he squeezed her shoulder and said he could make it stop hurting, laughed, and said Daunis will be back for more, just like Robin. Jamie will tell Daunis that she was stupid to go to a hotel room with Grant, and he’ll ask her why she didn’t she scream or fight back. Daunis notices that her imagined Jamie voice sounds just like her own. She realizes she can’t tell Jamie. Remembering her conversation with Ron earlier, Daunis asks for Jamie’s real name. He refuses to give it and says that it’s safer for her not to know. Furious, Daunis notes that confidential informants risk injury or death. She says that Jamie read up on her before he started on the investigation, and he knew Uncle David’s death was suspicious. He knew he had things in common with Daunis, and she’d like to know whose idea it was to bring her on. Before Jamie can say anything, Daunis punches him in the nose for endangering her. Just then, Ron drives into the parking lot. Daunis swings at Jamie again, misses, and is suddenly back in the hotel room with Grant when she hits the ground. Terrified, she punches and kicks until Ron helps her up. Ron fires Jamie, but Jamie asks what happened to Daunis. Daunis says that Jamie happened to her. Fri, 19 May 2023 01:39:38 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069581 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069581 Jamie drives Daunis back to Chi Mukwa and his car. When they get out of the Jeep, he hugs Daunis and says that their relationship and their love exists separately from the investigation, and he’s not going anywhere. He asks her to squeeze his hand whenever she feels upset and tells her again that he loves her. When Jamie arrives to pick Daunis up for Shagala the next night, his jaw drops upon seeing her. The jumpsuit is perfect, thanks to Mrs. Edwards. At the Jeep, Jamie offers Daunis a bracelet of beaded strawberries. It’s clearly Daunis’s cousin’s beadwork. As he fastens the clasp, Jamie says that the investigation can change fast, but he knows how he feels about Daunis. Daunis can feel her heart opening and starting to trust Jamie. At the Superior Shores Resort, crowds cheer as the line of couples makes their way to the building. When they hear Auntie shouting, Jamie and Daunis break away from the line to go greet her. Daunis laughs at Jamie’s hand squeezes, which seem to communicate various things. Auntie takes photos of everyone on the steps. In the ballroom a bit later, Grant and Chief Manitou begin the ceremony. Levi, as team captain, gives a speech. Daunis winces as Levi talks: he’s “doing that forced I am but a humble Indian routine.” When he’s done, she tells him he sounded fake, but Macy quips that Daunis only got into the tribe by one vote. Some people, it seems, won’t let Daunis forget that that they see her as an outsider. Levi passes Daunis’s birthday gift to her across the table. It’s not Dad’s scarf: it’s Dad’s choker from his regalia. Levi hugs Daunis and whispers that there’s another surprise at her house. After dinner, Grant and Mrs. Edwards introduce the Supes and let the players and their dates open the dance floor. As Daunis sways with Jamie, she thanks him in Anishinaabemowin and calls him Ojiishiingwe, or “He has a scar on his face.” He asks if Daunis has a Spirit name and she says she does—but she’s not ready to share. Still, Daunis enjoys dancing with Jamie, and she’s thankful when she feels nothing watching TJ dance. As Daunis heads to the restroom, Ron catches her and says they need to talk. He asks what happened last night and says that everything Jamie does is his business. Daunis says that Jamie just took her to the ER after she hurt herself at the game last night, but Ron shares how Jamie got his scar. During Jamie’s first undercover assignment, a drug bust went wrong; had backup not arrived, the person would’ve kept cutting his face. Now, Ron says, Jamie is jeopardizing the investigation by getting too caught up in Daunis. Daunis insists that they can honor the investigation and have a relationship, but Ron reminds Daunis that Jamie Johnson isn’t real. He’s just a rookie officer trying to redeem himself, and he’s using Daunis—it was his idea to get close to her. In the restroom, Daunis is stunned: how can last night have been so magical if Jamie is using her? She receives a text from TJ warning her that he’s coming into the bathroom. Though Daunis locks herself in a stall, TJ tells her that Jamie is bad news—if only because he’s friends with Levi. This angers Daunis, but TJ says he broke up with Daunis because Levi and his friends threatened to “end football” for him. Daunis remembers how Levi threatened the hockey player as TJ says that Tribal Police said he’d have a hard time getting anyone to believe him over Levi. TJ admits he was a coward for how he broke up with Daunis, but he’s not a liar. Daunis insists he’s wrong, but TJ says he’s only wrong about what kind of a person Daunis is. Daunis already feels out of control when, down in the ballroom, Grant appears next to her and invites her to his room to see a video—security footage from his home office. Gramma Pearl always sad bad things happen in threes. Fri, 19 May 2023 01:18:00 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069548 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069548 Dr. Bonasera reminds Daunis that after her surgery complications from last summer, she risks nerve damage every time she hurts her shoulder. For readers, Daunis explains that the summer before her senior year, Auntie (who’s legally able to make medical decisions for Daunis) secretly took Daunis to Ann Arbor for a surgery intended to fix her shoulder instability. She wanted to be able to play on the varsity team and play in college—but that’s not what happened. Back in the present, Jamie looks at Daunis almost angrily and asks why she played at all. She says her team lost because her sub was so awful. When they’re done at the emergency room, Daunis insists on getting cheeseburgers and a strawberry shake from the drive-in. Then, she instructs Jamie to drive down a trail in the woods, which ends at a clearing with a view of Sugar Island across the river. They kiss, eat, and watch the freighters make Kelvin wakes (V-shaped waves) on the river. As they kiss, Jamie asks if he can touch Daunis’s hair. TJ used to do that, and Daunis hasn’t been ready to let anyone, let alone someone just acting, touch her like that. But Jamie is being genuine now, so they kiss and lie down together. Snuggled together, Jamie asks why Daunis played tonight when she knew she was risking nerve damage. Daunis answers truthfully: she feels close to Dad when she plays, and she couldn’t resist the opportunity to imagine Dad cheering for her. Then, she says she’d like to have sex with Jamie. He’d like the same, but he notes that they don’t know how this is going to end. Daunis says she’d like to just focus on them tonight. Jamie agrees. They fetch the condoms Lily kept in the Jeep’s glove box, and the sex is perfect until Jamie says he loves Daunis. Daunis scrambles out of the blankets, dresses, and stays bent over, trying not to cry. Jamie, confused, confirms that saying he loves Daunis ruined everything. Daunis says she knows about “Guy Lies,” and everyone, especially Jamie, has lied to her. She remembers fishing with Dad and shares the memory with Jamie: the last thing Dad ever said to her is that he was going away and when he came back, they’d have such a good life together. Love, Daunis says, is a promise—and it’s an awful lie when a person doesn’t keep their promises. Fri, 19 May 2023 00:52:25 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069516 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069516 Emotions wash over Daunis as she enters the locker room—she’s excited to play hockey one last time, but seeing Robin’s locker is sobering, and it’s hard when Auntie texts that she can’t bring herself to come watch. Daunis and Macy exchange insults, but they cross their hockey sticks once they step onto the ice. As the game begins, Daunis feels cool and in control. The Supes are better players individually, but Daunis’s teammates know how to read one another. In the final period, Stormy crashes into Daunis. She lands on her shoulder to stabbing pain, and Coach Bobby pulls Daunis out immediately. Macy soon joins Daunis on the bench and comments that Jamie is a great player. Daunis can only wonder if Jamie is truly on her side. The guy who replaced Daunis is doing an awful job, but Coach Bobby refuses to let Daunis back on the ice. Macy teases Daunis; she’s injured and wouldn’t be able to do anything, anyway. Daunis and Macy’s team barely loses, yet Daunis can tell that Levi is enraged by his team’s performance. In the locker room, Daunis texts her doctor and Macy helps her out of her gear. Macy’s heatless taunts help distract Daunis from her pain. When she enters the lobby, Daunis is overwhelmed by the “community love” she feels. Hopefully, people remember today was for Robin. Daunis finds Jamie, who says in an awed voice that he had no idea Daunis was such a great player. She pretends her shoulder doesn’t hurt that bad as Stormy, Mike, and Levi join them, and Levi notes that the point of the game today was to get the Supes to gel. Daunis is enraged and remembers again Robin’s advice to not let a guy have so much power. Was Robin referring to Levi? But Daunis is distracted when Levi tells Jamie about Daunis’s old shoulder injury, and Grant appears and says that Tribal Council met today—Daunis is a member now. Daunis feels ill. Why is Grant so interested? Fortunately, Daunis notices Art, Auntie, Mom, Pauline, and Perry across the lobby—and Auntie is smiling. Warning Jamie to not mention her shoulder, Daunis lets Auntie hug and congratulate her on becoming a tribal member. As Jamie jokes with Art and plays with the twins, suddenly it seems like everything is perfect. For a moment, Daunis can pretend Jamie’s a real high school student, and that she’s headed off to play hockey at a Michigan school. They’ll live together at college and offer semaa each morning. A tear falls down Daunis’s cheek: Jamie is 22 and a federal agent. Finally, Daunis lets Jamie lead her to the Jeep. He asks where she’d like to get dinner, and she asks him to take her to the emergency room. In the exam room, Jamie helps Daunis out of her sweatshirt and into the hospital gown, kissing her hurt shoulder. Doctor Bonasera arrives a moment later and finds that Daunis’s shoulder isn’t dislocated. But he pulls out a pen, and Daunis asks if they have to do this now—Jamie doesn’t know. Sighing at Dr. B’s pitying look, Daunis lets Dr. B run the pen down her upper arm to just above her elbow. That’s where she can feel it; from her shoulder to that point, she’s numb. Fri, 19 May 2023 00:35:49 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069513 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069513 Daunis thinks back to when Lily broke up with Travis over Christmas break. He made lots of grand gestures that sometimes convinced Lily to try again, but they kept breaking up. He began to lose weight and his good looks. Then, the day before Valentine’s Day, Travis offered Lily “love medicine” to take on Valentine’s Day. Lily refused and weeks later, Travis looked like a true addict—he was using meth-X. Daunis knows now that Travis added the love medicine to meth, but the love medicine wasn’t what he thought it was: it gave a person control, which isn’t love. The kids in Minnesota who took meth-X didn’t get lovesick for girls, but for more meth. Daunis knows she must protect the knowledge of the love medicine. She drops Uncle David’s notebook in Ron and Jamie’s mail slot, feeling good that they’ll only learn what they need to know. When Daunis races out her front door the next morning, Jamie greets her with a “happy birthday.” Daunis prays for love this morning and wonders what Dad thought the first time he held her. Midway through their run, Jamie says that Ron is going to Marquette to enter Uncle David’s notebook as evidence. They discuss Daunis’s birthday plans and Daunis asks what Jamie meant when he said she was being clever. He explains that she was too calm, and he knows she’s hiding things—there were only 145 pages in David’s 150-page notebook. Jamie suspects the FBI will figure it out soon. Daunis asks if Jamie can trust that she removed information the FBI doesn’t need, but he simply asks if Daunis can trust him. Fri, 19 May 2023 00:13:09 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069512 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3069512 Daunis drives the Jeep to Sugar Island and offers semaa to the river on the ferry—she needs help, as she has to put the clues together and figure out what Jamie meant, not sit for a lecture. At the house, Auntie leads Daunis to the clearing, where Art is tending the fire for a sweat lodge. Auntie snaps that it’s an “Intervention sweat”; she made this ceremony up. Daunis puts on the cotton skirt Auntie offers here and then she and Auntie smudge themselves with the female variety of sage. She crawls into the sweat lodge, or the madoosiswan, behind Auntie, praying for humility. Daunis “gives [her]self up,” knowing she’s part of something bigger. After, Daunis and Auntie sit by the fire eating hominy soup and blueberry galette. Daunis privately remembers her “berry feast.” She got her first Moon at age 13, and she decided to do a berry fast. Daunis couldn’t eat berries, her favorite fruit, for a whole year, and Auntie even tested Daunis by taking her blueberry picking. At the end of the year, all of Daunis’s Nish kwe relatives came to celebrate her passage into womanhood. Now, Daunis is grateful to Auntie, who’s shown her how to be a strong Nish kwe. Still, Daunis knows she can’t tell Auntie what’s going on. When Daunis notices a plate of food that Art left at the edge of the woods, Auntie says it’s an offering for the Little People, who came to check on them. Daunis asks if the Little People would get angry if they discovered people messing with things they shouldn’t, but Auntie says that most people who know about “bad medicine” won’t leave it for others to find—they respect its power and want to protect others. Auntie tells Daunis to be careful when she asks about the “old ways,” and she shares a saying about bad medicine: “Know and understand your brother but do not seek him.” After they both offer semaa to the fire, Auntie tells Daunis to trust herself to listen to the things she learns that make sense and leave the rest behind. Daunis senses her relationship with Auntie changing—she’s moving ahead into womanhood, and Auntie is letting her. Auntie says she’s glad Daunis is figuring things out early and describes a guy she dated before Art, who just wanted to control her. Now, she knows that love honors both people’s spirits in a relationship. Privately, Daunis thinks of Lily’s final words to Travis, that they needed to be their own people and that she couldn’t keep supporting him. Travis, Daunis realizes, didn’t really love Lily. He didn’t want her to have a good life. He wanted to control her, and he killed her out of selfishness. Fri, 19 May 2023 00:01:23 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3068333 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3068333 Daunis continues reading Uncle David’s journal. Once he began working with the FBI, he started researching mushrooms and foraging on Duck Island. Daunis smiles—they canvassed the island in the same manner. In April, David found a parasitic mushroom that grew on a hallucinogenic host; the parasitic mushroom might also be hallucinogenic. However, it turns out it isn’t, and Uncle David writes that there is no connection between mushrooms and “bad medicine,” or meth. Daunis knows that David wanted her, not the FBI, to know this information. The last entry mentions that David went to see Light Bulb’s mom on Good Friday. Mom reported David missing two days later. Daunis sobs with grief. In the formal dining room, she thanks David for giving her the clues and the tools she needs. Daunis drives to Jamie and Ron’s house and invites them for a walk. She decides to pump them for information. She begins by saying that she’s finished canvassing Duck Island, but if the FBI began working with Uncle David in January and the kids in Minnesota got sick in February, they won’t find the same mushrooms. Daunis asks how the kids are doing now, and she asks what their hallucinations were like. Ron says they hallucinated small men coming after them. Daunis privately knows what happened: the Little People, which are real, scolded the kids, but the FBI attributed the kids’ stories to something hallucinogenic in meth-X. There was something else potent in that meth. Trying to hide her excitement, Daunis asks what to work on next and asks for a clue. Then, she realizes Ron already gave her one weeks ago, when he told her that he couldn’t tell her to search the hockey team’s bags for burner phones. Back at Ron and Jamie’s house, Ron goes inside and Jamie leads Daunis behind the Jeep. Daunis is hungry for a kiss—but Jamie kisses her forehead and says he knows what she was doing. Daunis has no idea what Jamie thinks he knows. As Daunis turns onto her street, she sees Auntie in the driveway—Daunis forgot her promise to visit at eight, two hours ago. As soon as Daunis pulls in the drive, Auntie gets out and says that Daunis can drive herself to Sugar Island or ride with her. Wed, 17 May 2023 08:17:28 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067400 Fortunately, Ron’s car isn’t at Sault High. Daunis suspects Uncle David left a notebook for her in his hidden drawer. She tells Mrs. H that Mom is still having a hard time, and she’d like to get some of David’s things out of his classroom. In the classroom, Daunis opens the big snack drawer that’s now filled with file folders. When she was 10, David showed her how to pull out the false bottom with dissecting rods. Daunis does so now and discovers a blue notebook. Sticking it in her jeans, Daunis replaces the bottom and the file folders before Mrs. H appears in the doorway. Daunis pretends to have been crying and grabs David’s rock collection. Then, Mrs. H says she hopes Daunis will reconsider going away to college—she’s not like other “Indian kids” who aren’t prepared socially or academically, adding that she’s not prejudiced. Daunis decides to read the notebook at EverCare, but she finds Mom sitting in GrandMary’s room next to an empty bed, crying. Mom says GrandMary is fine, she’s just overwhelmed. Daunis suggests they rent a movie and get takeout tonight, and Mom agrees. The next day, Thursday, Daunis drags out her errands with Granny June and picking up her dress until finally, she drives to GrandMary’s house to read Uncle David’s journal. The journal begins in September of 2003, and it’s mostly in English. Uncle David jots down questions students ask. Most students are identified by initials or a symbol; Daunis is a heart. In October, David started writing about a student identified by a light bulb. Daunis figures this kid is Travis, as he was brilliant and inquisitive. Around Thanksgiving, David recorded a question Light Bulb asked: would a poisonous plant tossed in compost poison the compost and then the crops fertilized with the compost? David spent the next month trying to help Light Bulb come up with testing strategies, but soon, he records that Light Bulb is skipping class. In December, David begins writing in code about mushrooms and Duck Island; about this time, Travis started cooking meth. In his January entries, Daunis finds David’s code word for the FBI. Mon, 15 May 2023 00:23:10 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067399 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067399 As Daunis heads to the ferry the next morning, she wonders if Travis was hallucinating or if he really saw Little People. And how can Auntie think Daunis is being foolish? TJ is so out of line. Daunis offers semaa to the river and asks for help, and then she waits in the lobby at Chi Mukwa. Studying a newspaper article about the benefit game later, Daunis is disappointed to see that Robin is barely mentioned, but there’s a huge photo of Grant, who’s sponsoring the game. As the Supes and other guys burst through the lobby doors, Daunis hides. A voice Daunis doesn’t recognize asks who Jamie’s girlfriend, “the Incredible Bulk,” is. Daunis hears a crunch as Levi punches the guy, and Mike says Daunis is Levi’s sister. Levi threatens to “end hockey” for the guy if he looks at Daunis. Daunis has never seen Levi so enraged. As Mike notices her, Levi tells the guy he punched to apologize. As Daunis tells Levi how disturbing his behavior was, Jamie passes through the lobby, totally distracting her. Finally, Daunis says she came to ask why Levi is keeping so much money in their joint account. He says he’s buying land in Ontario, but unlike Coach Bobby (who’s always looking for investments), this investment will take off. Then, Levi asks if GrandMary is going to recover, and if Daunis plans to stick around or go to Michigan. If she stays, would she like to invest with him? Daunis says GrandMary always said mixing family and business is a bad idea, but Levi says they’re special. They discuss Shagala, the benefit game, and Daunis’s birthday, and Daunis says all she wants is Dad’s scarf. Levi promises to look for it. Daunis then goes to her dress fitting with Mrs. Edwards. She’s shocked when Mrs. Edwards pulls out red, silky, fluttery pants—and the tailor wraps long pieces of red fabric over Daunis’s bust to create the top. Mrs. Edwards says Daunis is the only person who can pull this off and talks her through how she should do her hair (hot rollers, which Daunis won’t use), lipstick, and jewelry. As Daunis pays, she gets a text from Auntie asking her to come tomorrow night at eight. Remembering how Auntie has kept Daunis connected to her Firekeeper side and was even the one to share the news of Dad’s death, Daunis agrees. Daunis has never been excited to go to Shagala before. She wishes Lily, Uncle David, and Dad were here—and suddenly, she remembers Uncle David’s school desk has a secret drawer. Sun, 14 May 2023 23:49:54 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067398 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067398 Robin’s parents are Catholic, so her funeral takes place three days after her death. Daunis has seldom been to church since GrandMary said Native Catholics were like converted Catholics: lesser. She insisted Daunis was a Fontaine, not “one of them.” During mass, Daunis muses that Robin clearly didn’t take her own advice that nobody needs to be a superhero, and she wonders if Robin’s addiction started when they were both injured during a game. Auntie refused to fill Daunis’s prescription for oxycodone, but did Robin’s parents fill hers? Remembering Robin cautioning her to not give her power to a guy, Daunis wonders who Robin gave her power to. She also knows that Jamie and Ron will see Robin as an addict and a dealer. Daunis must uncover Robin’s story. That’s the only way to help the investigation and the community. Following the mass, Robin’s uncle invites everyone to the burial, lunch, and the benefit hockey game on Friday, which is also Daunis’s birthday. Daunis is playing on the Sault High team, and everyone in the community is pitching in. Saturday is Shagala. Skipping the funeral lunch, Daunis drives Granny June to the Elder Center and picks up semaa for Leonard Manitou on the way. Leonard isn’t there. Daunis barely listens to the Elders debate how to know if someone is fluent in Anishinaabemowin, and Leonard walks in just as they finish. When Daunis heads for Leonard, Auntie appears and intercepts her. Outside, Auntie quietly asks if Daunis is playing on Friday. Auntie says Robin wouldn’t want Daunis to play, that Daunis is acting odd and losing her head over Jamie, and that TJ doesn’t trust Jamie. Enraged, Daunis says she thought Auntie would be on her side. The Elders are quiet when Daunis returns to the dining room—they all know Auntie yelled and that Daunis likely deserved it. But something is changing between Daunis and Auntie, since Daunis yelled back. Focusing on her task, Daunis sits next to Leonard, passes him the semaa, and asks to hear about the Little People. She follows Auntie’s rules for asking for help—and kicks herself when, contrary to that advice, she prods Leonard to start his story in a specific spot. He describes getting lost as a five-year-old. The Little People led him through a huge boulder and then back again. He’d been gone two days. Daunis has heard the Little People can be mischievous, but not malicious. She asks if they can be angry, and Leonard says a cousin used to sniff gasoline. The cousin said once that the Little People yelled at him, but Leonard says the cousin wasn’t all there. He died when he accidentally lit himself on fire. Sun, 14 May 2023 23:02:39 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067396 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067396 Sun, 14 May 2023 22:57:40 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067339 https://nowcomment.com/documents/319361?scroll_to=3067339 Is Levi involved in the meth cell? Still in shock, Daunis arranges to receive emailed statements and hangs up. Then, she does the math—and it would make sense that Levi has so much money in there, now that he’s 18 and is getting $36,000 per year in per-cap payments. She’s ashamed for thinking the worst of him, just like she did with David. Still, something feels off, and she struggles to fall asleep. When Daunis falls asleep, she dreams again of Travis shooting Lily. Travis points the gun at Daunis’s face and asks if Daunis is real—the Little People won’t leave him alone. At this, he slashes at the air before pointing the gun at Daunis again. Lily asks for the gun so Travis won’t hurt Daunis. She puts her hand out, but Travis says that he can’t do this without Lily and shoots her. Then, he tells Daunis that the Little People are mad at him, and he just wanted Lily to love him. She wouldn’t try his drugs, so he added them to his “cookies.” He puts the gun to his head. When Daunis jerks awake, she realizes she’s remembering more about the night Travis shot Lily. She also recalls that Leonard Manitou has spoken about the Little People; she decides to ask him next time she sees him. Daunis becomes aware of Mom mopping outside her bedroom and talking to David in their secret language made up of French, Italian, and an invented language. Mom is saying that things would’ve been different had she told the truth. Daunis usually avoids listening when Mom talks about this, but tonight, she gets up. Mom sobs about how she and Dad shouldn’t have gone to the island, and how he clearly got drunk because he wanted to. Mom asks why she lied and said that he was driving. Gently, Daunis says it’s because when Mom went to tell Dad about her pregnancy, she found him in bed with Dana. Daunis says Mom was 16 and afraid as she takes her mom in her arms, continuing that when Mom returned from Montreal, Dad was married to Dana and had Levi. Mom says that Dana got all the things Dad promised her. Daunis knows her dad is “The king of Guy Lies.” He lied to Mom, and he was the first man to lie to Daunis. She was seven, and she hasn’t recovered. Sun, 14 May 2023 20:21:50 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067337 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067337 Daunis drives home in shock. Was Robin on campus that day because she was dealing drugs? Daunis is ashamed to even consider it, but before contacting Ron or Jamie, she identifies her mushroom samples. One seems promising, but Daunis eventually identifies it. She stews angrily for a minute before going to the kitchen, following the smell of Mom’s warm cookies. Daunis asks if Uncle David kept his journals anywhere but his home office. She’s just curious because she wonders what he was thinking about in those final months. Mom tenses, and Daunis wishes she could tell her mom more. Once the investigation is over, she can. Mom and Daunis discuss that Uncle David spent most of his last weeks at school, but Daunis recalls that he organized element sample jars by the periodic table, not alphabetically. Was that to identify if kids were stealing? Privately deciding that’s a dead-end, Daunis asks Mom how she felt about GrandMary selling Grandpa Lorenzo’s office furniture when she sold the shop. Mom is obviously still upset about it, but in answer to Daunis’s question, she says GrandMary turned over all the desk keys to the Edwardses. Auntie and Daunis go to the hospital for blood draws; they go there instead of Tribal Health since Auntie is the director and people might think she’s pulling strings to enroll Daunis. With her test results, Daunis then drives to the tribal enrollment office. Stormy is there because he can’t find his passport and wants to know if he can get into Canada with his tribal ID. In theory, he should be able to, but border patrol doesn’t always know the rules. He tells Daunis that the Supes are going to see a Greyhounds game tonight, so she offers to drive him to his mom’s house to look for his passport. Stormy makes an offering of semaa when he and Daunis are on the ferry, which surprises Daunis—but she reasons that when his parents are with it, they attend ceremonies. He becomes increasingly anxious as they get closer to his house, but Daunis waves him inside. She only goes in when Shawna Nodin invites her in and offers coffee. The house is clean, and Stormy’s school photos and a poster from the Anishinaabemowin conference last year are on the walls. The poster image is a photo of teepees set up outside a boarding school; it’s comforting to think that parents followed their stolen children, and maybe the kids heard songs and prayers and smelled the smudge. Daunis tenses when Stormy’s dad walks in. He’s never liked her much, since he sees her as Zhaaganaash. He drinks a cup of coffee, smokes a cigarette, and then tells her about how GrandMary and her friends all tried to swindle Nish artisans, including his grandpa. Daunis doesn’t know what to say—GrandMary has never liked Native people, though she loves Daunis. Just then, Stormy comes downstairs with his passport and asks Shawna for money for dinner. Stormy’s dad hands over nine dollars; Daunis knows the family probably can’t come up with more. On the ferry back, Levi texts and asks to borrow Daunis’s debit card later. Daunis says he can, but he needs to treat Stormy, Mike, and Jamie. Daunis drops Stormy off at Chi Mukwa, gives Levi her debit card, and lets Jamie give her an underwhelming kiss. A storm is rolling in, and Daunis lists the things she needs to do and figure out when she gets home. First, she needs to check the debit card’s account balance—Levi can be careless. The most recent statement she finds is from last year, so she calls the customer service line. The customer service lady says that the mailing address is Levi’s address and the current balance is $10,856.77—way more than the $400 Daunis and Levi usually keep in the account. Sun, 14 May 2023 20:02:15 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067332 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067332 Sun, 14 May 2023 19:44:16 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067331 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067331 Sun, 14 May 2023 19:34:22 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067330 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067330 Daunis is the first to board the Booster Bus in the morning. She saves Ron a spot, but Greg scoots in next to her. He says he always thought she was a good girl, but now he knows she’s a bad girl and a rule breaker. He also admires people who make “interesting choices.” When Ron boards the bus, Grant finds his own seat. Over the course of the ride, Daunis thinks about Robin. Robin was a Nodin and was well-liked—and she didn’t seem like the sort to get mixed up in meth. Should Daunis try to press Stormy for information? Ron slips Daunis a note listing all things the police found on Heather. It doesn’t mention undergarments or her flip-flops, and it lists different drugs than what Heather showed Daunis. Daunis whispers to Ron that Heather offered her “ecstasy boner pills” and didn’t have meth on her at the bonfire, but supposedly she was in Paradise after the bonfire. Her voice rises with excitement, so when Ron shushes her, Daunis says they need a secret language like Mom and Uncle David had. Suddenly, Daunis is certain that David did keep a journal of his time working for the FBI, but it’s probably written in code and hidden. She has to find the journal so she can prove David’s innocence to the Sault. For the rest of the ride, Daunis makes a plan. She won’t share it with Ron or Jamie. The Booster Bus gets back to the Sault in early afternoon, so Daunis hurries to Duck Island. One sample she collects is unrecognizable. As Daunis waits for the ferry, missed texts and calls come in from Jamie, asking where she is and if she’s okay. Daunis calls and says she’s been on Sugar Island, and he asks that she let him know where she’s going for safety reasons—she found a body on Sugar Island, after all. She hangs up when it’s her turn to drive onto the ferry. She ends up next to Robin’s mom, Mrs. Bailey. Daunis gets out to hug her and shares that Robin helped her at school a few weeks ago. Confused, Mrs. Bailey says that Robin wasn’t enrolled. She’s been addicted to painkillers and started doing meth, and they were trying to get her into rehab. Sun, 14 May 2023 19:20:06 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067328 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067328 At the end, Jaime and Daunis kiss each other in Daunis's room, but then stop because they are in an investigation. After Jaime leaves her room, she feels conflicted with her emotions on why she did that. When she was peeking outside her door, Grant sees Jaime leaving and says that he will keep it a secret. This makes Daunis even more tense and afraid. Sun, 14 May 2023 18:42:26 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067323 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3067323 Dau. leads Jai. in a corner and that pretending to be in love is best. Jai asks abt what happens when someone finds what tribe they're from. Daun talks about the adoption regulations. Jai thanks Dan. and they share their first real kiss as they part ways in the elevator. Daun meets Ron on the booster who looks tipsy. When Daun walks to her room, the woman who flahsed a truck on the bus leaves Grant's room looking a mess, and Grant looks proud. He greets Daun. and he helps her open the door, noting that "the right moves make all the differnce". She notes to herself that she has to avoid him for 2 more weeks. At the game the next day, Coach B scolds Daunis for lifting with her bad shoulder when she helsp carry the souvenir hockey pucks. The pucks in Daunis's box are blank except for smudged dream catchers on one side--and Coach explained that Grant donated them to a tribal youth program, but Grant wants to keep his donation quiet. Daunis is enraged. During the game, Daunis is given a gift bag that contains a jersey with her name on the back from the anglerfishes (Magan gave it physically). Daunis is touched. Daunis proudly hands out pucks during intermission, but she notices people crying as they receive texts. Daunis checks her phone too. Auntie texted: Robin dead. TJ said meth OD. Sun, 14 May 2023 17:32:20 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3066015 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3066015 Thu, 11 May 2023 03:30:33 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066014 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066014 Anxiously worrying about what Auntie might know about the investigation, Daunis sits down. She burns with shame as Auntie says she didn’t want to do “this” here, but Daunis has been avoiding her. Daunis opens an envelope with two photos in it, one of her, Levi, and Dad skating, and another of Dad holding her as a baby. Next, Daunis pulls out an application for tribal enrollment and a notarized letter from Mom stating that her parents wouldn’t let her put Dad on Daunis’s birth certificate. There’s a family tree and affidavits from family members, insisting Daunis is Levi Firekeeper’s daughter. Daunis has a week to submit the paperwork (until her 19th birthday), and Auntie says she and Daunis will have to take blood tests. Daunis has wanted this for a long time. Being Anishinaabe and being enrolled aren’t the same thing—but being enrolled won’t change Daunis’s identity. She says she doesn’t need a card to define her, but Auntie says this is a gift from Dad. Granny June tells Daunis to think about her children and grandchildren—people must think seven generations ahead when making big choices. Daunis also thinks about the investigation. Maybe Daunis should be part of the investigation because unlike Jamie and Ron, she’s thinking seven generations ahead. She agrees to enroll. Auntie notes that Daunis needs three affidavits from non-related Elders. Just then, Seeney Nimkee hands Daunis an affidavit, followed by Granny June, Minnie, and 23 other elders. Daunis laughs and cries on her way to catch the Booster Bus, where a woman who knows her accepts her check and offers her a beer. Daunis ignores Grant waving her over and sits next to Ron instead. Bus passengers are mostly Zhaaganaash; Nishnaabs are following in campers. Ron learns why when the sound system blasts “Don’t Stop Believin’” and women begin jumping and screaming. One even flashes a truck driver. Daunis murmurs that these same folks say “Indians can’t hold their liquor.” Daunis replays the Elders handing her the affidavits as she tries to read The Sound and the Fury. Ron finally comments that she hasn’t turned a page in 20 minutes. When Daunis says she barely understands what’s going on, Ron helps her figure out what the book is actually about: time, rather than the individual events. This almost makes Daunis cry because Ron reminds her so much of Uncle David. She fears that eventually, she’ll stop thinking about David and Lily every day. She knows this is just because “memories are fickle” and can fade, but she’s afraid of going on without Lily. Daunis feels like she’s in a fog until Grant slides in next to her at the game. Hearing a Zhaaganaash bring up per cap, Daunis considers leaving so she doesn’t have to listen to their bigotry—but she’s uninterested in crawling over either Grant or Ron. So, she sits and listens to people discuss a classmate of Daunis’s, Ryan, enrolling in the Tribe. Ryan is notorious for riling up Nishnaabs, but apparently his dad is Joey Nodin. One man in the conversation, a lawyer, crows that as part of his payment for helping Ryan enroll, he gets a percentage of Ryan’s per-cap earnings for a decade. Ron pats Daunis’s arm, and she realizes she’s clenching her fists. Daunis thinks of Lily, who couldn’t enroll because her grandpa is from Canada—her blood wasn’t pure enough. After the game, Ron quietly tells Daunis that he told Jamie to slow down the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing. He says that new field agents sometimes let their emotions get the better of them, and he could tell on Sunday that either Jamie or Daunis wasn’t acting. Thu, 11 May 2023 03:29:36 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066013 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066013 Thu, 11 May 2023 03:11:30 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066012 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066012 Thu, 11 May 2023 03:05:30 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066011 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066011 Thu, 11 May 2023 03:01:17 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066010 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066010 When Mike sees Daunis in his room, she says that she had to use the bathroom and had to get her phone. Mike seemed amused and roughly kissed Daunis. When she resists, he gets angry, saying that she has been around him and asks why she won't date him. He even says he's not afraid of Levi at all, and he says Daunis and Jamie won’t last long. Suddenly, Mike becomes aggressive and says that Daunis isn’t better than him, and Grant is right: girls are distractions. He leaves the room. Daunis is shocked by Mike’s behavior; will she learn more unsavory things about her friends by helping with the investigation? Upstairs, Daunis lets Jamie put an arm around her. As she prepares to leave later, she tells the guys she wants to run on her own so she can go slower. Ignoring Levi’s teasing, Jamie says he’d like to run with Daunis. Daunis sits in the backseat with Jamie on the ride home, appreciating that he holds her hand. She thinks it’s cute how excited he is about the Edwardses’ house and the opportunity to analyze the Supes’ games. When Ron pulls into Daunis’s driveway, she tells them about the photos she took of Grant’s bookshelf and that she couldn’t access client files in the desk. In case Mom is watching (she is, the light turns on), Jamie walks Daunis to the door and kisses her jaw. Teasing him for his poor aim, Daunis allows herself to kiss his scar. When Daunis steps outside for her run the next morning, Jamie isn’t there. This is disappointing, as Daunis has been looking forward to seeing him since kissing his scar last night. This morning, Daunis feels hypocritical as she prays for honesty. Jamie arrives as she finishes stretching. As they take off, Daunis says she’s skipping class to look for mushrooms today. Jamie tells her not to: she needs to go back to her life once the investigation is done, and maybe even go play hockey at Michigan. Daunis says that everything changed when Uncle David started helping the FBI, and she can’t play hockey. She refuses to say why—he doesn’t deserve to know about the “foolish” choice she made. Back at Daunis’s driveway, Jamie says he should run with the guys in the future. They’re just starting to accept him. She pretends not to care. Daunis is almost done canvassing Duck Island, but the leaves are slowing her down—as is her promise to herself that she can skip class and deceive people, as long as she takes care of Granny June and the Elders. Taking Granny June to lunch eats into prime daylight, but it’s worth it. Still, Daunis avoids Auntie, as she’s afraid she can’t lie well enough to deceive her. Later today, Daunis has one more engagement that will slow down her mushroom hunt: she and Ron are taking the Booster Bus to Wisconsin. As Daunis enters the dining room with Granny June, she stops suddenly: Auntie is next to Minnie Mustang. This looks like an intervention. Thu, 11 May 2023 02:56:45 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066009 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3066009 the woman. Coach Bobby convinced Travis to confess, which made people shun him. Jamie and Ron get annoyed for Daunis not telling them this and ask for more. She says more info and then says that not all people are bad, they haven't earned the Sault stories. Later tells Jamie and Ron that it is not suspicious that they have luxury cars, and Coach Bobby won his in a poker tournament. Later says that she understands why Mrs. Edwards owns the boutique and then says that her mom defended Daunis when Grandmary said that Daunis might outgrow the sizes. Notices Grant's behavior and says he is a "gross pervert". Mrs. Edwards said that she made a Shagala dress for Daunis. Coach Bobby keeps says that she should have stayed at hockey. Daunis brings up the NHL lockout (strike) to change the topic. Mike then leads Daunis up to his bedroom to set up the Blackberry.Daunis plans to leave something there so she can come back downstairs, as his bedroom shares a Jack-and-Jill bathroom with Grant’s home office. They set up the BlackBerry, Daunis drops her old phone, and a few minutes after they return upstairs, Daunis heads back down to look for her phone. Daunis locks the bathroom door to Mike’s room, turns on the fan, and then enters the office. She takes photos of Grant’s bookshelves and then tries to access the file cabinet (the office furniture used to belong to Grandpa Lorenzo, so Daunis knows where the secret key is). But the key is gone. Hearing footsteps, Daunis tries to cover her prints in the plush carpet and then opens the door to Mike’s room. He’s right there, and he says he knows what she’s up to. Thu, 11 May 2023 02:26:20 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065979 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065979 Thu, 11 May 2023 01:59:09 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065978 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065978 Thu, 11 May 2023 01:56:22 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065977 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065977 Mon, 10 Feb 2025 05:21:19 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065976 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065976 SummaryAnalysis Mom and GrandMary packed Uncle David’s things away in GrandMary’s basement after he died, so Daunis leaves Mom a note and heads over there. The house smells clean; Mom still has cleaners come twice a week so it’s ready for GrandMary to return home. As Daunis finds the “office” boxes, she remembers how GrandMary believed David would outgrow being gay, so she let Mom box David’s bedroom. If Daunis had died, would GrandMary act the same about Gramma Pearl’s ash baskets and the Jingle Dress regalia? It’s so complicated to love someone but dislike parts of them. David had a problem with alcohol and decided years ago that sobriety was for him. When he started acting weird, Daunis suspected he had relapsed. Mom never believed that. Still, there are no notebooks from the year he worked with the FBI. Daunis thinks of Uncle David and Heather all week. Granny June thinks Daunis has afternoon classes, but really, Daunis spends every afternoon foraging for mushrooms. On Friday, the fall leaves are distractingly beautiful, and Daunis isn’t looking forward to the first Supes game tonight. She returns to the spot on Duck Island where she found Heather’s body and remembers how Heather has, for years, been checked-out and vacant. It got worse once the Tribe started per-cap payments. Still, she was the only girl Daunis didn’t envy at the Daddy-Daughter Dance—Uncle David took Daunis, while Heather went with her mom’s current boyfriend. Auntie always told Daunis that girls need a man in their lives to tell them they have value. Did Heather hear something different? Daunis arrives at the hockey game during the first intermission, as the other anglerfish girlfriends skate onto the ice to toss T-shirts and souvenir pucks to fans. To Daunis’s surprise, the other girlfriends welcome her warmly, especially a girl whose name might be Megan. During the second period, Daunis studies Jamie’s skating: he was clearly a figure skater. Levi, like Dad, skates like a commanding hockey player. Daunis almost bursts with pride watching him, and she remembers how supportive he always was of her hockey career. Now, she realizes she’s helping the investigation for Levi and the Supes, in addition to Uncle David, Lily, the Tribe, the Sault, and the kids in Minnesota. Daunis’s good mood evaporates after the game when, in the bathroom, Megan shows off her new tattoo: a dream catcher on her lower belly to “honor[] Indians.” Daunis finds Ron in the lobby. As Mike’s parents wave them over, Daunis whispers that Mr. Edwards is a defense attorney and runs the Booster Bus for superfans—which has a waiting list, annual fees, and supposedly, an NDA. Mrs. Edwards, who bought GrandMary’s clothing store, introduces herself first, and then Daunis introduces Coach Bobby and Mr. Edwards to Ron. Mr. Edwards insists Daunis call him Grant now that she’s graduated, and she asks about the Booster Bus. Grant offers to let them try it out next weekend. As Grant drones on about the game, Jamie, Levi, Stormy, and then Mike join the group. Stormy’s parents aren’t here—they must be “on a bender”—so Daunis compliments his performance. Then, Daunis turns to Mike. His parents host Sunday dinners for the team during hockey season, and she suspects there might be clues in Grant’s home office. She tells Mike he did a great job, but Grant casually says that Mike missed one. Quoting The Art of War, Daunis suggests it’s strategic to let a messenger live. Grant perks up at this (Daunis doesn’t mention she learned this particular tip from watching Mulan with Perry and Pauline). But Daunis asks Mike if he’d help her set up a new BlackBerry, and Grant suggests she come for the Sunday dinner and do it then. She should bring Jamie and Ron. Daunis agrees and wanders away to escape Grant’s disturbing gaze. Thu, 11 May 2023 01:49:46 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065973 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065973 Thu, 11 May 2023 01:23:01 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065970 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065970 Thu, 11 May 2023 01:18:15 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065969 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065969 Thu, 11 May 2023 01:16:28 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065968 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065968 He says it does not speak highly of her character. Daunis tells Jamie there had not been any meth in the bag that Heather showed her. Later, Daunis thinks through her situation scientifically, like her uncle taught her to do. She comes to the conclusion that he was killed because he learned something that someone else did not want him to know. Daunis goes searching for her uncle’s journals to find out what he might have. Thu, 11 May 2023 01:14:46 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065965 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065965 Thu, 11 May 2023 00:55:35 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065964 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065964 Thu, 11 May 2023 00:51:15 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065963 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065963 She sees a raven, then talks about the raven's place in the creation story, and then when she follows the raven, she ends up finding Heather's body. Thu, 11 May 2023 00:46:49 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065962 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065962 Thu, 11 May 2023 00:28:05 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065961 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065961 Thu, 11 May 2023 00:27:37 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065960 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065960 Sun, 04 Aug 2024 00:54:03 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065959 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318957?scroll_to=3065959 Mon, 10 Feb 2025 05:20:15 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3065111 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3065111 Tue, 09 May 2023 09:04:25 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3065101 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3065101 Tue, 09 May 2023 08:38:35 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3065096 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3065096 Tue, 09 May 2023 08:34:03 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3065093 https://nowcomment.com/documents/318743?scroll_to=3065093 Tue, 09 May 2023 08:22:27 -0400