Foreward through Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis

The story opens with a foreward written by Louise Erdrich, the woman Michael Dorris eventually marries. Louise recounts a day when Adam has a seizure in the snow and she rushes to hold him and help ease him through it—the only thing to be done for him. She also talks about her marriage to Michael, how Adam immediately accepts her as "mom" but that there are difficulties later. She says that at one point, she is home alone with the kids and Adam refuses to eat. Knowing that he will have a seizure if he does not eat, she cajoles, pleads and demands but he refuses. In a moment of frustration, she yells that he need not call her "mom" anymore. Though he has a seizure the next morning, he holds onto only one piece...