Summary

In third-person narration, Low Man arrives at the small airport in Missoula, Montana, looking forward to meeting Carlotta, the woman he had come down to see. Low Man is “a Coeur d’Alene Indian, even though his mother was white. He’d been born and raised in Seattle, didn’t speak his own tribal language, and had visited his home reservation only six times in his life” (121). He practices his first words to Carlotta – “Thank you for inviting me” (121), and is surprised when he is met by an older Indian man named Raymond, who insists on being called by his full name and who tells Low Man that a few days before, Carlotta had gotten married and run off with a man named Chuck. Low Man tries to figure out what he is going to do next, but is overcome by hysterical laughter...