Summary

In Part Two, “Aftermath, 2018,” Chapter 13, “How to Fly,” Orvil Red Feather was shot during a powwow. Caught up in “what happened to him” he lay in bed reading about “survivors of shootings” online (117). Before the shooting, things had been okay. After his mother, Jamie, died, his grandmother, Opal, had taken him in and their life had felt normal. Things were different now.

One day, Opal gave Orvil a used guitar. Orvil spent his days high on painkillers, staring at the unplayed guitar. Alternately, he slipped into dreams. He had not meant to get addicted to the pills, but his mom had been an addict, too. He remembered when he took his mom’s needle and “shot some of what [was] in the syringe” into his arm (123). His mom had been sick and his brothers Lony and Loother had been crying all the time...