Go as a River: A Novel

Victoria is heading to town to fetch her wayward 15-year-old brother Seth back to her family farm before sunrise. (Seth also has a problematic fondness for gambling.) On the way, she encounters a stranger who introduces himself as Wilson Moon, or Wil. He has run away from working in a coal mine and has embraced a traveling lifestyle; he has just arrived in Iola. Victoria feels an immediate attraction to Wil despite being inexperienced in love. When her mother died, her father’s grief gave her the first demonstrable proof that her parents cared for each other. From her parents’ reserved relationship, she has learned “that love is a private matter” (8). Despite her inexperience, she follows her desire and walks with Wil to town, where they run into a publicly intoxicated Seth, who shouts a racist slur at Wil and threatens him.

Undaunted, Wil follows Victoria and her brother home to ensure that she is safe. On the way, Victoria stumbles and sprains her ankle when Seth passes out from inebriation. Wil carries Victoria home. Despite knowing that his helpful action is socially improper, and despite her realization that her uncle and father might see her and Wil together and disapprove, Victoria feels excited and leans close into Wil, feeling truly seen for the first time in her life.

As Wil and Victoria reach her family’s farmhouse, Victoria feels ashamed of its shabby appearance, reflecting on how her home and family have fallen into disrepair since the accident that killed her mother, Aunt Vivian, and her cousin Calamus (Cal). She thinks about how the fighting in World War II changed her Uncle Ogden from an exuberant and lively man into a broken one after he lost a leg in battle. The loss of his wife Vivian adds to his depression and rage, and he has since become a mean-spirited man who is addicted to alcohol. Similarly, her father, who used to be strong, has weakened and shrunk in his grief.

Now, Victoria’s father approaches Wil and Victoria angrily, demanding to know who the stranger is that is carrying his daughter. Seth, who has regained consciousness, attacks Wil from behind, and they get into a fistfight that Victoria’s father eventually breaks up. Victoria’s father then sends Wil away with a warning not to return and carries his daughter into the house, calling for the doctor. Victoria hopes that she will see Wil again, but she also realizes that it might be wiser for him to move on, because if he stays, it will cause trouble.

At the dinner table that night, Victoria’s father shocks both her and Seth by announcing that Seth should do the dishes, which is traditionally a woman’s job in their house. Victoria has been doing all the domestic chores since her mother’s death when she was 12, and she has not had any female role models or guidance. When Victoria got her first period, her father discovered the stained mattress and gave her a bucket and a scrub brush, telling her to clean up after herself. Victoria feels alone in a world of men and realizes that her feelings for Wil are part of her journey of maturation into womanhood. That night in bed, she dreams of her mother as a large figure holding back the floodwaters and protecting her from Seth, who is seeking vengeance.

Seth wakes up early and starts revving his run-down and barely functional car at 5am, awakening Uncle Og, who then starts a shouting match in his rage. Victoria is afraid of her brother’s extreme anger and remembers a time when he threw rocks at her and her cousin Cal in their childhood treehouse because he was jealous of the closeness between the two. She worries about Seth's dark nature, believing that he will spend his life “seeking to undo the rules others agree to live by” (43).

Victoria makes breakfast in the kitchen for the three men despite the pain of her sprained ankle. After a silent breakfast, Uncle Og brings Victoria his old crutches, surprising her with the thoughtful gesture. She is struck by the memory of his return from the war; he was bitter and unrecognizable after his injury. She also reflects on the suddenness of change and death. After finishing her chores, Victoria takes the crutches with her on her bicycle and heads out to find Wilson Moon.

On her way into town to find Wil, Victoria passes Ruby-Alice Akers, a strange old woman who is her closest neighbor. Ruby-Alice is standing in the middle of the road, reaching for her. Victoria steers around her and does not stop, remembering her mother’s dislike and suspicion of the woman; her mother believed Mary-Alice to be “too peculiar to warrant a good Christian’s attention” (52).

In town, Victoria heads into the local hotel to inquire if Wil is staying there, but Mrs. Dunlop, the owner, shocks Victoria by calling Wil a racial slur and announcing that they kicked him out of town. Victoria is surprised to learn that Wil is an Indigenous American, as she has never met an Indigenous person before. She realizes that Wil will be treated with prejudice in Iola and presumes that he must have left town. Still, she longs to see him again because his appearance led her to discover new aspects of herself.

The temperature drops, necessitating the picking of the final crop of peaches on the farm for the year. On harvest day, Seth, Victoria, and her father work alongside the three local Oakley boys. At lunchtime, another worker, Forrest Davis, shows up to help pick peaches. At lunch in the kitchen, the men discuss Wil, saying that he used the hotel washroom and stole laundry off a line before running off. Victoria catches Forrest combing the rows of peach trees looking for Wil. The next day in town, she realizes why. Ezra Martindell, the only law officer in Iola, has posted a reward posted for Wil’s arrest. Seth decides that he is going to be the one to find Wil and claim the reward.

Victoria’s ankle is still swollen, so her dad sends her to help their neighbor’s daughter, Cora Mitchell, to run their roadside fruit stand. Victoria asks Cora why people are afraid of Ruby-Alice, and Cora says there’s no specific reason; Ruby-Alice just acts differently than other people in town. Cora also says that Ruby-Alice hasn’t always been so unusual; she changed after she lost her entire family to influenza years ago. Victoria realizes that the connection between Wil and Ruby-Alice is their unjust ostracization. Suddenly, she feels certain that Wil is hiding out at Ruby-Alice's place, which is why the woman was gesturing to her out on the road that morning. Victoria leaves the stand early, pretending to go prepare lunch, and knocks on Ruby-Alice's door. Wil opens it and lets her in. She realizes that he is innocent of the accusations of thievery because he is still wearing the same clothes he had when he arrived. They kiss.

Victoria hurries back after her rendezvous with Wil to serve lunch to the workers. She feels enthralled with her secret knowledge of Wil’s location while the workers continue to speculate about his whereabouts. Wil waits to meet her secretly under a cottonwood tree, and Victoria sneaks out to meet him, lying to her father and claiming that she will go back to the fruit stand after lunch.

Victoria and Wil sneak off together every chance that they can get. Victoria is enamored with what she perceives as Wil’s healing touch. He massages the fluid out of her swollen ankle and saves Ruby-Alice's stillborn puppy by rubbing it back to life. Victoria feels as though she is becoming a woman who is able to make decisions about who to love. She also finds it satisfying to break the rules she has followed obediently all her life.

When her father and Seth leave for two days to help wrangle the Oakleys’ cattle, she tells her uncle that Cora is sick and that she is going to nurse her. Instead, she travels with Wil on a hike through the mountains to go to his hut. That night, they have sex for the first time, and Victoria becomes pregnant.

Victoria returns from her night with Wil the next morning at the same time that her father and Seth return from herding cattle. She rushes inside to start cooking breakfast, hoping that they won’t notice she has been gone. Her father and Seth are fighting because Seth got distracted by hunting for Wil, and one of the calves in the herd died due to his negligence. Despite this distraction, Uncle Og gives away her secret, and she is caught in her lie about Cora’s illness because her father and Seth saw Cora that day, healthy and well. Victoria tries to explain her lie, but it arouses the men’s suspicions. Despite the danger, Victoria continues to meet up with Wil secretly around town. She suggests that he leave town on account of the danger and Seth’s pursuit, but Wil explains that no matter where he goes, he will never be safe from racially motivated violence. He has decided to live as his grandfather taught him, not to run but to “go as a river” (91).

Seth finally gets his old car running and spends most evenings out riding in it, not returning until late. One day, Victoria waits to meet up with Wil, but he doesn’t show up and she suspects that something is wrong. She checks Ruby-Alice's house, but he’s not there either. That night, she finds Seth, returned from a drive, drunk and gloating in the kitchen about a prize even better than Martindell’s reward money. She believes that he has found Wil and killed him. Weeks later at the grocery store in town, Victoria overhears two officers discussing a recent discovery of the body of an Indigenous American boy, who was found at the bottom of the canyon, dead from his injuries after being tied to a car and dragged. Realizing that Seth must have murdered Wil for the crime of loving her, she becomes sick and faints on the shop floor.