The Night Wanderer

Outside the Hunter house, an owl sits and hunts for prey. It observes Pierre crawling out of the window; he brushes himself off and scans the forest, then makes eye contact with the owl. Pierre emits a perfect owl call; the owl, confused, flies into the night.

Pierre goes on his own hunt through the forests, observing the animal life around him. He recalls that, once, his name was Owl, back when he was with his parents. He has forgotten many of his memories over time. Now, he sits in his homeland after having killed many defenseless people. He heads toward the village.

At Tiffany’s first bush party with Tony and his friends, the teens sit around a large fire and drink beer and soda. Tiffany dreads going home, but she also feels awkward; she is the only Indigenous person at the party, and Tony repeatedly leaves her alone by the car. Eventually, Tony returns, but she notices over a kiss that he has recently smoked a joint; he claims that he smoked it away from her because he was thoughtful. She asks him how many of his friends know Indigenous people, and he shrugs it off, saying that sometimes his friends will hire Indigenous people. Tiffany then questions why people are looking at her strangely, and he says that no Indigenous teen has ever attended one of their parties. Tiffany and Tony acknowledge that they are each other’s first significant other from their respective races. A girl named Julie arrives, and when Tony leaves to greet her, she kisses him on the cheek. Tiffany tries to talk to some of the boys by the fire, but they leave without explanation after only exchanging a few words.

On the drive back, Tony drives fast while Tiffany berates him for his behavior at the party. She randomly shares that her mother left the family for a white man, and Tony acknowledges that her father probably hates him for similar reasons. When she questions him about Julie, he insists that they have been friends for years. The exchange frustrates Tiffany. When they arrive at Tiffany’s home, she asks Tony how he feels about her, and Tony kisses her in response, to her disappointment. She asks him to take her on a fancy date, and he agrees. As Tiffany heads toward her house, she notices Midnight shaking in his doghouse for no apparent reason. She feels eyes on her and runs inside the house, spooked, but even inside the house, the feeling doesn’t dissipate.

Tiffany takes a fly swatter and descends into the basement, but when she opens the carpeted wall, she sees unfamiliar luggage. A man asks, “May I help you?” (72), which scares her so badly that she stumbles backward and tears down the carpet. She slams herself backward and hits her head, then gets stuck in the carpet and hits her head again. A strong arm lifts her up, and she observes the guest, confused by the fact that his appearance reveals him to be Indigenous. Pierre introduces himself and explains that she has her old room back. She notices that Pierre talks without showing his teeth. Pierre hangs the carpet up again, driving in the nails with just his thumbs, then asks Tiffany to respect his privacy. Tiffany agrees nonchalantly and goes to bed.

Pierre returns outside, grateful that he did not have to take dire action to protect himself and his secrets. He recalls a memory of being Owl, his childhood self. He was adventurous and full of dreams about the world beyond his knowledge. The memories distress Pierre, and he disappears into the night to evade them.

Pierre explores the reserve and disturbs various residents. James Jack hears a thump on the roof and goes to investigate but realizes that the thump was too heavy to be a raccoon. He sees a six-foot tall figure on top of the house and panics; running around the house, he sees two footprints in the earth. As he grows more afraid, Pierre watches him from an unseen hiding place and grows hungrier. James runs for the door just as Pierre restrains himself; he barely turns around and glimpses Pierre’s red eyes watching him through the window.

Later, Rachel Stoney, an ancient stroke survivor in a senior citizen’s home, sits near the lakeside. She watches the stars silently and thinks about all the people she misses. She hears the alarmed cries of crows and sees a man standing up on a branch, illuminated fully against the moon. He disappears, and she glimpses him crawling down the tree. The next day, the staff at the nursing home find her dead from a heart attack due to the shock of seeing Pierre.

Granny Ruth gets up early to make pancakes for Keith before he goes duck hunting. As Keith prepares to leave, Pierre surprises him, making him drop his gun; Pierre picks it up with too much ease and hands it back. Pierre smells the maple syrup and delightedly tastes a drop, not daring to have more lest he get sick. The syrup sparks another memory from Pierre’s childhood, when he took the sap, boiled it, and poured it into the snow to make candy. At the time, his father told him that visitors from the east—fur traders— would coming to visit, and this excited him.

Keith notices the effect of the memory on Pierre and checks to make sure that he is all right. They bond over their similar childhood experiences of putting maple syrup in the snow. Keith encourages Pierre to stay up and see the sunrise, insisting he will “swear [he’s] died and gone to heaven” (89), which Pierre weakly says he believes. Pierre notices a speck of blood on Keith’s face and fixates on it hungrily, then asks why Keith lives alone; Keith bitterly explains that his wife left him.

Keith then experiences his own flashback to the night that Claudia left. She came into the living room and insisted that she was tired of living with him and his grumpiness and said that she was no longer in love with him. Later that night, when Tiffany returned from a friend’s house, the two of them sat together on the couch for hours in shock.

Now, Pierre makes up more lies about his family history, which Keith accepts. Keith’s companion arrives to take him hunting. Upon seeing Pierre, Keith’s friend comments that the man looks strange, but Keith attributes this to Pierre being European.