The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

There is a showdown between Coyote, who says she must go back to retrieve the memory box, and her father, who refuses to travel back to Poplin Springs, Washington. With complete determination, Coyote explains to her father why she must return. For the first time in years, she uses the names of her sisters and talks about her mother. She explains how the memory box was created just five days before her mother and sisters were killed in a car accident.

Coyote is supported by all the passengers, who one by one tell Rodeo that going back to his old home is the right thing to do. Slowly, he begins to yield. Coyote presses her advantage, proclaiming that turning away from Poplin Springs is a “no-go” (218). She says, if he does not take her, she will hitchhike the rest of the way alone. When at last he relents and says he will do it, she makes him promise out loud that he will.

Three hours later, Lester pulls up to an intersection that leads to Boise, Idaho and stops. Coyote is reading and begins to notice the bus is no longer moving and cars behind them begin honking. Coyote tells him the light is green, but Lester says he doesn’t know if he’s going to go to Boise. He starts talking about his relationship with Tammy. He compares his relationship with Tammy to what happened with the Billings Center for the Performing Arts. He points out that everybody on the bus worked to help Salvador perform because it was important to him. Lester says that Tammy would not have done the same. Instead, he says she is like the security guard trying to prevent the performance from taking place.

Lester says that Tammy should be the one helping him to open doors rather than the one kicking him out. Turning the bus toward Washington, Lester gives his telephone to Coyote and makes her call Tammy. He tells her what he wants to say to Tammy, but he insists that Coyote do the talking. As they speak, Tammy acknowledges that what Lester is trying to convey is true. Though they love one another deeply, they do not function well together. When the conversation is over Coyote realizes the same is true about life in general. She thinks that just because you love somebody and do what they ask you to, doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the best thing for you.

Coyote wakes up in her bed to the sound of people screaming and praying for their lives. She makes her way from the back of the bus out to the front and discovers they are going down a long hill and Yager’s brakes have failed. Concepción, who is driving the bus, swerves from one side of the road to the other and into the oncoming lane, onto the shoulder and back onto the road dodging vehicles. At last, the road levels and she manages to roll to a stop. Rodeo hands Coyote a blanket, telling her to wrap it around her waist. It is then that Coyote realizes she is dressed only in a T-shirt and underwear standing at the front of the bus. She notes that Salvador was looking away from her so he wouldn’t see.

Rodeo crawls out from under Yager and reports it will be at least two days before they can drive again because the bus has a broken brake line. There is no apparent way they can fixed it quickly enough to make it to Poplin Springs by the necessary time.

Lester and others began to search the internet to find a nearby brake line. They get hold of the woman who runs the local school district bus maintenance shop and explain the situation. Ironically, her name is Tammy. Tammy arrives and introduces herself. She shows Coyote a picture of a woman who looks a lot like her, whom she identifies as her late sister Charlene. Tammy tells Rodeo he must do a favor for her: transport a 200-pound goat named Gladys to Silver Bar, Washington.

Gladys the goat turns out to be just as cool as everybody else on the bus. The other passengers adapt to her quickly. Friction has developed between Coyote and Rodeo, and Coyote thinks that Rodeo is purposefully delaying the trip to Poplin Springs. Lester sits down beside Coyote and asks if Rodeo is going to be okay. Coyote responds with a lengthy meditation on the sadness she knows she will face and the way the bus family has helped her. Lester and Salvador listen to her solemnly, and she describes how difficult she anticipates her homecoming is going to be without her sisters and her mother. Coyote says, “it was the moment right before everything unraveled” (255).

Coyote wakes in the night and is quickly aware that she does not hear the sounds of the interstate highway. She discovers the bus is parked on the lot of a service station. Everyone else is sleeping except Rodeo, who is gone. She bursts out of the bus and charges into the service station. Lester barges through the station doors as the attendant tells Coyote that they are in Wallowa, Oregon, four hours in the opposite direction from which they should have been driving. She asks the attendant if he has seen Rodeo. The attendant tells them that Rodeo came in, bought beer, and walked out the back door. Coyote runs out the back door looking for him.

Coyote finds her dad sitting on a log in the middle of a river. She walks into the river and stands near him, calling his name. At last, he acknowledges her. He tells her he cannot go to Poplin Springs. Coyote summons her inner strength and tells him she must go on. She confronts him with the reality that she has been taking care of him all this time. She says that now it is time for her to take care of herself. He is terribly upset and tries to argue with her, but she refuses to yield any ground. She says they must be able to discuss their three missing loved ones. She says she speaks their names every morning. She sees that her words have a physical and emotional impact on Rodeo. She demands that he call her by her real name. He hesitates.

Coyote takes the bus keys from him and tells him she’s going to leave him there and have Lester drive them the rest of the way to Poplin Springs. She says that she doesn’t know if her dad even needs her. Rodeo begs her not to go. He breaks down and calls her by her name, Ella, and tells her how much he loves her. He explains that she is his compass, and he learns from her where he needs to go and how he needs to feel about the people that they encounter. He trusts her judgment. Finally, he apologizes and agrees to take her back to their former home.

Everyone is works together to complete the drive through Washington to Poplin Springs. They only stop when necessary. Calculating their trip time, they determine they will arrive two hours after the bulldozers start to work on the park. Because they are going through Yakima, Coyote assumes this time she will lose Salvador for certain. When the bus stops in Yakima, she walks down the street with the goat so she doesn’t have to see them leave. When she returns, Salvador is waiting for her. His mother has given him permission to travel along with Coyote until they retrieve the box. She hugs him and cries in gratitude.