Tracks

Pauline narrates this chapter, and begins with her departure from Argus. She goes to live with Bernadette, a widow with three children—Clarence, a grown man, and two teenage girls, Sophie and Philomena—and Bernadette’s brother Napoleon Morrissey on land in the northern part of the reservation. The Morrisseys are wealthy by reservation standards, keeping a 640-acre farm, though Napoleon drinks. Pauline explains that Regina and Dutch are mistreating her, and she begs for a place in Bernadette’s household where she can work for her keep.

Bernadette agrees and teaches Pauline her trade, nursing the dying and preparing the bodies for burial. Pauline accompanies Bernadette and learns how to tend to the dying.

Pauline is plagued by visions and dreams, including of the men who died in the meat locker. When she sits with dying people, she sees death come upon them. She believes that death is a form of grace (68). She sees things, does odd things, and talks to people who are not there. For example, she is once found high in a tree, asleep, and she reports that she flew up there. People begin to talk about her being not right in the head, in addition to being a liar.

Pauline carries the heavy burden of Fleur’s rape until she shares her story with Margaret, passing on to her the responsibility of how to handle the story. Now freed from that burden, Pauline begins to imagine that she is special and holy—that the many deaths that she assists with give her peace and grace. She begins to feel a calling to be a nun and starts dressing like one.

As always, Pauline is looking for a way to escape her life. Her curiosity leads her to entice Napoleon to sleep with her, though he is a much older man. They lay together, but they do not have sex. Pauline says that her curiosity is satisfied.

Pauline views Fleur and Eli’s relationship close up in her frequent visits to them. Though their feelings remain unspoken, she knows they do not welcome her visits. She is attracted to Eli, but he rebuffs her; then she begins to both desire and hate him. She plots and carries out her revenge using medicine that she buys from Moses Pillager.

Pauline uses her wiles to join Eli and Sophie, Bernadette’s pretty, 14-year-old daughter, so that they secretly come together and eventually consummate a sexual affair. Pauline watches them have sex. She tells Bernadette what she thinks has happened. Bernadette believes her, and Sophie’s behavior convinces Bernadette that Pauline’s story is true.

Sophie is to be sent away to an aunt, but she jumps off the cart and runs to Fleur and Eli’s home. She kneels outside their home for two days. Eli has run off into the woods. When Pauline reports back home to Clarence and Napoleon that Sophie is out at the Matchimanito household, Clarence runs to the Catholic church and carries the Virgin Mary statue to Fleur’s yard, where Sophie still kneels, unmoving. Pauline kneels to the Virgin and witnesses a miracle: the Virgin weeps tears that solidify into quartz. Pauline saves the tears, but they melt in her pocket, once again robbing Pauline of God’s proof of her worthiness.