Elatsoe: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Ellie considers what might’ve happened during Trevor’s last moments, given his last words. Was he speaking to Dr. Allerton? And who did he want to call? What did Dr. Allerton do to him? Hopefully, Trevor’s phone hasn’t been buried with him, since she’d like to check his call record. She enters Lenore’s house and sits down next to Gregory, considering whether Lenore should hear what she discovered. Deciding to loop Lenore in, Ellie hands Vivian her phone to watch the video she took earlier and takes Gregory to his playroom. There, Gregory and a visible Kirby play together. Finally, Vivian shouts for Ellie, and Lenore says Trevor’s phone is in the basement with his teaching materials.

Ellie runs to the basement immediately and finds the big plastic bins labeled “Trevor.” The first bin is all papers; the second holds his phone, as well as Trevor’s laptop and a CD collection. A third bin contains binders full of comics, and Ellie vows to introduce Gregory to comics one day if he doesn’t find these on his own. She runs upstairs when Vivian calls, and she, Vivian, and Lenore huddle around Trevor’s phone. The last call was one with Lenore, during which he vented  about putting in overtime. Ellie notes that per Aunt Bell, Trevor was attacked before he called 911. But perhaps, she wonders, it wouldn’t have helped—are EMS services in cahoots with Dr. Allerton?

Vivian announces that it’s time for dinner, but Lenore isn’t hungry. Ellie eats and then returns to the basement to look through Trevor’s school materials. Kirby accompanies her, and Ellie calls the trilobite’s ghost too. She promises Kirby that if she goes to Herotonic University, she’ll adopt a dog from the pound to keep him company. Though, he might prefer ghost companions—Ellie sometimes senses Six-Great’s dogs, and other ancestors’ dogs, when she calls Kirby. She’s too afraid to call them. Returning to her work, Ellie finds several of Brett’s assignments. None pique her interest until she finds a biography about Nathaniel Grace, whose accompanying portrait looks shockingly like Dr. Allerton. He looks like an original Puritan.

Ellie has never heard of Nathaniel Grace, and though she thinks poorly of the standard U.S. history textbook and all the people it leaves out (like Six-Great), she did well in history class. She begins to read about how Nathaniel Grace and his wife came to the New World in 1702 seeking religious freedom—and they frightened other Pilgrims. Vivian interrupts Ellie’s reading to tell her that Lenore is missing. Hoping she hasn’t gone to confront Dr. Allerton, Vivian and Ellie bundle Gregory into the car and head for the Allerton mansion.

The mansion is lit up and bustling, but Lenore clearly isn’t there. Ellie feels like she’s failing Trevor, but Vivian suggests they go to a nearby Waffle Hut to see if Lenore is there—neither of them want to suggest that Lenore might be at Trevor’s grave. But before Vivian can reverse, a pale man—a vampire—steps behind the car, and the other people around the mansion stop moving. They, too, look like vampires. The man runs to the driver’s side and points Vivian toward town. Then he says Gregory is cute, licking his lips. Vivian speeds away.

A minute later, something heavy lands on the van’s roof. Ellie climbs to the backseat to protect Gregory, while Vivian shouts at the vampire now looking in the front windshield. Kirby refuses Ellie’s command to attack, so Vivian says that the area along the Kunétai is her home and he’s not welcome here. She brakes, throwing the vampire off the car. The vampire begins to stagger and shouts that this is a public road. He bleeds from every pore as Vivian explains that the Lipan Apache are indigenous to this area, and “Euro-vamps” aren’t welcome. Enraged, the vampire turns into a bat and flies away.

Vivian muses that old curses make it hard to control “violent impulses”—and the vampire who just confronted them was really old. Now, they still have to find Lenore. As they drive, Vivian and Ellie wonder why the vampires were at Dr. Allerton’s mansion, and Vivian suggests that there’s a “wretched secret” that will explain everything. Learning the truth will be painful, since nothing can justify Trevor’s death. Vivian shares that one of her students’ dads was murdered years ago. Not even millions of dollars would’ve justified that man’s death, and her student suffered.

Just then, Lenore calls; she’s at Trevor’s grave. Jay also texts, inviting Ellie to go to the bicentennial masquerade at the Allerton mansion next week. When Ellie shares this with Vivian, Vivian is concerned: Texas isn’t even 200 years old, and the Lipan helped settlers before the Civil War. They never helped Willowbee.