Elatsoe: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Ellie wakes up early. In the bathroom, she ponders her dream about Trevor and how real it felt. It also reminds her of a chilling story about Six-Great. Six-Great visited the Kunétai (the Rio Grande River) to investigate a series of disappearances with her pack of living dogs and ghost dogs, for whom she made dog toys out of mesquite pods. One night, a teenage boy visited her in a dream and explained that a monster with a man’s head and a fish’s body just attacked and drowned him. The boy begged her to find the beast and kill it before it killed someone else. Six-Great woke up, knowing that a person’s final breath carries them to the underworld—but that perhaps, a person could use that breath to tell someone sleeping a final message. When Six-Great reached the Lipan band later, she learned that a teenage boy had recently gone missing.

As Ellie writes Abe Allerton’s name onto her arm, Jay texts, asking if she and her parents are okay. They agree to meet at the mall later. Ellie considers cutting her hair (a traditional mourning ritual), but she reasons that Trevor might not be dead. However, she notices that Dad took down Trevor’s photograph last night, a sure indicator that he’s dead. Taking his picture down, as well as not saying his name, is believed to guard against “calling him back” as a ghost. While Ellie trusts her elders, she doesn’t understand why human ghosts are so bad, especially when Trevor was so loving. Even as a ghost, he could never be cruel or violent.

Dad is in the kitchen. He confirms that Trevor died last night; Mom has already flown to McAllen to help Lenore with Gregory and burial preparations. He confirms that the police are investigating the crash, but he’s skeptical when Ellie shares that Trevor visited her last night and accused Abe Allerton of murder. She insists it was just like when Six-Great received the message from the boy murdered by the river monster. Dad suggests they give the police a few days to investigate. However, everyone, even Lenore, currently believes that Trevor died in a high-speed crash—which Ellie insists is suspicious, because Trevor never drove fast. He was also found on a road where he had no reason to be.

Dad pulls out his map of Texas and traces the route he’ll take; he’s going to drive the van out to Mom and then fly home. Ellie insists on going with Dad and then staying with Vivian, Lenore, and Gregory to investigate. They’ll leave in two days. They locate Willowbee on the map, though it’s printed strangely, as though there was a printing mistake. It’s 30 miles from the school where Trevor worked and 10 miles from where he was found. Dad says he believes Ellie and her dream.