Medicine Walk: Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

For a while, the kid is lost in the images of the war. When his father speaks again, he says that “Starlight” is a teacher’s name—Jimmy told him that one night in the war, saying that a man should know why he’s called what he is, and Frank should know, too. The kid says he’s always wondered about it. According to Jimmy, Starlight was the name given to those who were taught by the Star People, long ago. The Star People would come out of the stars on clear nights, sit with people, and teach them. The wisest people, the Starlights, were taught more. They were meant to become teachers and storytellers themselves. The kid thinks the name makes sense for him. He wishes he’d known about it before now.

Eldon starts talking about the war again. Waiting in the trench one night he tells Frank, Jimmy told Eldon that Ojibways used to bury warriors sitting upright, facing east toward the sunrise, with their weapons around them. This was so that they could someday follow the sun into the Happy Hunting Grounds and become warriors again.

Jimmy told Eldon that, if he got killed, he wanted Eldon to swear to make sure he got buried like that. In the darkness, he cut a gash in his palm. Jimmy marked Eldon’s cheeks with lines of blood and told Eldon to do the same. When it was done, Jimmy said this meant that now, they’ll carry each other into battle. Then they sat against the wall of the trench. Eldon looked up at the stars and wondered if somehow his dead father got to settle down somewhere and learn about the story of his name.

The lieutenant crawled through the trench and told Jimmy and Eldon that every company was sending out volunteers for advance reconnaissance. He needed to know if they were okay with the assignment. They said he could count on them, so he told them to go straight out and back and not to be heroes. They checked their weapons, coated their faces with boot-black, and then looked at each other. Wordlessly, they crawled out of the trench together.

The two crawled steadily across the open. All they could hear was wind, and all they could see was dark. When they heard voices, Eldon trembled and felt like crying. Jimmy rested a hand on his back. Then a shell hit behind them, close to their line. When Eldon started to rise, Jimmy pulled him to the ground. The Chinese started running toward them. When Jimmy jumped up and stabbed one of the soldiers through the gut, Eldon was shocked to his feet, too. He and Jimmy zigzagged back toward their lines, dodging shells. At one point, Jimmy grunted and hit the ground, hit by rifle fire. Eldon fell down beside him and pulled him close. He pulled Jimmy into the shelter of some boulders.

Hearing the broken English of the Chinese soldiers, Eldon tried to move Jimmy more securely under cover, but Jimmy screamed and started thrashing, driven wild by the pain. Eldon knew his friend’s screams would instantly give their position away, so he pinned him with a knee and covered his mouth. He also pressed his knife to Jimmy’s ribs. When Jimmy went still, he closed his eyes for a moment. Then he looked at Eldon with an expression of peace and nodded at him. Eldon twisted his knife into Jimmy as he was trained to do and leaned his cheek against Jimmy’s until he heard Jimmy breathe his last. Then he got up and ran, screaming and crying.

Eldon tells Frank that he didn’t want to die. When he had gotten back to the trenches, he’d lied and claimed that Jimmy was killed by a Chinese patrol. His body was never found. Soon afterwards, Eldon started drinking heavily and was dishonorably discharged. He was only 18, and he’s never talked about it since. The kid stirs the fire and looks at his father’s gaunt shape. He says it must have been hard to carry this memory of Jimmy all this time, and his father starts trembling, so the kid helps him stretch out and pours water into his mouth. With effort, his father rasps, “The stars are in us.”

The kid tends the fire and looks at the shapes of the stars. He tries to feel the stars inside himself, but he just feels empty. After a while, the kid says that Jimmy probably would have died anyway, but his father says there’s no way of knowing that. Nonetheless, the kid says it’s better to think that than to feel like a coward all his life. His father looks at him bitterly and says he is hard—is it because he’s spent so much time out here? The kid says he prefers it out here—there are no lies. He says he’s never been in a war of his own, but he’s still living in the one his father never finished.

The kid’s insides are churning, and he feels angry. He pokes at the fire, and his father asks if he thinks he can forgive him. The kid says he isn’t the one who has to forgive. After his father falls asleep, the kid watches him and says, “War’s nearly over.”