Medicine Walk: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

The kid and his father go to a dive called Charlie’s. His father leads him to a deck out back, on pilings over the river. They sit at a table by the railing. The kid smokes and waits for his father to speak. A waiter brings a bottle to their table and tells “Twinkles” he owes money, so the kid pulls out cash to pay off his father’s tab. The waiter returns with coffee, and the kid grows angrier as he drinks. Finally he asks why his father is called “Twinkles.” His father explains it’s a stupid play on “Starlight.” He asks if his father is dying, but he deflects the question.

As the kid digs into a tortilla, his father drinks and watches him without expression. Finally he starts talking about the river. When he was younger, he used to float logs down it. Now he lumberjacks sometimes, though they use trucks nowadays, and it takes the heart out of the work. The kid presses him to say what’s really on his mind—winter is coming, and he has work to do back home.

Finally his father says he wants the kid to go into the backcountry with him, the territory the kid has hunted all his life. When the kid asks why, his father says, “Because I need you to bury me there.” The kid almost laughs. But he sees sorrow and regret in his father’s eyes. He denies that his father could survive the journey. He doesn’t believe that his father has suddenly taken an interest him—he never did before.

His father goes on to say that he needs his son to bury him sitting up, facing east, “in the warrior way.” The kid says his father isn’t a warrior. His father finishes his drink and says he used to be one. He needs to tell his son about that; it’s all he has to give. The kid says that will never be enough. Finally his father leaves, and the kid sits and smokes a few minutes before following. He doesn’t see his father on the street, and he finally heads back to the barn and goes to sleep beside the mare.