Through Black Spruce

In New York, Gordon and Annie are at Soleil’s fancy party. Like usual, Annie loses sight of Gordon, which makes her feel uncomfortable. Danny, the intimidating man who Annie fears, comes up to her and calls her Suzanne. He says he hasn’t seen her in a couple of months: “I’m a businessman, from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. I was in business with Gus for a while […] Your sister, her boyfriend, they walked away owing me some money” (231). Their conversation ends when Violet comes over and Annie slips away.

Annie grows more uncomfortable the longer she is without Gordon. She thinks, “My head is full of air and light and now a dark shadow creeping somewhere up the side” (232). She decides she’ll talk in Cree so she doesn’t say anything bad, as she is on drugs. Soleil calls her over and is enraptured by the Cree language; Annie makes a good impression and then slips away when the opportunity arises. One of Violet’s friends, Kenya, warns her about Daniel, saying, “He’s connected […] They’re a plague. Once you open your door to them, they’ve already moved in” (236). The night ends when Annie writes a postcard to her mom, signing it from Suzanne and letting her know that she is alright.

Will hunts geese for himself, preparing his store for the harsh winter ahead. When he knows the family is leaving, he takes his father’s rifle and heads out to say goodbye. The old man is pleased by the gift of the gun, but when he looks through the sight, he tells Will cannot accept it: “Some gifts can’t be given […] Some things don’t want to be taken away […] Just the visions of an old man” (239). While Will is disappointed, he feels validated in how the gun speaks to him, knowing he is not just crazy.

The old man tells him that his father’s best friend got a Netmaker woman pregnant, that the two families used to be in union. They start confessing to each other, and Will reveals that he did something back in Moosonee. Instead of talking about Marius, he tells the story of his third crash and how his family died.

He had been working on his house, and instead of finishing the work, he flew unnecessarily to see the woman he had flown on his second flight. While nothing happened, he never got back to his house. His house had an electrical short and burned to the ground. He saw it from the air and knew his family was gone. He purposefully crashed his plane, wanting to die, but was saved. He resents that the “volunteer fire department showed up just in time to pull me from my plane as it sunk in the river. Not fast enough to save my wife and two boys” (242).

The old man tells Will a story about how he beat up a man so bad he was afraid he was dead, so he walked 160 miles to the next town. Turns out the man hadn’t died and didn’t press charges against him. Even so, the old man reflects, “I nearly died for what I done. Nearly froze and starved. I did what I did without knowing I was doing it” (243).

When Will returns to his camp to pack up and head to a different island for the winter, he finds a polar bear tearing down his camp and eating his geese. He takes a few shots at it from his rifle.

The old couple from the island end up on the same hospital floor as Uncle Will. Eva tells Annie that the old woman was talking about meeting him on the island. Annie has flashbacks of hunting geese with her grandfather before returning to her story.

Back in New York, Soleil arranges a meeting for Annie with a fashion designer, and she gets the modeling job. When she feels uncomfortable during the shoot, she imagines she is Suzanne, and the photographer likes her look. Annie resolves that “if Suzanne really is dead, then I will live for her. I’ll be her, if need be” (250). She books more gigs, makes more money than she ever has in her life, and enjoys her sister’s life. Violet isn’t doing as well and travels back and forth to Montreal. She seems jealous of Annie’s success.

Gordon is no longer happy in New York, and Annie knows it. He never goes out with her anymore, and he must know about her relationship with Butterfoot. The elder in Toronto had asked him to stay with Annie, to watch over her. When Annie asks if he still wants to stay, “he looks up then, holds my eyes in his for as long as I’ve ever known. They are wet now” (253).

Annie talks with Danny at a party. She confronts him about what Gus and Suzanne owe. Danny says, “There’s no getting Gus off the hook […] I believe that hook went in a tad too deep” (254). He doesn’t deny that Gus is dead but says Suzanne won’t die if she gives back what Gus stole. Scared, Annie heads home to be with Gordon but finds a note saying he left for good because he was failing her. Annie calls her mom.

Her mom tells her that she knows the difference between her daughters’ handwriting and that she has received letters from them both. Suzanne is still alive and writing from various locations, saying she will be home by Christmas. She tells Annie that Marius was shot and that she needs to come home before winter, which Annie promises to do. When she gets off the phone, she has a seizure.

During her seizure, she has a vision of Soleil and Danny slitting Kenya’s throat. Kenya’s eyes become Suzanne’s eyes. Annie is terrified and becomes more so when the door opens, but it is Gordon. He holds her, comforting her while she tells him what happened.

Devastated at the loss of his geese, Will packs up in anger and fear, still planning on finding a new location to spend the winter. He flies off with enough supplies to last him a few weeks. Landing at a spot he knows from before, a place called Ghost River close to the abandoned Fort Albany Cree, he prepares his camp for the cold, harsh winter. After building his camp, he canoes around to find water sources and signs of moose. He also visits the old fort, digging up a few old windows and exploring the area with interest.

His rifle’s scope is way off, as he learned when he tried to shoot at the polar bear. Now on his canoe, he sees a young moose and successfully kills it, but it was a bad kill. He whispers, “Meegwetch for your life […] I am sorry for the bad kill” (269). He is happy with the provisions that this provides him and reflects, “I only wish, now, the rest of those days might have ended up being so kind” (269).

Annie takes Gordon beaver trapping. She later tells Will, “I realize I like sharing with Gordon what you taught me, Uncle, over the years” (272).

Annie shares a sad story with Will the next time she visits him. Annie and Gordon are still in the city; three weeks have passed since her conversation with Danny, and he has since disappeared back to Canada. She tries to convince Gordon to return home with her for the visit she promised her mom. Worried about her partying in the city, he says, “Your friends aren’t really your friends. They’re going to hurt you” (273). He agrees to go back home with her.

When Annie heads to the party, she isn’t on the guest list. She’s confused but the bouncer whispers that he’ll let her in so long as she doesn’t say he is the one who did it. When she gets in, she sees Butterfoot and Violet kissing. She confronts Violet, lying to her about what happens to a cheater “where I’m from” (277). She then walks out, hurt and angry.