Summary

Chapter 18 opens with the list of scents Cowney associates with funerals and death. He remembers Essie sitting at his side for support. They bury Lishie on the hillside near Cowney's parents with “two open spaces awaiting Bud's and my bodies” (142). He thinks about the nearby cemetery where whites, blacks, and Indians are buried together, and compares that to the hillside where Lishie is buried. Cowney is struck again by Bud's grief. Bud says they need to talk, but Cowney says he is returning to the resort. Cowney assumes Bud is talking about the bear gallbladders, and says he is not going to be Bud's “errand boy” (143). He says they will talk before he leaves for school, though he doubts he will be able to go at all. Cowney packs, intending not to return until the summer job at the resort ends.

In Chapter...