Part 3, Chapter 38 Summary

Tom exists in a barely conscious world, with confusing dreams and nightmares, brought on by the pain, surgery and injections. Tom has dreams of his boyhood, his mother and the mountains. Tom dreams of the reservation, Red Dillon's place and the back-country rodeos, but the dreams always end with him trapped in the saddle of a bronco that is forever falling.

Tom recalls memories of his past with his mother - the dawn when he and his mother fled from Pagosa, bathing in the icy pool of the brook, chanting to a new day.

There is a nurse who cares for him without responding to the anger and rudeness he dishes.

The coffee smells burnt and he recalls the night he burned the barn and then he recalls the bitter coffee Meo made, the chili and everything about living on the...