1 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:13,259 Piss-legged, drag-assed khakis tucked into jump-boots, 2 00:00:13,259 --> 00:00:19,019 a sleeping-bag coat torn by river-bank blackberries— 3 00:00:19,019 --> 00:00:24,525 parks himself across on the bench opposite the man 4 00:00:24,525 --> 00:00:29,136 writing at a riverside picnic table. Clears his throat: 5 00:00:30,905 --> 00:00:38,605 "Asking you a favor—guess my age. Close enough. 6 00:00:38,605 --> 00:00:43,310 Thirty-eight this year, okay. Ask me a question, 7 00:00:43,310 --> 00:00:49,449 any question. Know I’m Indian, yeah? Cheyenne, 8 00:00:49,449 --> 00:00:54,226 Montana. Damn Indians, all they know is how 9 00:00:54,442 --> 00:00:59,972 to do one thing: drink. Okay, here’s the joke. 10 00:01:01,095 --> 00:01:06,147 How do you track an Indian? Go on, guess— 11 00:01:07,055 --> 00:01:12,551 I’m listening. No? Put your ear to the wind 12 00:01:12,551 --> 00:01:23,383 for the sound of the guy crying, 'Hey bro, I’m thirsty!'" 13 00:01:23,383 --> 00:01:26,720 He unstraps a sweaty watchband, pushes the watch 14 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:33,182 across the table. Digs one pocket for change—nickels, 15 00:01:33,182 --> 00:01:39,844 pennies, a dime—pours them around the watch. 16 00:01:39,844 --> 00:01:44,771 Three knuckles are bloody, the forearm protruding 17 00:01:44,771 --> 00:01:50,411 from his sweatshirt scored with long cuts, some scabbed, 18 00:01:50,411 --> 00:01:56,016 some fresh. He parts the midnight hair over his eyes: 19 00:01:56,419 --> 00:02:02,456 "Hey bro—another favor: drink with me? Take 20 00:02:02,456 --> 00:02:06,660 that watch for a dollar or two, go up to Hop Sing’s 21 00:02:06,660 --> 00:02:10,964 and get us a beer. You got to get it, bro, 22 00:02:10,964 --> 00:02:15,369 Hop Sing won’t dispense to me, damn Indian. 23 00:02:15,369 --> 00:02:21,346 So ask me a question, I’m listening. Name’s Wolverine. 24 00:02:22,423 --> 00:02:25,984 Only know how to do one damn thing—" 25 00:02:28,169 --> 00:02:34,146 He raises two fingers, points at a clutch of children 26 00:02:34,269 --> 00:02:40,384 in a wading pool. Cocks his thumb, cradles one arm 27 00:02:40,384 --> 00:02:45,661 like a gunstock, squints through an invisible scope. 28 00:02:47,515 --> 00:02:53,254 The neck tightens, pulling his lip into wolverine snarl; 29 00:02:53,900 --> 00:03:01,972 then rifle-recoil. Then the benign gaze of a full-time drunk. 30 00:03:05,034 --> 00:03:10,885 "My first rifle? Pellet gun. Plinking quail. Plink 31 00:03:11,131 --> 00:03:16,177 the rancher’s chickens when they strayed. One day 32 00:03:16,177 --> 00:03:19,775 saw this hippie thumbing on the highway 33 00:03:19,837 --> 00:03:23,414 while I was beating through sagebrush. Thought, 34 00:03:23,414 --> 00:03:27,245 Why not? Just a bigger sort of target. Didn’t guess 35 00:03:27,608 --> 00:03:31,977 I’d score at that distance, but plink—he claps 36 00:03:32,523 --> 00:03:36,735 his leg like a big horsefly nailed him, Ow! 37 00:03:36,828 --> 00:03:41,797 Goddam Ow! No idea who ambushed him. 38 00:03:43,191 --> 00:03:50,187 So I see I got a gift to sell to Uncle Sam." 39 00:03:50,187 --> 00:03:56,699 Groomed as a marksman, flown to Kuwait. Sniper duty 40 00:03:56,699 --> 00:04:02,011 plinking Saddam’s waterboys wading the dunes. Their hair 41 00:04:02,027 --> 00:04:09,395 black as his, heads poking out at sunrise in the crosshairs. 42 00:04:09,395 --> 00:04:14,643 They don’t fall to be found, pocketed like quail, they fall 43 00:04:14,951 --> 00:04:21,260 away behind dunes, unconfirmed kills. He can hear 44 00:04:21,260 --> 00:04:28,784 their water-cans leaking through the sand of his dreams. 45 00:04:28,784 --> 00:04:33,465 "Push the shirt up my arm. Farther. You got 46 00:04:33,527 --> 00:04:37,888 to push, bro, this other arm’s broke. Yeah, 47 00:04:37,888 --> 00:04:42,665 see that? Dog soldier. That’s the mark, 48 00:04:42,972 --> 00:04:47,103 like a crosshair, north east south west, 49 00:04:47,472 --> 00:04:53,048 grandfather’s four directions. Cut it myself. 50 00:04:53,432 --> 00:05:00,215 I’m a killer and I’m hurting. I can see you’re scared, 51 00:05:00,215 --> 00:05:03,223 a quail in the sage—don’t know which way 52 00:05:03,269 --> 00:05:08,464 to run. No fear, bro, my woman outranks me. 53 00:05:08,787 --> 00:05:13,759 Traded my rifle for Uncle Sam beans and cheese. 54 00:05:13,759 --> 00:05:17,320 He’s got a warehouse in Montana where 55 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:22,043 our women line up to change bullets into beans." 56 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:28,864 He wants the white man to rouse himself, take coins 57 00:05:28,879 --> 00:05:34,706 and wristwatch, raise him by his good arm to see Hop Sing 58 00:05:34,768 --> 00:05:39,671 about a canister of eight percent oblivion. He wants 59 00:05:39,671 --> 00:05:45,287 the invisible woman to trade him back one bullet full 60 00:05:45,287 --> 00:05:50,104 of all the water telescoped in the desert to plant 61 00:05:50,104 --> 00:05:56,384 beneath his wolverine chin. He wants a quail to claw 62 00:05:56,430 --> 00:06:02,975 his eyes, a mother to say No, a grandfather to sing 63 00:06:02,975 --> 00:06:12,407 West South East North, raising burnt sage in his palm. 64 00:06:12,407 --> 00:06:16,650 "Hop Sing’s is two blocks south. Drink a beer 65 00:06:16,650 --> 00:06:20,960 with me or walk me home, I’m hurting. 66 00:06:21,021 --> 00:06:24,936 This park’s a graveyard where clouds bury 67 00:06:24,936 --> 00:06:27,431 old water. Don’t turn round, bro, 68 00:06:27,431 --> 00:06:31,789 the black and whites are talking about us— 69 00:06:31,820 --> 00:06:37,228 —guess Hop Sing told them I was on the way, damn Indian." 70 00:06:37,228 --> 00:06:42,187 A police cruiser idles across the street. It’s a good day 71 00:06:42,187 --> 00:06:46,234 to walk away, the white man thinks. Then hands back 72 00:06:46,234 --> 00:06:54,589 the watch he has bought, and helps Wolverine to his feet. 73 00:06:54,589 --> 00:06:57,957 "My woman outranks me. Should I snipe her? 74 00:06:57,957 --> 00:07:03,024 Yes or no. Tell me my mother says No, tell me. 75 00:07:03,024 --> 00:07:07,520 Can you feel the shotgun pellets in my shoulder? 76 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:11,850 Like stars in the river of grandfathers. Go on 77 00:07:11,850 --> 00:07:17,130 and touch them, bro, keep your hand there—" 78 00:07:17,176 --> 00:07:22,294 When their feet reach the edge of the park, jump-boot 79 00:07:22,294 --> 00:07:26,919 and sandal, black and whites bracket them. “Hold up, 80 00:07:26,919 --> 00:07:33,964 chief,” one blueshirt says. Another bends to his shoulder-radio, 81 00:07:33,964 --> 00:07:38,783 hand on holster. “Hands out of pockets. Sit on the curb. 82 00:07:38,844 --> 00:07:46,502 Name?” The white man expects to hear "Wolverine;" 83 00:07:46,563 --> 00:07:57,971 the answer is "White Crow, Leroy." Date of birth? "1967." 84 00:07:58,033 --> 00:08:04,994 Home? "The riverbank." The blueshirts ask the white man 85 00:08:04,994 --> 00:08:11,270 the same questions; the radio pronounces him free to go. 86 00:08:11,270 --> 00:08:19,139 “Walk away, professor,” the blueshirt advises. It’s sunny, 87 00:08:19,139 --> 00:08:25,208 mayflies unregulated as a drunk sniper’s thoughts blow east. 88 00:08:25,208 --> 00:08:30,787 The writer walks north to his car, the black and whites 89 00:08:30,787 --> 00:08:36,960 separate, east and west, and Leroy White Crow, 90 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:41,517 a fresh ten in his pocket, alone again on legs 91 00:08:41,517 --> 00:08:47,549 too thin for his jump boots, wobbles south. 92 00:08:47,549 --> 00:08:52,221 His father is jailed two counties south for stabbing 93 00:08:52,221 --> 00:08:57,276 a logger in the cheek; he could use a visit. 94 00:08:57,276 --> 00:09:01,475 Somehow Leroy must get there—burrowing 95 00:09:01,475 --> 00:09:07,220 through roadside nights like Wolverine, or floating 96 00:09:07,220 --> 00:09:11,745 above Interstate 5 fog like White Crow-- 97 00:09:11,761 --> 00:09:17,109 and he will. Even if his good arm breaks 98 00:09:17,109 --> 00:09:21,123 against some windshield, even if he’s knocked 99 00:09:21,123 --> 00:09:25,366 out of piss-legged khakis by a logging truck 100 00:09:25,366 --> 00:09:31,568 and reduced to a cloud of mayflies over a ditch, 101 00:09:31,598 --> 99:59:59,999 he will go south to bring drink to his father’s lips.