Five Little Indians

The novel now picks up the thread of Kenny’s life two decades after Kendra’s birth. Kenny has continued to send money back to the family, but he still periodically goes on the run. He now has an alcohol use disorder, and his liver is failing from his frequent binges.

When he sees a newspaper article about lawsuits being filed by survivors of the Indian School, he goes to visit Lucy. While there, Kendra lectures him about his abandonment of her mother. Kenny admits his fault, but Lucy defends him to their daughter, and Kendra storms out. When she returns later in the day, she tells Kenny that she’s just learned from Clara what he endured at the school. She says, “Look, I’ve hated you for a long time. Everything wrong in my life was about you. But I didn’t know all this. I just didn’t know” (253).

Later, Lucy and Kenny go to the Friendship Centre to find out more about the lawsuits. The attorney who speaks to the group assures them that the survivors stand a good chance of winning their case. Kenny agrees to tell his story to the lawyer just to try to purge his memory. Howie has also chosen to attend the presentation. He and Kenny recognize each other and renew their friendship. Howie says he would never have survived or escaped without Kenny’s help.

A short while later that afternoon, the lawyer asks Kenny to step into another room and give his testimony. Kenny is surprised at how much graphic detail the lawyer needs. After speaking about his traumatic experiences, Kenny is upset and tells Lucy that he wants to spend the night alone in his own place. He then proceeds to drink far too much and dies. Kenny then has an after-death experience in which he sees his mother and his ancestors all living together happily. He is invited to join them and is happy to be released from his pain, though he is sad to see Lucy’s grief when she identifies his body at the morgue.

A month after Kenny’s funeral, Lucy is grieving, but Kendra is reproachful of her father’s behavior. Lucy tells her daughter, “Don’t make this about me. He was good to me. Always. He was the only person in the world who really understood what makes me tick. He loved me. Love doesn’t play out like some cake recipe” (262).

Lucy points out that Kenny’s real problem was his inability to love himself. Both women are surprised to learn that he took out a life insurance policy and made Lucy the beneficiary. She will receive $300,000 in death benefits. Lucy asks for Clara’s advice, and the latter suggests buying a nicer house that will pass to Kendra eventually. The women find a suitable place, buy new furniture, and hire movers. Once all Kendra’s belongings are taken there, Lucy announces that she will stay in the old house because her memories of Kenny are strongest there.

Shortly after Kenny’s funeral, Howie moves back to his mother’s house on the Red Pheasant Reservation in Saskatchewan. He has always wanted to start an appaloosa horse ranch there someday. Howie thinks back to his sorrow that he was in prison when his mother passed away, but he lovingly repairs and tends the property that he inherited.

Kenny’s death becomes the catalyst for Howie to pursue a lawsuit of his own: “When Kenny died, the past was like tinder to the rage he had kept bottled up during all those years of confinement” (273). Howie doesn’t care about the settlement money. He just wants to speak out for the sake of all the other lost children who never got a chance to have their voices heard.

During this same period, he becomes emotionally involved with Clara. The two correspond regularly after Howie’s move. Because Clara’s old friend Mariah lives nearby, Clara is planning a visit to Saskatchewan in the fall. After her arrival, she learns that Howie must meet locally with lawyers from the Department of Justice who will decide his case. Clara agrees to go with him for moral support. Although painful, the interview goes well. Afterward, the couple goes to visit George and Vera. Clara has a surprise for Howie waiting there: a puppy that is the great-granddaughter of John Lennon.

After her visit with Howie, Clara goes to see Mariah. The old woman had told Clara years earlier that the cabin would always be her home. The elderly healer begins asking about Howie, but Clara is hesitant to start a relationship with him. She confides:

‘Most times it’s so good, but sometimes I get this feeling, this ugly feeling that he doesn’t really know me, and that when he figures it out, he’ll want nothing to do with me.’ ‘Hmmm. So, you’re still holding on to some of that Indian School garbage, I see’ (283).

Mariah advises a four-day cleansing ritual in the sweat lodge to get rid of Clara’s toxic sense of shame. During this time, Clara has a vivid dream of Lily, who assures her of her value. Lily says:

Clara, my friend, your heart is the most beautiful I ever knew. You cared for me, protected me, held me when the sickness was taking me. Clara, your spirit is blameless. Accept your beauty. Accept love. It is your due (285).

Back in Vancouver, Clara takes the time to sort through her feelings. When Lucy asks what she’s going to do, Clara announces that she’s going to take a leave of absence to figure out what direction to take next. In the near term, she’s planning another visit to see Howie.

Howie spends a quiet winter at his mother’s home, which has now been well repaired. The puppy that he named Billie Holiday is growing fast. He receives a settlement from his lawsuit that will allow him to build a better future for himself and get his horse ranch started.

In the spring, he is happy to greet Clara once more. He proudly shows her two Appaloosa yearlings that he has purchased. One is intended to be a gift to Clara: “Howie lifted her off the railing and stood her in front of him. ‘Stay with me, Clara. We can make a good life here, you and me.’ Clara looked over to the gentle hills, then to Howie, and nodded” (291).

That night, Clara hangs three bottles as wind chimes in the trees outside. The tinkling sound they make reminds her of the last positive memory she had of her own mother before she was taken. Clara is feeling a sense of peace at last. She knows that she has finally come home.