LaRose

At 13, Maggie feels restless in between being an adult and a child. She wanders through the woods, watching what she believes is a drug house with dogs chained up outside. She sees her favorite kindergarten teacher bring the dogs inside. Maggie walks the woods every day, seeing a variety of animals. One day, she gets attacked by an owl and goes back home early, where she finds the dog staring nervously at the barn. She finds her mother inside with a noose around her neck, standing on the green chair. Maggie tries to talk her mom down but Nola doesn’t listen until Maggie calls her Mommy and promises never to tell. Nola finally gets down. Maggie “puked for two days, sick every time she saw her mother and entered again the tight metal box of their secret” (223). Nola takes care of her and they cry together.

Hollis signs up for the National Guard and immediately finds a surrogate family. They make towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows, which Hollis excels at and builds the tallest tower. They compliment him and tell him he can be whatever he wants, especially a combat engineer, with his abilities. On the drive home, Hollis thinks about what Landreaux has told him about the military, deciding he wants to save people, not shoot them. Hollis is welcomed by his family at home, who advise LaRose on how to build a diorama. LaRose is annoyed; he calls Hollis brother and asks for his help because he wants to be left alone.

LaRose and Maggie sit in the secret cave they’ve made, eating popsicles. Maggie explains that Nola tried to kill herself and asks for his help. LaRose picks up a rock and explains that whoever has the rock has to watch Nola. Maggie feels better but doubts LaRose, who reassures Maggie that he has spirit helpers. LaRose isn’t entirely certain it will help but decides to meditate on the problem later and ask the spirits for help. Two nights later, LaRose wakes up in the middle of the night and flushes all the pills down the toilet. In the backyard, he buries the razors, the knives, the bullets from Peter’s guns, the pesticides, rat poison, and ropes. He thinks about the oven and then remembers the bleach which he pours down the drain. Maggie has nightmares and bites off all her nail polish, which concerns Nola. Nola wonders why things are disappearing in the house but decides it doesn’t matter.

Hollis goes to National Guard training even though he does not want to move. He loves living with the Irons, especially considering how close he has become to Josette. On the first day of school, Hollis thinks about confessing his love to her. Hollis decides he doesn’t want to offend the Irons by stealing their daughter, so he says nothing. Emmaline wakes up unable to breathe and calls Peter to tell him she can’t share custody of LaRose anymore. Peter tries to convince her, but Emmaline is set on enrolling LaRose at her children’s school. Peter finally relents and says he’ll talk to Nola, who they both know won’t understand. Emmaline tells LaRose he’s moving schools, and he is briefly frustrated that no one said anything to him before.

Peter believes his wife is better, but waits two days before he talks to her about LaRose. Nola confesses she thinks Emmaline is self-righteous and judgmental. “She’s holding him hostage because she wants my attention” (234), Nola argues. She admits that she’d kill Landreaux if not for LaRose. Peter takes her into the barn to have sex, even though Nola doesn’t want to in there. Nola stares at the crossbeam, reflecting on the missing rope and how she still thinks about death even though she has new love for her children. Nola calls Emmaline and hears LaRose laughing in the background, which upsets her. Maggie sees her and tries to comfort her, but Nola says LaRose is being kept against his will and that “[t]here’s nothing else in my life” (236), which upsets Maggie. Maggie tries to reassure her and then makes her mom hot chocolate, but Nola thinks only of LaRose and downs the scalding drink. Maggie is sorry for not being able to help Nola, but is also sorry for saving her. Maggie visits Josette and Snow, who teach her how to play volleyball. Maggie’s serve isn’t great, and the girls tell her to do more pushups. Coochy comes out and mocks them, so Snow beans him in the back of the head. Maggie checks on Nola, then asks her dad if she can go to LaRose’s reservation school because kids at her school hate her. Peter tries to argue, but Maggie keeps pushing, explaining how she wants to be on the same volleyball team as Josette and Snow. Peter argues that volleyball isn’t a sport, and Maggie thinks grown-ups “had no idea how fierce and cool the sport had become, how girls had taken it over” (240). Maggie finally argues that as LaRose’s family, she should be with him. Peter relents.

Romeo and Father Travis talk politics and the oddly hot September weather outside the bar. Father Travis thinks about 9/11 and how it is connected to the past which other people don’t realize. Romeo asks why Father Travis stopped trying to convert him, and Father Travis restlessly responds that there is no space between Romeo and the devil. Romeo asks for advice about Hollis joining the National Guard. Father Travis teaches tae kwon do in place of Saturday catechism classes, which LaRose attends. Emmaline watches with a stack of paperwork from school. Emmaline admits to Father Travis that she’s kept LaRose, and then asks how Father Travis is, which catches him off-guard. Father Travis reflects on how much he loves Emmaline. He goes into church and tries to open his heart, but feels stuck.

LaRose asks why Emmaline changed his school and why he’s still with her and not the Raviches, explaining Nola’s depression and how Maggie is his family, too. He asks to return and tells her she can’t go back on her promise. Emmaline feels sick, but LaRose comforts her. Even though it is difficult to let LaRose go, Landreaux drives him to the Raviches’ house. Nola and Maggie ignore Landreaux, but LaRose waves goodbye, and Landreaux becomes emotional. Nola drives Maggie and LaRose to the reservation school, during which Maggie holds her breath so her mother doesn’t swerve into oncoming traffic. Snow shows Maggie around school and introduces her to various other students as her little sister, dropping her off in physical science class. Maggie feels free of the unbearable responsibility of her mother.

The Powers

The girls try out for the volleyball team, and Maggie decides to grow her hair long and work out more after seeing the other girls. Maggie doesn’t make Snow and Josette’s team. “Maggie couldn’t serve or jump […] but she got to where the ball was, wherever it went, and popped it up […] She gave everything” (252). Maggie makes varsity, and Josette and Snow congratulate her, calling her suicidal on the court, which makes Maggie freeze and want to rush home.

Landreaux carefully makes a simple pipe for LaRose, even though he is too young to smoke it. He works on the pipe in his free time, taking it to Ottie and Bap’s house. Ottie asks how everything is going; Landreaux admits it’s difficult, and Ottie changes the subject to how he and Emmaline first met. Landreaux reflects on the letters he used to write Emmaline. Ottie admits to writing to Bap as well. Landreaux discusses how he and Emmaline got lost in each other’s addiction and then sobered up when they had Snow. Ottie reassures Landreaux that he deserves to be happy with Emmaline, but then falls asleep. Landreaux thinks about how he had been asleep until he met Emmaline and how he would disappear if she left him. His mind turns to Ottie’s Fentanyl patches, and Landreaux grips the pipe for stability.

Maggie takes LaRose to the Irons’ house, where she stays to do homework. Josette and Snow make at-home beauty treatments and invite Maggie to join, putting mayo in their hair, egg whites on their faces, and tea bags on their eyes. Emmaline joins them, and they laugh at the discomfort. Josette wants to plant a garden like Nola’s, clearing out the yard and getting free seed packets. “The dirt, though, was not like the dirt at Maggie’s house. It was filled with tiny rocks and the color was gray” (260). As she plants the seeds, Hollis drives up and admires the flowers, refraining from telling Josette that they’ll die at first frost. They go inside to eat, and Josette talks about the sugar bowl that belonged to Wolfred and the original LaRose. Even though Hollis has heard the story before, he listens to her, staring.

Old Story 1

To his excitement, Romeo gets a chance to work night shifts. His boss compliments his work and his politeness. Romeo “continued to normalize servile behavior in order to get close to many conversations—any of them might be useful” (265). He polishes floors on his hands and knees and cleans up the picnic tables outside where people carelessly throw their garbage on the ground. He does all of this invisibly and painstakingly slow so he can eavesdrop, steal files, and write notes. He learns many things, including information about birth deformities, addiction, and a girl who is revived from freezing to death and now has knowledge of the spirit world. One day, he hears people talk about Dusty’s death.

Maggie sits on the end of LaRose’s bed as they talk about Nola’s improvement. They pillow fight and Nola calls out, but LaRose and Maggie pretend they weren’t doing anything. LaRose sneaks into Maggie’s room and asks her about the boys who assaulted her. Maggie tells LaRose about them, and LaRose swears to exact vengeance despite Maggie’s protests.

Material of Time

Nola starts working with Peter a few days a week, finding that it helps her depression dissipate. Peter and Nola find things to laugh about and grow closer. One day, Nola sees LaRose playing in his room with Dusty’s action figures in conversation with Dusty. The next day, Nola burns the green chair and feels herself grow whole again, planning to get more animals and a bigger garden in the future.

Wishing Well

Romeo sings as he picks the lock of a hospital filing cabinet. He steals a paper from a file as well as some food. At home, he makes soup out of the stolen items and sings about yellowcake, thinking about all the funeral cakes he’s eaten and the ones Emmaline used to feed him when they were children. “If he had ever declared his love to her once they were grown, would it have mattered” (274)? He looks at the wall where he’s hung the information about Dusty’s murder; he thinks about how it’s no longer about punishing Landreaux, but making people see him as good as well. Romeo watches McCain speak on CNN. He reads the file, but can’t make sense of it. He thinks about the World Trade Towers and knowledge.

The Breaks

Father Travis tries to sleep, then pray, thinking of the various Gods he has known throughout his life, but realizes he is humanizing the unknowable. He falls asleep but wakes up knowing his time on the reservation is at an end.

The Fearsome Four continue to meet as a group and have all gotten bigger and more violent. They still remember Maggie and fantasize about dominating her, even though they know she has powerful kicks and is linked to the Irons. They still talk about her, justifying the assault.

Father Travis teaches LaRose tae kwon do while Emmaline watches. Father Travis explains that he is getting transferred in a few months. Emmaline blubbers incoherently. Father Travis tells her he loves her while LaRose practices fighting the Fearsome Four. LaRose asks his Iron siblings where the Fearsome Four hang out, and only Hollis answers, ultimately telling LaRose to avoid them because they are racists.

Maggie practices her jumps, impressing her coach, who gives her even more exercises. Coach calls her parents to compliment Maggie’s tenacity, surprising Peter, who allows her to practice instead of doing chores. Maggie practices in the barn. “Once, as she vaulted toward the dog, she thought that if she’d had a knife sharp enough, and with the height she could now achieve, she could have jumped up and cut the rope” (282).

Old Story 2

An elder woman tells LaRose another story about a woman who has an affair with a snake. Her husband finds out and gets jealous, so he kills the snake and makes a soup out of it to feed to his wife.

Landreaux and Ottie talk about how they both would have died if not for their wives. Landreaux knows Emmaline doesn’t feel the same way because she would survive for the kids. Landreaux refills Ottie’s bird feeder and steals two of his pain pills, taking one and thinking about how Emmaline went through three out of four childbirths without drugs. He contemplates flushing the other pill, but finds Josette and Snow slapping each other and pulls them apart. Snow mocks Josette for liking Hollis, even though he isn’t related to them by blood. Landreaux tells them to leave him alone and they gang up on him, fake fighting him. Landreaux crushes the other pill with his boot, grinding it into the carpet.

LaRose lies to Peter and searches for the Fearsome Four. He punches one in the face, telling them it’s for Maggie, and then attacks another one. Buggy, the cruel leader, hits LaRose and knocks the wind out of him before he leaves. The newly Christian one gives him a ride home, complimenting LaRose for defending Maggie. LaRose hits him in the nose and draws blood.

Old Story 3

The man tells his wife she ate the snake, and she runs to find the snake. The man puts the children in the ground. He cuts off his wife’s head when she returns and then flies into the sky. The wife’s head follows her children, who run away from her, throwing fire, thorns, and a stone in her path to prevent her from following. They throw down water in front of themselves and get trapped. They cross the river on the Great Serpent’s back and it dumps the mother’s head in the river, where it becomes a sturgeon. One brother becomes a wolf and creates the first humans. LaRose asks about the moral of the story, but the elders say their stories don’t have morals. LaRose links this story to biblical stories he’s learned. The elders explain that their stories are about trauma: “The Catholics think we are chased by devils, original sin. We are chased by things done to us in this life” (294). They explore the ethereal nature of the present, and the storyteller dies. Another elder teaches LaRose how to give directions to the dead, which will be his job later.

Romeo’s wall of information grows, starting to make sense to him as he thinks about the ubiquity of weapons of mass destruction in North Dakota. Romeo believes Condoleezza Rice controls the other politicians and adores her for it. He empties the pills in his pockets and works more on his wall.

Maggie bothers Nola until she allows her to drive to school, which puts Maggie at ease. She studies boys, wanting to control them as well, except Waylon, who asks if anybody’s bothering her, and Maggie confides in him about the Fearsome Four. Waylon walks her to class. Nola and Peter attend Maggie’s teacher conferences. Most of Maggie’s teachers provide poor reviews, except her physical science teacher, who gushes over Maggie’s hard work, participation, and critical thinking skills. Maggie makes dinner before they get home and messes with LaRose; Peter figures they are putting on a show to delight Nola, which concerns him. Nola wants to bake Maggie a cake, but Maggie doesn’t want her mom to regress into her obsessive behavior and argues for movies and popcorn instead. Maggie falls asleep before Peter walks in, disturbed by how normal his family is.

The Wars

The girls’ Warrior volleyball team plays their rivals, the Lady Planets, and the Irons and the Raviches watch from the stands. “The Warrior’s strategy was to pretend to look weak to the Pluto team. They would even pretend to argue” (303). Buggy’s sister is on the Pluto team and tries to psych out Maggie by telling her she wanted to be assaulted. Maggie keeps the number of kills tallied, wanting to make headlines as the Girl of 1,000 kills. Buggy’s sister gets two kills off Maggie, which frustrates her. At the tie breaker fifth game, both sides feel incredibly competitive and the energy has shifted for the parents as well, who are supposed to abide by a code of conduct. Nola worries when Maggie steps up to serve, especially after Maggie serves into the net. Maggie assists in the team’s next point and then gets a kill off Buggy’s sister’s serve. Nola loses herself in the competition, screaming for Maggie, until Buggy’s mom behind her yells at her. Both families fight, and the group gets ejected from the game. Meanwhile, Maggie pegs Buggy’s sister in the nose with a volleyball and gets a yellow card. The Warriors win, and Emmaline offers to bring Maggie back home, then hugs Nola before she has a chance to get away. Maggie explains some of the drama between her and Buggy’s family to Snow and Josette.

Father Travis questions his admission to Emmaline, turning it over in his mind and even messes up tae kwon do class. Afterward, LaRose explains what happened with the Fearsome Four. Father Travis should take LaRose’s belt, but since LaRose told the truth, he won’t. Father Travis plans to speak with the Fearsome Four.

Waylon, Hollis, and Coochy drive to confront the Fearsome Four, but Father Travis intercepts Buggy and talks to him, which the boys witness. After sending Buggy on his way, Father Travis tells the boys not to do anything, explaining that assault charges will hurt their chances at college. A few weeks later, they drive out to the kindergarten teacher’s decrepit house surrounded by dead dogs to confront Buggy. The house is full of garbage and a strung-out Buggy fights them until they run, flinging himself on their car as they drive away.

Father Travis hears news of the war and runs to Emmaline’s office, where she invites him in and they presumably have sex. Romeo watches news of the war and reflects on how he’s saving money to redeem himself in Hollis’ eyes. “That’s why I am eating this petrified cheese and this tagboard pizza” (318). Josette watches the war on the news and screams at the television while Peter watches silently. Peter calls Buggy’s father to apologize, then checks on the kids before falling asleep with Nola. Emmaline goes to a conference in Grand Forks where she has sex in the hotel room with Father Travis. Maggie pesters Peter into taking a family picture, which they haven’t done since Dusty died. Peter puts on his best suit, and Nola puts on the dress she wore when she tried to commit suicide. Maggie stares at her until she takes it off. Maggie wears her mom’s old boots, which Peter finds disorienting. Romeo feels like he is playing a part in a movie drama about revenge, confronting Peter outside the place where he and his family are getting their picture taken. Romeo tells Peter that Landreaux killed Dusty through neglect—possibly because he was intoxicated—because Dusty bled out while Landreaux prevented Nola from running to him. Romeo shows Peter the stolen medical file.

Peter waits for Landreaux, flagging him down to go hunting. In the car, Peter explains what Romeo told him. “Landreaux does not argue with the narrative because in the sudden crush of images, he doesn’t know, can’t remember” (327), deciding it doesn’t matter anymore. Peter tells Landreaux to walk down a hill where he will shoot him, and Landreaux obeys, welcoming death although he loses courage when he turns to walk down the hill.

Romeo wanders aimlessly, his purpose in life now fulfilled. He goes to an AA meeting, but only Father Travis shows up, making Romeo the speaker of the day. After initially resisting, Romeo explains his history with Landreaux. Father Travis reflects on how they both love Emmaline. Romeo explains what he told Peter, showing Father Travis the medical file, but Father Travis refutes Romeo’s interpretation of the events based on the information in the file. Romeo is irritated, explaining all the work he has put into connecting these facts. Romeo keeps talking while Father Travis leaves to find Peter, then Romeo follows him briefly until Romeo hurls himself down the church steps. Father Travis drives to Nola’s house, asking after Peter. Maggie knows that something is up and checks the whole house before she notices the deer rifle is missing. She tells Father Travis. After Father Travis leaves, Maggie and Waylon work in the garden together, and Maggie takes off her shirt, where Waylon sees her unmarred skin. “Only the blue dot on her shoulder […] And his heart is pierced as with the needle-sharp pencil” (338). Waylon sits down, and when Maggie mocks him, stands up to whisper into her neck. Maggie leads them through the woods to her special spot, and they have sex that is awkward at first, but then Maggie takes control.

Father Travis drives to the Irons’ house, explaining to Emmaline what happened. Emmaline argues that Romeo lies, telling Father Travis where to find them. Peter sees Landreaux walking down the hill, praying, and feels validated. He squeezes the trigger but nothing happens. He wants to pull the trigger again but can’t. Peter stares at Landreaux and finally sees his grief as well as his wife’s depression. Peter realizes LaRose saved Nola and has now saved Peter and Landreaux as well, “saving both his fathers” (342). Peter throws the rifle in the water and leaves Landreaux in the woods. Father Travis drives down a woods road until he finds Landreaux, relieved but also disappointed that he can’t have Emmaline. Father Travis questions who he is, thinking about running Landreaux over and laughing. Landreaux opens and shuts the car door and then continues walking. Landreaux wonders if Peter really tried to kill him and levitates. He embraces Emmaline but her response makes him realize that their special love is gone. Emmaline fears what could be. Father Travis returns to church to meet the new priest. They have a contentious exchange and Father Travis packs his suitcases and leaves, taking one of Emmaline’s blouses with him.