Medicine Walk: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Eldon was 11 when his father went to fight in the war. It was the first time he learned that things could be taken away from him. His father’s existence became reduced to envelopes. He and his mother were living on a beet farm in Alberta, working for meager pay. When his father sent his pay home, they had meat and new clothes. But his mother worried. And one day, a man came to the door, and soon his mother collapsed on the floor, wailing. He ran from the house, yelling, knowing the hole in his life would never be filled.

After this, Eldon’s mother began to decline. She would dance in the polka-dot dress she bought with his father’s war pay. Other times she sat blank and silent. She told Eldon he must be the man of the house now. He wanted to protect his mother, so at 13, he began to work as if it was his war. They traveled in a caravan of broken-down trucks and cars, seeking work—fruit picking, wood cutting, and other menial labor. They wandered all over. One summer, they worked on a railroad and filled their pockets. Eldon grew strong and skilled, feeling proud of his ability to provide for his mother.

Eldon never bothered with school, and there was nobody to notice or care that he didn’t go. He learned about tools and machines instead, becoming proficient at fixing things. Though he was never good with words himself, he loved it when his mother would read to him from classic literature at night. He made one friend, Jimmy Weaseltail, who was half-blood. They worked hard, driving one another, and soon gained a reputation for their determination and their joy in work, which was all they knew. Jimmy liked to listen to Eldon’s mother read, too. Eldon’s memories of the three of them sitting together are his idea of family.

In the summer of 1948, they wound up in the Nechako Valley in British Columbia where Eldon and Jimmy corralled flotillas of logs downriver to the sawmill. The work was like a game to them, and they never worried about the danger. They loved the thrill. Their foreman, Jenks, encouraged them in this, saying caution is deadlier than playfulness and daring. He taught them logrolling, which required dexterity and fearlessness.

Jimmy and Eldon worked together spinning timbers, an elegant dance. Jimmy told Jenks that his father was in rodeos; that’s how he had the guts for logrolling. Eldon wasn’t sure where he got his courage. It didn’t feel dangerous to him—just free. Jenks told the boys about his adventures working in logging camps all the way across Canada before finally settling down here. So Eldon opened up about his life, too. He explained that his mother’s gumption was his inspiration and Jenks was intrigued.

Jenks started having meals in the cookhouse where Eldon’s mother works. Eventually, he started eating in the family’s shack, bringing plenty of wine and beer. Eldon saw his mother grow girlish and relaxed in Jenks’s company. Jenks himself was animated, too. Then she read to them, quieting and enchanting the three of them.

Stories were Eldon’s “wound.” They came to remind him not of books read by firelight, but of “the sudden holes life can sometimes fall into.” Soon, Jenks spent most of his time in their shack, and before long, Jenks and Eldon’s mother were sharing a bed. Meanwhile, he became a harsher, more demanding boss. Eldon shrugged off the new limits Jenks set—he was raised to work for work’s sake.

After a month, he sees his mother’s first bruise. It’s a purple ring around her throat. Her eyes look dull. Eldon cusses when he looks at her, but his mother holds up a hand to him, saying she said things she shouldn’t. He stops shaking and embraces her. That night, he stares at Jenks while his mother reads to them. Jenks doesn’t say anything to him, and it infuriates Eldon.

A week later, Eldon sees more bruises. Through the half-open bathroom door, he can see that his mother is studying them in the mirror and trying not to cry. But when she sees Eldon watching her, she abruptly closes the door. That night, he sits at the fire clenching and unclenching his fists and wishing he could hit both of them. That night, he and Jimmy smoke out back in the moonless night. Eldon says that if this happens again, or worse, something will have to give. Jimmy says to count him in.

Four nights later, Eldon is out in the trees. Neither he nor Jimmy can stand listening to his mother read anymore, not with Jenks sitting there. Now Eldon watches the cabin and waits. Eventually, he hears a slap and a crash. He and Jimmy rush into the house where his mother is screaming. They find Jenks clutching her throat, ready to hit her. Her eyes fill with horror when she sees them, then she crumples to the floor as Jenks lets her go. He smiles at the boys’ challenge, taunting them. It pains Eldon to see his mother huddling under the table in fear.

Eldon can hardly breathe, and his arms are trembling. He ducks a punch from Jenks and is then sent sprawling by a kick. Before he can recover his wits, he hears a whack and Jenks’s body collapses on the floor beside him. Jenks’s eyes seem amazed as he realizes he’s bleeding, and then he closes his eyes and goes limp. Eldon looks at Jimmy; he’s holding a hunting knife and a club. His mother crawls to Jenks and cries. She cradles his head in her lap as he moans. Eldon stands up and says Jenks deserved this, but she protests that they don’t know him. Anyway, they’ll have to run. Eldon asks if she would choose Jenks over him; she says this is how it has to be.

Eldon rapidly packs, taking his jar of wages out of the cupboard. He tells his mother she has a man to provide for her now and heads for the door. Jimmy says that he hopes Jenks makes it, but if he does, he’ll have to watch his back. He’ll never know where Jimmy might be. He’s crying as he joins Eldon on the porch, and Eldon’s mother tells them to go. Jimmy angrily drives his knife into the doorjamb, and he and Eldon walk away.