Medicine Walk

by

Richard Wagamese

Angie is Frank’s mother who died when he was born. She is a beautiful, tall, graceful woman whom Eldon and Bunky both fall in love with at Charlie’s bar after they see her dancing with Dingo. She is imaginative, gentle, forthright, and, as Eldon describes her to Frank, a “wonder.” Angie is half Cree and grew up west of Winnipeg. She lost both parents at a young age and began supporting herself by running kitchens on work sites. When Eldon starts working on Bunky’s farm, Angie brings him lunch and tells him about her life. In the evenings in front of the fire, she tells Eldon and Bunky stories that she makes up on the spot—Bunky calls her a “tale spinner.” Angie tries to get Eldon to open up to her about his life, hinting that she sees goodness in him and finds him attractive. Eventually, she succeeds, but after Bunky catches her and Eldon having sex, they’re forced to leave the farm to start a new life together. At first they live happily in a lakeside cabin they fix up together, but after Angie gets pregnant, Eldon descends into drinking again. After a difficult breech labor, Angie dies giving birth to Frank.

Angie Pratt Quotes in Medicine Walk

The Medicine Walk quotes below are all either spoken by Angie Pratt or refer to Angie Pratt. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fathers and Sons Theme Icon
).
Chapter 20 Quotes

“I never told no stories.”

“You should. When you share stories you change things.”

“Says you,” he said.

“If you told me one of your stories, you’d get lighter.”

“Don’t know as I have any worth the tellin’.”

She smiled at him and touched his leg. “You could let go of something maybe you carried for a long time. I could know more of you. Get bigger with the knowing of you.”

Related Characters: Eldon Starlight (father) (speaker), Angie Pratt (speaker)
Page Number: 203
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

“I recall standin’ on the porch early one morning with a mug of coffee, looking out across the lake, an’ I felt like for the first time I could stand this life. I could settle. […] She brung that alive in me, Frank.

“It got me to wonderin’. Got me wonderin’ if time could make goin’ back to other things possible too. Goin’ back to other people, other places. My mother and such. Never ever thought them kinda thoughts before. Found myself wonderin’ if returnin’ was somethin’ a man could do, if ya could walk back over your trail and maybe reclaim things. They were odd thoughts but she hadda way of getting them into my head.”

Related Characters: Eldon Starlight (father) (speaker), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 218
Explanation and Analysis:

“You were scared ya couldn’t be what ya had to be,” the kid said.

“More’n that,” his father said. “Scared I couldn’t be what I never was. I never told her about Jimmy, about my mother, even though she told me I could tell her anythin’. I was ashameda myself, Frank. Bone deep shamed. I was scared if I started in on tellin’ about myself I’d break down an’ I wanted to be strong for her. I really did. But layin’ there knowin’ how weak I really was brung on the dark in me. The dark that always sucked me back into drinkin’. I woke up to the belief that I’d always lose or destroy them things or people that meant the most to me cuz I always done that.”

Related Characters: The kid (Franklin Starlight) (speaker), Eldon Starlight (father) (speaker), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

“I knew what he meant, Frank. I got made better too. But not better enough on accounta when she needed me most I wasn’t there an’ she died cuz of that. I looked at the two of you on that rocker an’ all’s I could do was walk away. All’s I could do was walk away because I guess I come to know right there that some holes get filled when people die. Dirt fills ’em. But other holes, well, ya walk around with them holes in ya forever and there weren’t nothin’ in the world to say about that. Nothin’.”

Related Characters: Eldon Starlight (father) (speaker), The kid (Franklin Starlight), The old man (Bunky), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 230
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

When the kid dropped off to sleep himself he didn’t know. He dreamed there was a man and a woman seated on a blanket. They were talking and their heads were bent close together, but he couldn’t see their faces or hear what they were saying. Then he was on the porch of a house he didn’t recognize. The sun was going down. The sky was alive with colour and he could see it bending and receding above the fields. A woman was there. She stood in the middle of the field, looking at him. She waved with both arms and he waved back at her but it was his father she was waving at.

Related Characters: The kid (Franklin Starlight), Eldon Starlight (father), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

He closed his eyes for a moment and when he looked down into the valley again he thought he could see the ghostly shapes of people riding horses through the trees. […]

He watched them ride into the swale and ease the horses to the water while the dogs and children ran in the rough grass. The men and women on horseback dismounted and their shouts came to him laden with hope and good humour. He raised a hand to the idea of his father and mother and a line of people he had never known, then mounted the horse and rode back through the glimmer to the farm where the old man waited, a deck of cards on the scarred and battered table.

Related Characters: The kid (Franklin Starlight), Eldon Starlight (father), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Medicine Walk LitChart as a printable PDF.
Medicine Walk PDF

Angie Pratt Quotes in Medicine Walk

The Medicine Walk quotes below are all either spoken by Angie Pratt or refer to Angie Pratt. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fathers and Sons Theme Icon
).
Chapter 20 Quotes

“I never told no stories.”

“You should. When you share stories you change things.”

“Says you,” he said.

“If you told me one of your stories, you’d get lighter.”

“Don’t know as I have any worth the tellin’.”

She smiled at him and touched his leg. “You could let go of something maybe you carried for a long time. I could know more of you. Get bigger with the knowing of you.”

Related Characters: Eldon Starlight (father) (speaker), Angie Pratt (speaker)
Page Number: 203
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

“I recall standin’ on the porch early one morning with a mug of coffee, looking out across the lake, an’ I felt like for the first time I could stand this life. I could settle. […] She brung that alive in me, Frank.

“It got me to wonderin’. Got me wonderin’ if time could make goin’ back to other things possible too. Goin’ back to other people, other places. My mother and such. Never ever thought them kinda thoughts before. Found myself wonderin’ if returnin’ was somethin’ a man could do, if ya could walk back over your trail and maybe reclaim things. They were odd thoughts but she hadda way of getting them into my head.”

Related Characters: Eldon Starlight (father) (speaker), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 218
Explanation and Analysis:

“You were scared ya couldn’t be what ya had to be,” the kid said.

“More’n that,” his father said. “Scared I couldn’t be what I never was. I never told her about Jimmy, about my mother, even though she told me I could tell her anythin’. I was ashameda myself, Frank. Bone deep shamed. I was scared if I started in on tellin’ about myself I’d break down an’ I wanted to be strong for her. I really did. But layin’ there knowin’ how weak I really was brung on the dark in me. The dark that always sucked me back into drinkin’. I woke up to the belief that I’d always lose or destroy them things or people that meant the most to me cuz I always done that.”

Related Characters: The kid (Franklin Starlight) (speaker), Eldon Starlight (father) (speaker), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

“I knew what he meant, Frank. I got made better too. But not better enough on accounta when she needed me most I wasn’t there an’ she died cuz of that. I looked at the two of you on that rocker an’ all’s I could do was walk away. All’s I could do was walk away because I guess I come to know right there that some holes get filled when people die. Dirt fills ’em. But other holes, well, ya walk around with them holes in ya forever and there weren’t nothin’ in the world to say about that. Nothin’.”

Related Characters: Eldon Starlight (father) (speaker), The kid (Franklin Starlight), The old man (Bunky), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 230
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

When the kid dropped off to sleep himself he didn’t know. He dreamed there was a man and a woman seated on a blanket. They were talking and their heads were bent close together, but he couldn’t see their faces or hear what they were saying. Then he was on the porch of a house he didn’t recognize. The sun was going down. The sky was alive with colour and he could see it bending and receding above the fields. A woman was there. She stood in the middle of the field, looking at him. She waved with both arms and he waved back at her but it was his father she was waving at.

Related Characters: The kid (Franklin Starlight), Eldon Starlight (father), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

He closed his eyes for a moment and when he looked down into the valley again he thought he could see the ghostly shapes of people riding horses through the trees. […]

He watched them ride into the swale and ease the horses to the water while the dogs and children ran in the rough grass. The men and women on horseback dismounted and their shouts came to him laden with hope and good humour. He raised a hand to the idea of his father and mother and a line of people he had never known, then mounted the horse and rode back through the glimmer to the farm where the old man waited, a deck of cards on the scarred and battered table.

Related Characters: The kid (Franklin Starlight), Eldon Starlight (father), Angie Pratt
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis: