The Marrow Thieves: Haunted in the Bush Summary & Analysis

Frenchie struggles to sleep for a week. He has nightmares about Mom and Dad when he sleeps, so he spends time with RiRi and tells her about Mitch. It's painful to talk about him, but Frenchie feels as though he remembers his family better the more he talks. He wakes up one morning freezing cold, having fallen asleep in RiRi's tent. Outside, Wab and Chi-Boy step away from each other awkwardly and in a way that makes Frenchie feel especially awkward. He tries to engage Wab in conversation about breakfast, but she narrows her eyes at him.

Everyone sits in a circle to wait for breakfast and Miig passes out watches to those who will hunt today. Miig remarks that they used to not need watches, but now, nobody knows how to tell time by the sky. Zheegwon and Tree open cans of condensed milk and Minerva stashes the lids in her bag. After a breakfast of mush, Miig leads the hunters an hour away from the camp. He notes that he's seen signs of deer and sends everyone off in different directions. They're supposed to walk for one hour, wait for two, and then meet back at the starting point. Frenchie has the rifle today and is careful to keep his pace steady, which will make it easier to track someone who doesn't return on time. He settles himself in some tree roots.

Frenchie lets his mind wander and thinks that the world suddenly went mad when it poisoned drinking water, created an environment prone to earthquakes, and then started harvesting Indigenous people for medicine. He wonders if they're that different from anyone else, and if the Indigenous people would act the same way if the positions were switched. Frenchie wonders if he'd have been able to torture a child for marrow if Mitch, Mom, or Dad had gotten sick.

As Frenchie listens and thinks, he suddenly hears footsteps and lifts his head. The moose is as huge as a tree. Frenchie aims at the moose's head, but then lowers it to the chest, which Miig always says is "the sure target." The moose raises its head and looks right at Frenchie. Frenchie thinks it seems like the moose is ancient and watched all the destruction happen. The moose would also be food for a week, hide for blankets, and a surefire way to impress Rose. Frenchie realizes that they can't eat all the meat before it rots, and Miig won't let them smoke it for fear of being found. He lowers the rifle.

As Frenchie returns to the meeting point, he vacillates between feeling good about his decision and ashamed that RiRi will go hungry. He feels better when he sees that Chi-Boy and Miig both got turkeys. Wab is late getting back. They wait anxiously for almost 40 minutes before she slips into the clearing. Wab says that everything is fine, but Frenchie tells the reader that a week later, Wab will reveal to them what she saw.