This Tender Land: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

An older version of Odie imagines watching his younger self and traveling companions, encouraging them on their journey. Leaving Jack’s farm, the children feel dejected. Albert forbids Odie from playing his harmonica, fearing someone will discover them. With no money, Albert scrounges for food in the trash of the towns they pass through. Once, he finds a newspaper reporting that DiMarco’s body has been found in the quarry, along with Billy Red Sleeve’s body. Though police speculate Emmy’s kidnappers are to blame for the murders, the paper doesn’t mention the boys by name. Emmy cries at night, feeling alone, and Mose comforts her, insisting she is “Not alone.” Odie knows her emotional wounds are still fresh and painful.

One night, the group camps in a hollow and builds a fire. Feeling comforted, Odie plays his harmonica. Emmy says she wants to have a fire with them every night until she dies. Someone interrupts their conversation, saying Indians believe smoke carries prayers to heaven. The speaker—a Native American man—emerges from the dark and asks to join them, offering to share some catfish. Starving, the children agree. Dressed as a cowboy, the man claims to have come home: he explains that this land belonged to the Sioux before it was stolen. He tries speaking to Mose in Sioux, but Emmy answers him—her father taught her to speak the language. The man introduces himself as Hawk Flies at Night, but most call him Forrest.

Forrest asks their names. Odie and Albert become Buck and Norman again, while Emmy gives Mose’s real name, along with her own. Forrest cooks and shares the catfish. Later, he asks Odie to play the harmonica some more, singing along and drinking from a jar of moonshine. Unlike Jack, Forrest doesn’t get mean when he drinks. But suddenly, Forrest tells the boys there is a $500 bounty on their heads. Producing a Minneapolis newspaper, he shows them an article stating the Brickmans are offering the reward. Despite knowing their identities, Forrest is not worried about Emmy being in danger. Odie calls himself and his friends desperadoes, like Billy the Kid. Everyone goes to sleep.