Three Day Road: Ishinakwahitisiw: Turning Summary & Analysis

The Canadian lines are “loud and happy.” They had done what the Frenchmen and Englishmen hadn’t been able to do. The Canadians “are an army to be reckoned with” and are “no longer the colonials” to be “looked down” on by Englishmen. They are directly responsible for the first Allied victory. Xavier and Elijah’s unit are billeted near a wrecked village, and on a warm day, Xavier and Elijah sit by the river with Grey Eyes, Graves, and Fat (the only men left of their original unit), and several other new men.

German airplanes appear in the sky and begin shooting at observation balloons. The men cheer as Canadian planes arrive, shooting the German planes from the sky. “I would give my left arm to fly in one of those aeroplanes,” Elijah says. Xavier “can’t imagine anything more frightening,” but Elijah is different. Elijah sneaks out to “no man’s land” in the dark and slits the throats of “Hun” in their listening posts. He doesn’t tell Xavier that he takes their scalps, too, but Xavier knows this to be true. He also knows that Elijah doesn’t speak in an English accent when he takes morphine.

The men watch as a duck lands on the water and all decide it would make a great dinner. “I’ll bet Whiskeyjack could hit it from here,” one of the men says. Elijah stands immediately. He aims and fires, narrowly missing the duck. “Nice shot, anyway,” the men say as Xavier stands and aims. He shoots quickly and surely, hitting the duck square. The men are speechless as Xavier goes to retrieve the duck. “Me, I won’t let them forget who I am,” Xavier thinks.

Months pass, and Xavier can only think of home and the girl named Lisette. If he can’t go home, he thinks, then he must see Lisette. He considers walking the thirty-five miles to her village and thinks of ways to sneak off. It occurs to Xavier as he watches the wemistikoshiw soldiers that they do everything in groups of three. “They are obsessed by that number,” Xavier thinks. Their army is divided into three—the infantry, artillery, and cavalry—and they do training, and then combat and recovery. They work in threes and “die in threes,” and pray to their three manitous, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Xavier too has “begun to see the world in threes.” There is his life before the wemistikoshiw army, his life in the war, and, if he survives, his life after the war. Even Niska claims everyone will “someday walk the three-day road.” There must be “some magic” in the number, Xavier thinks, some “connection” between “their world and [his].” If Xavier can figure out what it is, maybe he can survive the war.

Elijah carries his scalps with him, “dried out” to “prevent rot” and “strung together.” Xavier doesn’t know how many he has, but he knows there are many. “I am better than Peggy,” Elijah says. “He cannot take a scalp.” Elijah’s smile “burns” with “an obsession that is frightening.”

By the middle of summer, Xavier doesn’t want to fight anymore, and he makes up his mind to go see Lisette. He wraps his head with gauze and hops on a medical convoy headed for the village. When Xavier arrives in Lisette’s village, he slips away from the medics and finds Lisette’s house. He quietly knocks on the door and waits. Minutes later she answers. “You are hurt,” she says. Xavier shakes his head and removes the gauze. “It is me, Xavier,” he says. “I remember you!” Lisette says. “You are the Indian boy. […] You can’t stay, Indian boy.” She tells him she is “with another” and he must leave.

A British officer appears behind Lisette. “Who are you soldier?” he asks. Xavier reaches out and punches the officer, knocking Lisette down in the process. He runs “as fast as [he] can” back to his unit and makes it right before morning roll call. “You went to find that girl, didn’t you,” Elijah whispers in line. “I could have saved you the trouble and told you she was a whore, but you would not have listened.”

McCaan and Breech come into the trench to address the soldiers. “An important announcement, gentlemen,” McCaan says. They will soon be sent to a “new undisclosed location,” but in the meantime, McCaan is “especially proud to note” that Elijah has been awarded “the MM for unmatched bravery in the face of the enemy.” McCaan dismisses the men. “Private Bird,” he yells, “report to me at once!”

Elijah looks to Xavier. “I will come with you,” he says. “Just speak in Cree and I will translate.” Elijah and Xavier report to McCaan’s dugout where he waits with Breech. “Private Bird’s English is very poor, sir,” Elijah says. “You will need me to translate.” McCaan knows that Xavier’s English has improved, and he no longer needs a translator but says nothing. “It is a desperate army indeed that allows non-English speakers into it,” says Breech.

Breech asks Elijah if Xavier understands that the punishment for desertion is death by firing squad. “I’ve got an idea,” Elijah says in Cree. “Just speak in our tongue and I will do the translating.” “I don’t give a shit anymore,” Xavier says in Cree. “The private says that he went in search of fresh game for the men,” Elijah tells Breech. Breech seems less angry now, but he says that leaving without permission is a “dire offence.” Elijah nods. “Pretty good lie, eh?” he says to Xavier. “Tell the lieutenant that I fucked his mother last night.” Elijah fights a giggle. “And why do they overlook me for all of the honours?” Xavier asks.

“The private has not been himself since our offensive,” Elijah tells Breech. He says Xavier took “a tremendous blow to the head” and has been “nauseous” and “forgetful” ever since. Xavier had simply wanted to help feed the men and forgot to tell McCaan, he says. Xavier has not seen the medic about his head because he fears “the English form of medicine.” Breech orders Xavier to three days observation in the infirmary. “I will not even dare ask what sorcery this heathen practices in the wild forests back home,” Breech says. “You are a lucky bastard,” Elijah says in Cree.