Three Day Road: Onahaashiwew: Sniper Summary & Analysis

Sean Patrick is at his sniping post with his spotter, Grey Eyes, who “has the glassy look of the medicine in his veins.”. Xavier looks up to the sky and sees an airplane, but he doesn’t know which side it belongs to. Suddenly, Sean Patrick is “writhing” on the ground “like a snake and grabbing his neck.” Graves immediately runs to him. “Shot through the neck,” he says as he rolls Sean Patrick over.

“I told [Sean Patrick] to take a break,” Grey Eyes says. “I told him that he’s too tall to be sniping here.” Xavier and Elijah bury Sean Patrick behind the lines that night. Elijah says it was a “Hun sniper” who shot him, and a good one too. The shot that took out Sean Patrick from behind the metal plate of the sniping post must have been extremely difficult, and Elijah is “obsessed” with making a similar shot.  

Elijah “goes into another place” when he is sniping. He “forgets his British accent and his bragging,” and becomes “patient.” Sometimes, Elijah tells Xavier what the Germans are doing behind their lines and what movements they will make in the upcoming days. It seems that “Elijah is lifted from his body and carried to the other side where he can float around at will.” Xavier wonders if Elijah is taking medicine from Grey Eyes, but Xavier is sure that he isn’t. At times, Xavier is “tempted to try it” himself.

Xavier “adopts Elijah’s ways” and tries to “think like the Hun, particularly the very good one who killed Sean Patrick.” Xavier tells Elijah that it is easiest for him if he thinks of his targets with “antlers on their heads.” Antlers “will make it all the easier when the time comes to shoot one,” Xavier says. Elijah laughs. Xavier jokes, but he spends “[his] hours wondering what [he] will do when it is [his] turn to pull a trigger on a man.”