Three Day Road: Pasitew: Fire Summary & Analysis

Xavier wakes to the sound of Niska’s paddle skimming the water. He looks to the riverbank and notices the obvious line “where the great fire tired out and stopped.” Xavier tries to sit up. “Elijah and I found a dead moose not far from here,” he says. “It had roasted in the fire. We were hungry and ate a part of it.” The bush has grown tremendously since the fire. Fire can be “good for the bush” and “makes it come back more fully. Not back in France, though, Xavier thinks. At Ypres and the Somme, “the earth is so wrecked with shells and poison gas that nothing good will ever grow again,” Xavier thinks.

Xavier closes his eyes and is back with Elijah in the bush. They are tracking a lynx, and after following the tracks all the way to the river, the cat’s tracks suddenly disappear. Elijah says the river washed away the tracks. He speaks in English instead of Cree because the wemistikoshiw “tongue is better for lies.” 

Xavier and Elijah follow the river south. Xavier has never been this far from home. On the horizon, grey clouds hover and bits of ash fall from the sky. Smoke settles over the ground, and it is difficult to breath. “The world is burning,” Elijah says. “Let’s paddle closer.” Xavier knows this idea is “foolish,” but it does little good to argue with Elijah.

After traveling the river for some time, Xavier and Elijah make camp. During the night they hear “booming in the distance like an elder’s drum,” and Xavier can feel the percussion in his body. “Get up,” Elijah yells as ash falls around them. “We’ve got to get to the canoe!” They jump into the river and float alongside the canoe with their heads just above water to escape the smoke. They place a wet blanket over the canoe to keep it from catching fire and make their way against the current. After pushing the canoe through the flaming bush for what feels like an eternity, the smoke begins to thin. “It’s getting lighter out,” Elijah says. 

Elijah and Xavier continue down the river, and Elijah notices a “hulk” on the riverbank. The smell of cooked meat touches their noses and teases their hungry stomachs. It is a huge bull moose, “charred and blackened” by the fire. They pull up to it and Xavier cuts a bit of meat from the animal’s hind end. “Good,” Xavier says after tasting it. They eat their fill and rest for the first time in hours. The bush is scorched for miles and “continues to smoke angrily.” They decide to camp for the night. 

To pass the time, Elijah teaches Xavier English. The nuns had taught Elijah to speak English at the reserve school and “soon learned to regret” it. They would “just shake their heads hopelessly at the pretty little boy who could speak their tongue like one of their bishops.” Elijah could talk his way out of anything on the reserve and frequently did. “What if they mistake us for Plains Cree and give us horses to ride?” Xavier asks Elijah through the darkness. “Are they going to teach us to fight their way or will they just send us over there?” Elijah is quiet. “I don’t know,” he says.  

The cry of a lynx wakes Elijah and Xavier. The cries surround them and sound “hurt,” like “a mother who’s lost her children.” They follow the tracks, and again the tracks disappear. Elijah says the cat jumped into the water, but Xavier does “not believe him.” By the end of the day, they arrive on the outskirts of a town. “We’ll camp and go into there in the morning,” Elijah says. Xavier agrees. “Will they make us cut our hair short?” Xavier asks. “I don’t know,” Elijah answers again. “Do you think the Canadians will separate us, Elijah?” Xavier asks. Elijah is quiet for a long time. “They’d better not,” he answers.