Tracks: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Pauline reveals that she left Argus because the men haunt her dreams. Dutch James, the only survivor of the night of the tornado, ails in bed, slowly losing parts of his body due to frostbite and infection. Pauline’s Aunt Regina suddenly loves him again, nursing him back to health, and he loves her for caring for him. Women from the church visit in endless streams, bringing dishes for them to eat. Eventually, when this parade of visitors ends, Dutch is just healed enough to actually marry Regina.

Bernadette Morrissey and her brother Napoleon visit Argus to trade for what they cannot supply themselves from their farm. They are wealthy from having acquired allotments from the hard-up Chippewa people. Napoleon, a known drunk, is well-regarded for having taken in his sister and her children, including her strapping son Clarence.

The Morrissey farm is large and has a variety of crops and animals. Sophie is the older of Bernadette’s daughters, and Philomena the younger. Pauline tells Bernadette that her Aunt Regina and Dutch had beaten her when she lived with them in Argus, and this lie convinces Bernadette to pity her and take her in. Bernadette teaches Pauline how to read and write, and keeps the financial books for the farm during the late hours that she sits with the dying. Napoleon soon shows interest in Pauline, though she tries not to encourage him.

Pauline at first feels lighter since telling the story of what happened in Argus to Margaret, but after she shares this information she begins to dream of Fleur. Pauline then reveals that it was she who locked the men inside the meat shed before the storm, though Fleur was blamed for it. Pauline tries to use a dream catcher to quiet her dreams, but it doesn’t work.

When Mary Pepewas dies in Pauline’s company, Pauline is finally able to rest again. Pauline goes with Bernadette to Mary’s house, and when it is time to take her turn sitting with the dying young woman, she gets the feeling that Mary wants to be gone—so Pauline cuts the rope, “frayed down to a string,” hanging in the air between them. Pauline again feels a lightness, as she levitates and experiences death as a form of grace. Bernadette finds Pauline resting in a tree later that morning, shocked at how she might have gotten there.

After this night, Pauline feels as though she has become holy, learning how to prepare the dead and, instead of washing it off of her, passing this form of grace on to others. Her treatment of the dead and dying becomes an almost selfish way for her to find peace. Speaking of the reservation again, Pauline says that Misshepeshu is benevolent for a time. She sees the light of his eyes in Lulu, but also sees the Kashpaw nose on her face (suggesting that Eli might be her father). Pauline tells how Margaret was unable to resist the lure of her granddaughter, and takes up residence in Fleur’s cabin to help raise Lulu. Pauline continues to visit the cabin, but she gets the sense that they don’t like her, as though Pauline has told some lie about them.

Pauline can feel the electricity between Eli and Fleur, and it spurs a jealous lust in her as well. Pauline thinks of finding herself a husband, and becomes receptive to Napoleon’s advances. Napoleon tells Pauline to meet him at an abandoned house in the woods, where he undresses her and criticizes how thin she is. They embrace, but do not consummate their relationship. Napoleon stops, “like a dog sensing the presence of a tasteless poison in its food.”

When Pauline and Napoleon wake at the morning light, they try to have sex again. Gossip about them begins immediately, with people laughing at the pair. Clarence tells Pauline that Napoleon has headed south to sell some horses, but Pauline says he’ll be back. She sees that Clarence is the one she ought to have pursued, but she knows he wouldn’t have had her.

A year passes as Pauline continues to assist Bernadette, sometimes going out on her own to attend to the dead, and people recognize her as a sign that someone is dying. She also continues to visit Fleur’s cabin, hoping to soak up some of the attraction between Eli and Fleur in lieu of experiencing such feelings herself. She feels that Fleur acts coldly toward her, while she is attracted to Eli’s heat. Pauline thinks that Eli might feel the same, and allows herself to touch him, but Eli snatches her hand away, causing her to hate him while still feeling the attraction.

One night Pauline dreams of Eli, and awakes next to Sophie, noticing how beautiful she is. She comes up with a plan. Pauline can imagine herself in Sophie’s form. She buys fabric to make Sophie a new dress, fitting it tightly to her form. Bernadette doesn’t pay attention to Pauline’s interest in Sophie, because she is busy running the farm and attending to the returned Napoleon.

One day Bernadette stumbles on Napoleon cornering Pauline behind the barn. Pauline escapes, changing the subject to suggest that they hire another man to help on the farm, specifying Eli. When Pauline returns to the Pillager cabin, Fleur tells her Eli is in the woods. Pauline tells Fleur about the opportunity at the Morrissey farm, and Fleur jokes that that is where Pauline is staying. Pauline feels certain that Eli and Fleur must have been laughing about Pauline’s advances together. Fleur says she’ll pass on the message to Eli.

Two days later, Eli shows up at the Morrisseys’ to work. Pauline has acquired a sack of medicine powder from Moses, who forces Pauline to tell him her plan—which is to snare Eli—even though she knows Moses will certainly tell Fleur. Pauline plans to bake the concoction into Eli’s lunch. On the first day, Pauline sees Eli and Sophie interact and knows that her plan is possible to execute. Pauline encourages Sophie, calling out how Eli looks at her. Sophie begins to bring Eli treats. Napoleon teases her, and Clarence vows to kill Eli if he lays a hand on her.

When the day comes, Sophie heads out of the kitchen with a water jug, a loaf of doctored bread, and a block of butter. Pauline sneaks out to watch, imagining herself into Sophie’s body and controlling the girl’s actions. Sophie lifts her dress and straddles Eli, and he carries her to the water. Pauline follows, and Sophie and Eli have sex. Eventually Pauline allows them to stop. She sees men approach over the hill, and Eli darts out of the water.

Pauline then reveals herself and tells Sophie to go home or she’ll be punished, but Sophie collapses and Pauline has to drag her home. At the Morrisseys’, Pauline shows Bernadette the evidence of what happened on the dress, and Sophie confirms. Clarence loads his gun, arguing about wanting to go pay a visit to Eli, but eventually he goes to sleep, unsure of what has happened.

Pauline worries she has gone too far and that Eli might know she had something to do with the seduction, but she knows that Eli cannot betray her crime without revealing his own crime to Fleur. The next day Pauline reveals to Bernadette that she did witness what happened, but that Sophie made the first move. Bernadette goes inside to whip Sophie, and Pauline feels the beating too. Pauline goes in and stops Bernadette from continuing, and Bernadette breaks down in tears. Sophie tells Pauline it is she who should ask for God’s mercy, and calls Pauline “death’s bony whore.” This comment prompts Bernadette to send Sophie far away to live with a pious aunt. Sophie jumps from the cart soon after she departs, however, and runs, as though out of her own control, toward Fleur’s cabin.

Sophie kneels, as if possessed, outside Fleur’s cabin. Pauline arrives and tries to break Sophie’s trance. Fleur tells her there’s no need to do that. She tells Pauline that Eli is on the trapline. Pauline says that the last time she saw him, Eli was running away from Sophie, naked, and so he must be hiding from Fleur. Margaret emerges to try to force-feed Sophie some broth, but the girl’s mouth won’t open. They go inside, and sometime later in the night, they hear Sophie’s body topple over. Fleur refuses to bring her in, insisting that Margaret instead cover her with a blanket. Meanwhile, Pauline finds herself sleepless again. In the morning Sophie still kneels stiffly in the pouring rain. Margaret constructs a rudimentary structure around the girl.

Eli returns with six ducks on a string, and still Sophie does not move. Eli gathers his courage and enters the cabin. Fleur ignores him, continuing to cook some venison, and flinching from him when he tries to touch her. Eli leaves and returns to the woods when he realizes that Fleur knows what he’s done. Pauline returns to the Morrisseys’. Clarence slips out and Napoleon approaches Pauline, reaching into her blouse to touch her back. Pauline tells him that they have Sophie out on the Pillager land. Pauline then hears as Clarence and Napoleon stomp down the road. Pauline eats dinner and then follows in their tracks.

The Morrissey men are unable to move Sophie, no matter how hard they try. The men leave, and Pauline stays to assess that Sophie has not changed since she left Fleur’s cabin, aside from Margaret having built a small fire to keep the girl warm. Clarence and Napoleon run to the church, rouse the priest, and Clarence grabs the statue of the Virgin Mary from the church’s niche. A nun in the church chases after them, but Clarence makes it all the way to Sophie. Then he can’t figure out what to do next. The nun arrives and orders Clarence to surrender, and begins to pray as Clarence shines the Virgin’s gaze on the huddled Pauline and Sophie. The nun beats Clarence with her robe until he withdraws.

A vision then appears to Pauline and Sophie, of the Virgin crying, but Pauline refuses to reveal what she saw to anyone else after the event, believing it was meant for Sophie alone. Sophie tries to stand, but falls in the snow and Clarence hauls her up. Napoleon and the priest arrive in the clearing, but no one observes Pauline scoop up the Virgin’s hardened tears from the ground. She puts them in her skirt pocket, but her legs melt them back to water. Pauline imagines that the Virgin cried because she had never known the pleasure of men, but that she realized it was the opposite, as Pauline spends each night with the comfort of Napoleon’s warm body—the Virgin had experienced the same sensation, but in the exponentially greater power of God’s embrace.