The Night Watchman

As the train arrives in Fargo, Wood Mountain has Patrice write down two addresses in case she gets lost. Patrice doesn’t tell him about Bernadette’s address.

He tries to give her a romantic look, and Patrice wonders why he’s making such a face. After he gets off the train, she sees him walking toward a bar and she thinks she will never speak to him again if he goes in—he doesn’t.

When she arrives, she isn’t sure what to do but then decides to take a taxi. The driver has her sit up front. Patrice finds this odd, but he moves quickly and opens the door for her. He talks constantly on the drive, telling her he can help her find a job because he “know[s] the right people” (105).

He parks in front of a place with a sign reading, “Log Jam 26” and says she should come in with him. Patrice refuses to go in because it’s a bar, but he tells her it’s a camera shop. She gets out and tries to pay him, but he and another man who appears, force her inside. There, she collapses to the floor. She tries to fight the men away, and a third one gets up from his stool at the bar, wondering what the commotion is.

The driver, Earl, tells him that he’s trying to give her a job, and the other man chastises him for being so rude. He apologizes to Patrice, who explains that she’s looking for her sister. He introduces himself as Jack and offers Patrice a drink and a burger. She tells him she’ll listen if she can sit by a window.

He apologizes again and explains that they’re looking for someone to perform as Babe, Paul Bunyan’s blue ox, in an underwater show hosted by the bar. He calls the role the “waterjack.” The job pays $50 a night, plus tips every other night. This tempts Patrice since it’s more than she makes each week at the jewel bearing plant. He convinces Patrice (who has told him her name is Doris Barnes) to see the outfit, which is a blue wetsuit with painted hooves, circles where the breasts are, and a dark patch indicating public hair.

Jack offers to help her find Vera, saying that he’ll take her where she wants to go, and if she doesn’t find a place to stay, then she can stay at the bar and do the show as the waterjack. She asks what happened to the previous waterjack, and he explains that she was “gravely ill” (114). Patrice then consents to him driving her but says that they’ll split up once he does. Jack reiterates his offer. As they leave, Patrice feels overwhelmed.

Thomas shaves while at work, looking in the mirror and thinking about effects of the government on Indigenous peoples. Falon appears and then disappears in the room. When he looks over, he sees Roderick sitting on the band saw.

His shave is meant to keep him awake, and it works.

Thomas asks Biboon about the treaties he signed to keep the land, and Biboon says, “First they gave us this scrap, then they tried to push us off this scrap. Then they took away most of the scrap. Now, what you are saying is they want to push us off the edge of the scrap” (118). He explains that they held on by coming together to sign a petition and put up a delegation. Thomas thinks this is a good idea and will bring it to the advisory committee meeting.

Biboon also pushes him to remember that even people  off the reservation will be affected by the bill, as the end of reservations means local towns will be burdened by an influx of Indigenous people. He also advises Thomas to remind the government that they need to hold up their end of the treaties, as “[i]t was their promise to exchange these things for our land. Long as the grass grows and the rivers flow” (120).

At the meeting of the advisory committee, they discuss the bill. Thomas suggests a petition, and Juggie offers to type it up. Louis then offers to get signatures. Thomas also makes a motion to refer to the bill as the “Termination Bill,” and they all agree. They also discuss an upcoming meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Fargo.

Patrice and Jack go to one of the addresses Patrice has for where Vera might be, but no one answers when she knocks. She finds a piece of mail dated two months prior that’s addressed to Vera. She yells Vera’s name but hears nothing except for a dog.

Jack refuses to break in with her, so she tries to get him to take her to Stevens Avenue, and he says that it’s not a good place. They go anyway, but Patrice doesn’t see Vera’s name on the list of residents. Finally, she says she wants to go to Bernadette’s, and Jack recognizes the name, telling her that she’s better off staying at Log Jam 26.

On the way back to the bar, Patrice tells him that they have no agreement for her to do the show, but she’d reconsider if she got the tips every night. Jack agrees, and when they arrive, he shows her to her dressing room, where they set up a cot. She takes a nap and then gets ready for the show. Once she puts on the blue ox suit, she finds Jack, who shows her the moves for the show. She demands that to be paid right immediately after the show and threatens to leave with the suit if he doesn’t agree. She also negotiates for a key and lock to the dressing room.

She can’t believe it’s only been one day since she left home and feels that she is a stranger to herself, acting as someone bolder. The discomfort and potential danger of her situation at Log Jam 26 is almost humorous to her.

Wood Mountain meets Barnes at a restaurant for breakfast. Barnes tells him that the fight is off.

Frustrated, Wood Mountain tells Barnes he sat next to Patrice on the way to Fargo, explaining her plan to find Vera. He suggests that he might go down to the Twin Cities to find her since his fight has been cancelled. He is upset that Barnes hadn’t gotten him a fight but then decides to give him a break. Saying that he could but doesn’t want to, he posits that Barnes could go down to the Cities instead, though he can’t get off work.

Wood Mountain arrives at the train station and surprises himself by asking for a ticket to Minneapolis.

Louis moves through the reservation collecting signatures, eventually arriving at the Paranteau home, where he finds Pokey and Zhaanat, who offers him some food. Louis is pleased that it is traditional cooking. He reassures Zhaanat that Patrice can take care of herself.

He then goes to Thomas’s house and shows him the signatures. Thomas sees Zhaanat’s signature and asks about Patrice. Louis relays the information, and they talk about the young people that they’ve lost to the cities. Louis also talks about his racing horses.

Thomas asks if Louis can drive to Fargo for the meeting. Then, they talk about putting up a delegation and decide to learn more about Arthur Watkins. Thomas says that he’s learned that Watkins “wants to teach us to stand on our own two feet” (141), and they point out that that’s what they’re doing. He also says that he wonders “[i]f one of them will ever say, Gee, those damn Indians might have had an idea or two. Shouldn’t have gotten rid of them all. Maybe we missed out” (141). They laugh.

Later, Thomas admits that he had a drink, and Rose warns him not to have another, saying that she’d kill him. He jokes that she’d use poison, and she says that he was recently poisoned, explaining that a few mornings prior, he’d eaten biscuits in his sleep. Wade made them, but they had no baking powder and used Ajax instead, not realizing it was poisonous. She didn’t tell him because nothing happened.

A little upset that she hadn’t said anything, Thomas replies, “I am too tired to die” (143). She reminds him once more not to drink, saying, “Please. No more” (143). He promises, and they make love.

Patrice performs as the waterjack, and Jack compliments her, offering to remove the penis-shaped weights at the bottom of the tank. She demands to be paid in cash each night, and Jack agrees.

The next morning, she goes back to Bloomington Avenue. She uses a fork she stole from the bar to pry off the rotting wood around the lock. The house is in disrepair. Upstairs, she finds a dog chained to a wall. It’s starving, and she gives it some water. She looks in the other rooms, finding a chain with an empty dog collar in each one and noticing the smell of urine and dried feces. She goes back to the dog, begging it to tell her what happened to Vera. It says, “She died on the end of a chain, like me” (147), and she holds the creature as it takes its last breaths.

Jack pulls up, saying that he thought she’d be here. She demands to go back to the apartment building from the previous day. She knocks on every door, but no one has seen Vera. Finally, at one door, is Hilda, the previous waterjack, and Jack pulls Patrice away. When Patrice demands an explanation, Jack says that they had professional differences. Then, she makes him take her to Bernadette’s.

There, Bernadette tells Patrice that Vera ran off, but she has the baby. Patrice, suspicious that Bernadette isn’t telling her everything, demands to know where she went. Bernadette insists she doesn’t know and says she’ll go get the baby. However, Patrice tells her that she’ll come back and take him as long as Bernadette has Vera there as well. They leave.

Wood Mountain arrives in Minneapolis, and he goes to Bernadette’s, who recounts her encounter with Patrice.

When Wood Mountain asks if he can stay there, Bernadette says it’s crowded with the baby, and her boyfriend Cal isn’t happy she’s still taking care of it. She admits knowing that Vera got a job somewhere but doesn’t go into more detail. She eventually tells him that he can stay, but he decides not to since Cal is prone to violence.

He leaves and finds a room at the Josen House, which is a cage hotel. Wood Mountain takes a nap and then goes to Log Jam 26 for dinner, staying to see the waterjack show. Eventually, he realizes that Patrice is the waterjack. He yells her name but is pulled out of the bar.

After the shows, a waitress brings Patrice dinner and warns her that she should quit while she has a chance. She slips Patrice a note from Wood Mountain explaining where he’s staying and telling her to find him.

She realizes that Jack is keeping her prisoner and she decides to leave. She packs her things then remembers the room on Bloomington Avenue, realizing that the chain was locked in such a way that pliers would have been needed to remove it and that the feces were human.