Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie

Author:Sherman Alexie [Alexie, Sherman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-5719-5
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-09-12T02:13:00+00:00

John tore the note from the door, crumpled it into a ball, and shoved it into his pocket. He found the apartment key his mother had sewn into his pants. She had done the same for every pair of pants he owned. He opened his door and stepped inside.

10

Finding the Body

THE BLUE VAN ROLLED slowly down a dirt road on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Thick stands of trees flanked the road. The faint sounds of Interstate 5 could be heard in the distance, though the people inside the van, a Spokane Indian couple, were not comforted by those distant sounds of civilization.

“I think we’re lost,” she said.

“We’re not that lost,” he said. “You can hear the freeway. Listen.”

She listened, could hear the big trucks hauling their cargo north to Canada and south to Seattle, quickly passing senior citizens leisurely touring in their recreational vehicles. She could hear the whine of a traffic helicopter. All those people so close and far away at the same time.

“Well,” she said. “Unless I’m mistaken, we’d have to walk through the woods to get to the freeway. On foot, we’d know exactly where we are. But, unless I’m mistaken again, we’re in the van. And since we can’t drive through those woods, we are lost, enit? Listen, there were a couple houses back there. We could go back and ask for directions.”

“We’ll be fine,” he said.

He drove five miles down the road until the asphalt turned into dirt and a sign proclaimed PRIMITIVE ROAD—NO WARNING SIGNS.

“Now,” she said, “I think that is reason enough to turn around.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Hold on a second,” she said. “I have to go pee.”

She grabbed the roll of toilet paper they always kept in the glove compartment, jumped out of the van, and went searching for a good spot. She always felt like a dog when she had to go in the woods. Amusing herself, she pretended to sniff at a few trees, looked back at the blue van where her boyfriend waited, and then walked farther into the brush. She was wishing she had a temporary penis for outdoor urination use when she caught a whiff of something foul.

“Jeez,” she whispered to herself, plugging her nose.

She tried to walk away from the smell, but it seemed to be everywhere. A dead animal, she thought. Then she wondered if it might be a dead porcupine. If the poker had not been dead too long, she might be able to salvage the quills and give them to some Indian grandmother. Indian grandmothers could always use more quills. She stood still and tried to discern the source of the smell. She could not tell in which direction she should go, but she knew it was close. She started walking in ever-widening circles, hoping to find the dead porcupine by stumbling over it. The smell grew more powerful as she walked closer to a stand of pines. When she stepped between two large trees, she saw the body sitting back against a stump.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.