Write It Out: Instruction Video
“It all happened quickly, and then we were done, more than ready to go, to get away from this spot. As we were climbing into the truck Jackie told us they’d be hitchhiking the highway route back to camp: Hana’s plan. A quicker solution, she said.
“Nah, you can’t do that,” Tessa said. “You know better than that.”
“There’s two of us,” Jackie tried. “It’s daylight.”
“Hasn’t she heard?” Tessa asked, her eyes skittering past Hana.
No one wanted to go over the details: the names of the girls, the tiny children left behind, the rumors of truckers on the highway, chains hanging in the cabs, a silver van with blacked-out windows. Native girls were prey, as thoughtlessly disposable as that moose carcass or the unlucky marten, and we all knew it, regardless of how many times some uniformed dope with his tortured hat got on the television and explained how hard they were trying, how impossible the landscape, how thin the clues and evidence gleaned from family reports they never seemed bothered to fully consider. What we heard was a kind of irritated grumbling: C’mon, you can’t find anyone out there, especially with skin like that.
“She’s been traveling all around,” Jackie said, unable to fully keep the doubt out of her voice. “She says she never has a problem.”
Bullshit, we thought.”
***
I’m not sure why I hadn’t heard more about this book, but then maybe it’s because the subject matter is dark, and touches on themes that have been too easy for the collective consciousness to duck away from. Too easy in the past, that is.
I found this book creepy, magical, and intense. More than one character seems to evaporate: there one minute, gone the next. Poof! Food for thought.
Thoughts? Feel free to share them here.
