Medicine Walk

Frank finds Eldon in a dilapidated rooming house with a “whore” (14) named Deirdre. Eldon does not recognize Frank at first; it’s been several years since they last saw each other. Eldon offers Frank a “tailor-made” (13) cigarette, but Frank prefers to make his own. Even though Eldon is Frank’s father, Frank doesn’t know Eldon in the way that he knows Bunky, therefore “dad” is only a word to Frank. Eldon and Frank go out to get something to eat.

Frank and Eldon go to a “dank hovel” (17) of a bar, and Frank pays Eldon’s overdue tab. The two discuss a river valley where Eldon used to work as a logger and where Frank has hunted. Eldon reveals that he is dying, and he wants Frank to take him into the wilderness and give him the proper burial of an Ojibway warrior: “You ain’t no warrior” (23), Frank says to Eldon, after picking up and sniffing Eldon’s bottle of whiskey. Frank, angry with Eldon, accuses him of skirting his responsibility as a father. When Eldon tells Frank that Eldon's life stories are “all I got to give ya” (23), Frank replies that it “[a]in’t never gonna be enough” (23).