The Night Wanderer

As Granny Ruth knits, the narrative compares her practice of knitting to her practice of the Anishinaabe language, for both are considered obsolete in the modern world. Suddenly, the dog, Midnight, begins to howl in alarm and distress. She goes to check but hears a knock at the door and welcomes Pierre, their guest, inside. She contemplates how much more Indigenous he looks than she anticipated. She makes him tea in a hurry because his hands are cold and engages him in an entirely one-sided conversation until a single murmur of Pierre’s stops her in her tracks.

Keith emerges and greets Pierre, questioning why he would want to stay on a relatively unknown reserve like theirs. Pierre carefully explains that he has ancestors from the Otter Lake area. Ruth and Keith assume that he has relatives who went over to Europe during the world wars, and he agrees with this. Pierre also explains that he spends all of his waking hours at night and promises not to disturb them. They show Pierre to his room, but he insists that he needs complete darkness, so they switch him with Tiffany again and give him the space in the basement.