Summary
Chapter 19 begins with Eldon running into Angie and Bunky a week later, at a bar called The Dollar Holler. Eldon is hungover, and Bunky approaches Eldon offering a few weeks’ work building a fence. Bunky tells Eldon there will be a place for him to sleep and food, if he’s up to it. Eldon agrees, but he asks Bunky to buy him a drink first. Eldon has the shakes from withdrawal. Bunky agrees, but just this once. Eldon gets in the car with Bunky. Angie is there, offering Eldon a cigarette. When they arrive at Bunky’s house Angie pours Eldon a drink, smiling, and then feeds Bunky and Eldon. Eldon begins work in the field putting the fence up, and at lunchtime Angie brings a bagged lunch out to him. She reaches into the pocket of her shirt and draws out a flask. As she does this, Angie says that Bunky’s the best man she’s known in her whole life, but that he doesn’t understand a lot of things, like the need for alcohol. Angie says she knows about need, that she’s done her share of hurting, too. Eldon thanks her and takes a sip.
Eldon asks Angie if she’s from around here, and Angie tells Eldon that she is half-Cree and from Long Plain. Eldon tells Angie that he’s half-Ojibway, but doesn’t know where he’s from. Angie says it’s sad to not know where you’re from, but Eldon says it’s a waste of time trying to miss something you don’t know. Angie says missing things lets you know you’re living, that you touched something and something touched you. Angie asks Eldon if he has family, and he pauses before replying “no.” Angie tells Eldon he can talk to her, but Eldon says he’s just there to work. Eldon watches her leave. Eldon, Bunky, and Angie eat by candlelight, and after dinner, Angie tells a story. Angie makes the stories up, telling a story about the sea. She is captivating before she even says a word. Angie tells a story about a being from the sea who yearned to see and hear the world above her, but who, once she got to the land, longed for her home in the underwater world. Eldon does not realize he is crying until Angie ends the story. Eldon leaves to sleep in the barn, and as he does Angie watches him without speaking.
The ground that Eldon builds Bunky’s fence on is hard and unrelenting, but Eldon pushes himself. Angie arrives again at lunchtime, this time with no flask. She tells Eldon that her father was a working man, too, who died when Angie was twelve. He was a good man, who enjoyed working outside, and Angie’s Cree mother gave up when her father died. Her mother had trouble finding work, and had few skills. Angie’s mother drank after her father’s death, and would find men and bring them home, although the men would always leave her. Angie swore she would never rely totally on a man, so she went to work, cooking at different work sites.
Angie explains that Bunky’s different than the men she’s known through work. Bunky’s soft and gentle, but he also has grit. Angie asks Eldon if he has anyone, like family or any women in his life. Eldon says he has nothing much to say. Angie replies that she understands that some stories are hard to tell, and it seems that Eldon’s had a story he’s been carrying for a long time. Eldon says that some stories never need to be told. Angie puts her arms around Eldon’s shoulders and leans her head against his, telling Eldon that he has it in him to be a hero, too. When Angie gets up to leave, she stands on her toes and kisses Eldon. It is over in an instant, and she leaves Eldon, mouth open in wonder. That night, Angie visits Eldon at his barn in the loft, and they make love.
Chapter 20 continues the story of Eldon, Angie, and Bunky. Eldon has not had a drink since his first day on the job, and he feels as if he occupies his body for the first time in a long time. Each day of work made the sobriety easier. Eldon can feel Bunky studying him, the change in him, and the two talk about how it feels to be out on the land. Angie continues to tell stories at night. When the stories end each night, Eldon feels lonely, as if some connection has been severed. One day Angie visits Eldon during his work and tells Eldon “when you share stories you change things,” and that if Eldon were to share one of his stories, he’d get lighter. Eldon says he doesn’t have anything worth telling, but Angie says she’d like to get to know him. She kisses his palm. They make love on the earth beneath them and Eldon knows he will never see the land the same way again.
Eldon, Bunky, and Angie share their last meal together at the farmhouse. Eldon can’t bear to stay for a story or a smoke so he leaves for a walk, and there is a feeling in him like waiting for a punishment. Eldon craves a drink for the first time in days. There is a “purple ache” between his ribs, and he tastes a cry building at the back of his throat. Eldon goes to the barn to sleep, and in the night Angie comes to him. They make love in the barn and Eldon loses “all touch with earth and existed in a primal sphere” with just Angie. The light of a lamp emerges from the shadow and they hear Bunky gasp and say, “What the hell?”
Chapter 21 witnesses Bunky, Angie, and Eldon all sitting in the harsh light of the kitchen. Bunky is glowering, repeatedly slamming his fist on the table. Finally Bunky asks, “This is how you repay me?” Eldon apologizes, and Angie says that it wasn’t Eldon’s fault. Bunky stares at Angie and tells her that he loved her, trusted her. Bunky asks Eldon if he loves Angie. He says he does, saying yes once to the floor and then meeting Bunky’s eyes and saying, “yes.” Bunky asks Angie if she loves Eldon. When she says yes, Bunky breaks. Bunky falls against the door jamb and puts a hand to his face.
Bunky says that Angie came to him like hope, that he thought maybe the farm might’ve turned out to be a home with her there. Bunky looks at Eldon. Bunky tells Eldon if he’s going to be with Angie, he has to be sober. Bunky asks them where they’ll go, and Eldon tells him they’ll follow the work. Bunky says if they’re bent on going, he’s giving them the truck, not on account of Eldon but on account of Angie. Bunky tells Eldon that if he ever learns Angie’s been disrespected, he’s coming to find Eldon. Eldon and Angie find money on the seat of the truck, left for them by Bunky. They drive off into the black canyon of the night, leaving Bunky heartbroken.
Analysis
Angie’s prowess as a storyteller further underlines the importance of stories in Medicine Walk. Much in the way Eldon’s mother was a prolific storyteller, Angie is captivating when she tells stories. Wagamese parallels these two female characters and their skillful storytelling because both women are important and pivotal in Eldon’s life. It follows that their stories, and their abilities as storytellers, are important to Eldon, too.
While Eldon’s mother read from a book when she told stories, Angie crafts her own stories. Angie seems to go elsewhere when she tells stories, almost “like stepping through a curtain”; Eldon likens it to spell-casting. The otherworldly quality to Angie’s storytelling gestures towards her having a greater knowledge of the 'old ways.' Angie is more well-versed in Indigenous knowledge than Eldon is, and her telling of stories almost mimics the Starlight’s receiving stories from the Star People.
The hard, unrelenting ground that Eldon builds Bunky’s fence on is a symbol for Eldon’s journey to sobriety. Eldon becomes sober during and through his physical labor of building the fence; it is hard and unrelenting work, much like his journey to sobriety, but Eldon does it. It is important that Eldon’s building the fence and his path to sobriety coincide; it is through sobriety that Eldon is able to finish the difficult physical labor, and through the difficult building of the fence that Eldon reaches temperance. The job helps Eldon sober up because Bunky sees good in Eldon—the first person to do so in a long time—and so Bunky offers him a job.
There also exists a connection between Angie and the land in these chapters. Angie brings Eldon lunch every day that he works on the fence, often without Bunky knowing. It is on the land that Angie and Eldon form their relationship, and that they fall in love. The land is also one of the places where Eldon and Angie make love, where Eldon “will never see the land the same” after their love-making. Their relationship is therefore mediated by the land, as the land facilitates the connection between Eldon and Angie. It is the only place they can be alone.
When Eldon feels a “purple ache in his chest” alongside his craving for drink, we are reminded of the "purple mud" of Jimmy’s death. Eldon mourns what he believes impossible—him and Angie being together—and so the threat of another loss threatens Eldon’s current sobriety. Before Bunky finds Eldon and Angie together, Eldon believes that he can’t be with Angie. Angie is with Bunky romantically, despite her and Eldon sleeping together. Since Eldon has finished the job he was hired to do, Eldon believes he is losing his relationship with Angie; he cannot bear to smoke or listen to a story because he believes it is the end. Purple becomes a literary device once more in this passage because it symbolizes loss, just as it symbolized loss when Eldon lost Jimmy.
Eldon’s betrayal of Bunky is important to the plot in the final chapters of Medicine Walk. Before Bunky discovers Angie and Eldon, Eldon has a “feeling like waiting for punishment.” Eldon feels guilty for his and Angie’s affair, and Eldon’s guilt is a factor in the development of his alcoholism later on. Moreover, Bunky’s devotion to Angie, despite her betrayal, is important plot-wise. Bunky gives Angie money and a truck, despite her infidelity, so that she might survive. Later on, we will learn that Bunky is the "old man" who takes care of Frank. It follows that Bunky would care for Angie’s child. Bunky’s devotion to Angie despite her betrayal foreshadows Bunky being the old man, because Bunky is devoted to Angie—and, eventually, to Angie’s child.
