LaRose

Landreaux waits at the edge of the reservation and shoots a buck. “When the buck popped away he realized he’d hit something else […] he had killed his neighbor’s son” (4), Dusty. Landreaux runs to tell Nola and prevents her from going to see her son’s body, instead calling the police. Nola screams at Landreaux and wants her husband to kill him, which Nola’s daughter, Maggie, overhears. Maggie puts Dusty’s toys in various places—the toys that Nola complains are scattered around the house. Nola picks them up, and they continue this ritual while other adults talk in hushed voices. The tribal police chief, Zack Peace, and the coroner had been dealing with fatalities from a car crash when they heard about Dusty. Zack calls Emmaline, Landreaux’s wife, who cries when she explains to her four children what happened. When Zack visits Emmaline days later, he cautions her to watch Landreaux, worried he will do something terrible. After Landreaux is released, he and Emmaline visit Father Travis and pray, crying as Father Travis tries to comfort them. “In his life on the reservation, Father Travis had seen how some people would try their best but the worst would still happen” (8).