Prodigal Summer

Deanna and Eddie are searching for “molly-moochers,” or morels, a difficult task in June, since the mushrooms are out of season. They come across a local, Sammy Hill, who’s carrying a rifle but claims he’s out looking for ginseng. Eddie, who made himself scarce in front of Sammy but listened in on the conversation, says with guys like that, Deanna must “chew them up and spit them out between your teeth, smiling the whole time” (194). They discuss Deanna’s estrangement from ordinary human life; aside from books, music and a few special people, she doesn’t miss much.

Suddenly Deanna and Eddie see two female coyotes hunting in the open and watch, “spellbound,” as “like two parts of a single animal” the coyotes “moved to surround and corner their prey” (197). Each afraid of the other’s thoughts, Eddie and Deanna don’t discuss the incident. Deanna heads off alone to repair a trail bridge, where she hears distant voices she believes to be hunters. Listening closer, she realizes she’s actually hearing the “conversational growls and higher-pitched barks” of female coyotes, communication “in the language of mothers speaking to children” (200). Deanna remembers the coyotes took a live mouse that morning, and she realizes their pups must be alive.