Summary: Chapter 21
Naomi and Kenji were playing by the lake one summer day
when Rough Lock Bill came along. After remarking that he didn’t
understand the fuss about skin color, he told them a story about
an “Indian brave” who survived a plague and went to look for a friendly
place for his people to live. He wound up in Slocan. Its name, Rough
Lock Bill said, came from something the brave said to his people:
“ ‘If you go slow . . . you can go. Slow can go.’ ” Rough Lock said
that he had seen the last remaining Indian, who never spoke, but
chirped like a bird. Rough Lock then remarked that Naomi was remarkably
quiet.
Rough Lock went back to his cabin. Kenji took Naomi out
on his raft. Kenji fell off and called to Naomi to jump, but she
couldn’t swim. Kenji went back to the shore and ran away. Naomi
was sure he wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened. Scared and hoping
she could swim, Naomi jumped into the water. She began to drown,
but Rough Lock Bill rescued her.
Summary: Chapter 22
Naomi woke in a hospital. The beds in the room were packed
tightly together. While a nurse combed her hair roughly, Naomi thought about
what Stephen told her: Father was in a hospital in New Denver and
might never come home. She thought about chicks, and what it meant
that they were yellow but eventually turned white. Because Stephen
had a game called Yellow Peril, Naomi associated the color yellow
with cowardice.
She thought about walking to school with Stephen one day.
Two boys stopped them and challenged Stephen to a fight, calling
him a “gimpy Jap.” He was going to fight them, but a missionary
woman intervened. They got to school, and Naomi approached a circle
of boys. She saw that they were torturing a chicken. They had cut
its throat and were letting it bleed to death slowly while it struggled. The
bell rang, and Naomi dashed to class, where the students sang the
Canadian national anthem and the school song. Another day on the
way to school, a girl with white hair accused Naomi of throwing her
kitten down an outhouse hole. Naomi walked by the outhouse the next
day and heard the kitten still meowing.
Summary: Chapter 23
When Naomi returned home some time later, Nomura-obasan
had left to live with her daughter. Time passed. Germany surrendered. The
Slocan community grew, businesses popped up, and habits formed.
Naomi and Obasan often went to the public bathhouse. One night in 1945,
they bumped into Nomura-obasan there. Two unfriendly women whispered
and stared at Naomi, and hurried two girls, sisters and schoolmates
of Naomi’s, out of the bath. Sachiko, a high school girl, came into
the bath with her aged grandfather, Saito-ojisan, and helped him
bathe. Later, the girls explained that their mother said Naomi and
everyone in her family had TB. Naomi ran home and asked what TB
is. Without answering her, Uncle said, it’s not shameful to be sick,
it’s just unlucky.
Summary: Chapter 24
The morning after the war ended, Naomi had a nightmare
about a being that resembled her mother. She got up and went to
the outhouse. When she returned, she found that Father was in the
cabin. Stephen came in and cried out with delight. He and Father
played songs on their flutes.
