Ceremony

Tayo and Betonie finish the Scalp Ceremony. Betonie tells him that in order to truly complete the ceremony, he must find a woman, a mountain range, and certain constellations. Tayo realizes he needs to find his uncle’s stolen cattle to set himself right again. He sets out to find his cattle and the remainder of his ceremony.

Harley and Leroy waylay Tayo and convince him to go drinking with a woman they recently met, Helen Jean. Tayo wants to leave but can’t resist his friends, so he accepts. In the bar, the narrative perspective shifts to Helen Jean. She is disillusioned with the Indigenous veterans and their inability to move on from their glory days. She reflects on her time as a sex worker scraping a living for herself and her family. She grows fed up with the veterans’ behavior and leaves the bar with another group of men.

The perspective switches back to Tayo, who has passed out drinking and comes to when the bartender shakes him. He learns Harley and Leroy got into a fight with the other men over Helen Jean and were hurt badly. Tayo drives them home and then walks back to his own place.