Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

In June, Janina spends less time in the village since the vacation owners are around to care for their properties. Instead, she goes for long rambles in the woods. During one of these excursions, she observes a man entering the forest. He appears to be looking for something on the ground and spends some time contemplating his surroundings.

The next day, the man shows up at Janina’s door. He introduces himself as Borys, but Janina soon christens him Boros. “I’m an entomologist […]. I’m studying a particular species of flat bark beetle, endangered, rare and beautiful. Do you know that you live at the southernmost site in Europe where Cucujus haematodes is found?” (153). Janina is intrigued by Boros’s ecological mission to protect the beetles’ habitat and allows him to camp on her sofa for days while waiting for his student assistants to arrive.

Janina writes a letter to the police department explaining her theory about animals murdering people. She also outlines the astrological aspects that confirm her beliefs but never receives an official reply.

One day, Oddball arrives to ask for help pouring a concrete walkway near his house. Lumbago prevents him from finishing the project, so Boros and Janina take over. That evening, the three sit outdoors under the full moon in the orchard, enjoying glasses of wine, and singing. Janina says,

And our Bats had settled in the tree and were singing. Their shrill, vibrating voices were jostling microscopic particles of mist, so the Night around us was softly starting to jingle, summoning all the Creatures to nocturnal worship (164).

Later that night, Janina and Boros go back home and sleep together though Janina declines to describe their encounter because she is “neither maudlin nor sentimental” (167).

The next morning Dizzy arrives to announce that Innerd’s body has been found. He was caught in a hunter’s trap in the woods. His remains have been there since March. Janina and her friends pile into her car and drive to the crime scene. A small group of villagers has already clustered around to watch the police investigate.

Later that night, Boros and Janina return to search for clues after everyone is gone. Janina speculates that Innerd was lured to his death by a pack of lovely red foxes. Innerd hoped to capture and skin them but stepped into a wire trap and was hoisted into the air before he fell to his death. Janina has no theory about who set a trap for him.

For several weeks, rumors fly around the village that a wild animal is loose and stalking humans in the area. Nobody feels safe anymore, and people take to locking their doors at night. During this time, Boros packs up and leaves to conduct more research elsewhere. 

At the end of June, Oddball asks Janina to help him make a costume for the mushroom pickers’ ball. He is a member of the Penny Buns Mushroom Pickers’ Society, and this is their annual social event. She also agrees to attend the group’s planning meeting with him. The president of the club proves to be pompous and self-important. Janina notes that he overuses the phrase “in truth,” which probably means that he’s a compulsive liar.

At the meeting, rumors fly about who or what is wreaking havoc in the village. Many preposterous theories are advanced, but Janina tops them all by suggesting that the culprit is probably a chupacabra. “There was a silence. Even the two Woodcocks fixed their gaze on me. ‘What is a chupacabra?’ asked Merrilegs, sounding alarmed. ‘It’s a mysterious Animal that can’t be caught. A vengeful Beast’” (186-87).

Back at home that night, Janina pens yet another letter to the police advancing her theory about animals who murder. To prove a legal precedent for her assertion, she mentions several instances from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance when animals were forced to stand trial for harming humans.

A few weeks before the ball, Janina goes to the resale shop to find costumes for herself and Oddball. She finds a wolf costume that fits her perfectly, but nothing in Oddball’s size. Then, she and Good News hit upon the idea of dressing Oddball as Little Red Riding Hood.

On the morning of the ball, Janina is visited by the local forest ranger, whom she calls Wolf Eye. She tries to convince him to preserve the habitat of the endangered beetles, but he dismisses her concerns. Wolf Eye says that people need timber to build houses, and nothing can be done to stop the logging operation. During his visit, he also tells her that some of the white foxes released from Innerd’s farm have been recaptured and sent to other farms where they will be skinned for their coats. Janina is disturbed to hear this but also consoled that the animals experienced a few weeks of freedom.

That evening at the ball in the town’s firehouse, Janina notices the club president arguing with his timid wife. She befriends the woman, who confides that her husband sometimes drinks too much at these occasions. The two women start discussing the murders, and the president’s wife says that the commandant and Innerd were her husband’s friends. She speaks with disgust about her husband’s hunting habits and the slaughtered deer and rabbits that he brings home. 

Janina secretly agrees with the woman’s aversion. The president’s wife then talks about a folktale from her childhood. “It tells of the Night Archer, who prowled after dark, hunting down bad people. He flew on a black stork, accompanied by dogs. Everyone was afraid of him, and at night they locked and bolted their doors” (200). She draws a parallel between the Night Archer and whoever is killing the hunters in the area. Janina says that her two dogs were probably killed by hunters a few years earlier. Seeing that the president’s wife is tired and distressed, Janina offers to drive the president home so that his wife can leave early.

As the party winds down, Oddball wants to leave, but Janina says she must stay to drive the president home, so Oddball rides with someone else. Later that night, Janina experiences the same nightmare of her mother and grandmother in the boiler room, but this time they are joined by a whole crowd of people. Janina shuts them all inside the basement and tries to get some sleep.

By Monday morning, the entire village receives another shock. The president’s body has been found in the firehouse, and it’s crawling with beetles. Janina writes yet another letter to the police. This time she analyzes Innerd’s horoscope in an attempt to prove that he was meant to die from a wild beast attack. She also posits that an escaped zoo tiger might be responsible for the crimes.