Green Grass, Running Water

Pages 240-244, 253-260, 279-286, 292-294, 297-315, and 320-328

While having breakfast at the hotel’s coffee shop, Charlie notices four Indigenous elders sitting at one of the tables. As he gets up to use the nearby payphone, they smile, wave, and greet him by his name. When he heads back into the coffee shop to figure out how he knows them, they are gone. Charlie soon realizes the red Pinto he had rented is missing. He calls the rental company, and they inform him that they don’t even have a record of him renting a car from them—the one he was supposed to take was still there that morning. Charlie decides to get a taxi to go see Lionel and Bill Bursum at the store, knowing that Alberta will also show up there at some point.

Lionel wakes on the morning of his 40th birthday and feels embarrassed about what his life has become. He resolves to make changes and that this will be his final year working as a TV salesman. He also decides to visit his parents at the Sun Dance. Instead of driving to work, he opts to walk to kickstart his new life. On the way, he runs through the conversations he will have with his boss about quitting, with Eli about going back to school, and with Alberta about having a baby and starting his new life with her.