Healer of the Water Monster

Two nights after Nathan’s visit to the medicine man, the water monster comes to see him. The water monster is still ill, and he asks Nathan to light a braid of sweetgrass to give them both energy. The water monster carries Nathan into the dunes for a meeting with the Holy Being known as Darkness. This Holy Being looks like a towering shadow of a human and intimidates Nathan with its booming voice. Darkness agrees to help the water monster because only the water monster knows the Shooting Star songs. Next, Darkness tests Nathan’s worthiness to accompany the water monster. During the test, Nathan hears his parents fighting, his mother crying, Nali and Uncle Jet arguing, and other children bullying him. He drowns out these painful sounds by humming a lullaby his mother used to sing to him and focusing on happy memories with his family.

Darkness releases Nathan, allowing him to perceive his body and the world around him again. The test caused an enormous sand painting of Nathan to form, and Darkness reads the painting to understand the boy’s inner being. In the painting, Darkness identifies signs of abundant intelligence, hardship, and kindness as well as “a little bit of bravery” (90). Convinced of Nathan’s worthiness, Darkness gives the boy his own communication stone and leaves to find First Turkey so that she can lead the water monster’s diagnosis meeting. Nathan is excited that they are making progress toward healing his new friend, but his excitement turns to fear when he learns that they must go to the spiders and ask them to weave a sash for First Turkey.

Uncle Jet and Nathan work on repairing Nali’s fence together, but Uncle Jet abandons the effort because he believes that the fence won’t stop the animal eating Nathan’s corn. At lunch, Nali tells Uncle Jet that she wants a medicine man to perform the Enemy Way Ceremony, which the Navajo hold for warriors upon their return from battle. She compares Uncle Jet’s behavior to the way that her husband acted when he returned from the Vietnam War. Uncle Jet declares that the ceremony would be “a waste of money” and storms off (96). Nathan promises Nali that he will help her convince Jet to have the ceremony. That evening, Uncle Jet sets a trap in the cornfield. Nathan’s new communication stone allows him to hear a grating voice. The invisible source of the voice emanates from Uncle Jet and repeatedly berates Jet for being “worthless” (98).

Nathan hears the voice again that night and sees two eyes glaring from Uncle Jet’s shadow. Nathan stomps on the eyes and tells the creature to leave his uncle alone, forcing it to retreat. Then Nathan speaks to the spiders living in the woodpile. Grandpa Firewood, the spiders’ patriarch, is reluctant to help the water monster because he dreads the return of the rains. Nathan persuades Grandpa Firewood to weave the sash by relocating the spider family to the outhouse, which seems like a magical place to the spiders because it shelters them from the elements and is swarming with flies. The young spider Nathan spared asks to accompany him, and he agrees even though spiders still frighten him somewhat. Nathan carries the spider into his bedroom and then falls asleep. The grating voice that tormented his uncle haunts Nathan’s dreams, but he forgets this when he awakens.

Three days after Nathan’s meeting with the spiders, Nathan still hasn’t caught the horned toad, and he starts to think that all the effort he put into his science project is worthless. His heart feels heavy, and he is rude to Nali on their supply run to Gallup. At Nali’s insistence, he calls his father, who wants to stop by and see him on his way home to Phoenix. Nathan rejects his father’s offer to visit and hangs up on him. As Nathan’s energy dwindles, Uncle Jet’s soars. Jet finishes mending the fence and even agrees to attend a diagnosis meeting.

The water monster comes to see Nathan at night, and the scent of burning sweetgrass restores the boy’s energy. Nathan informs the water monster that the spiders agreed to weave the sash. The monster carries Nathan to his old pond, which dried up after humans started excavating Church Rock Mine. Nathan decides to call the water monster Pond, which brings back bittersweet memories for the Holy Being: “All the animals that used to drink from my waters, they used to call me that, too. They were my friends. I miss them so much” (115). Nathan consoles Pond by promising to help restore the waters so Pond’s animal friends will return. The water monster says that his diagnosis meeting will happen on the night of the full moon and then takes Nathan back to his grandmother’s home. Nathan finds the horned toad in the trap, and he frees the lizard after it promises to stop digging up the corn.

Both Pond’s and Uncle Jet’s diagnosis meetings are scheduled on the same Saturday in June, but Nathan finds himself overwhelmed by loneliness and longing for his parents when the big day arrives. He experiences a brief flash of enthusiasm when Uncle Jet gives him a beautiful bow guard made from leather and silver to wear to his diagnosis meeting. Nali tells Nathan that he doesn’t have to endure his heartache and homesickness alone, which gives him the strength to prepare for Pond’s meeting. He attaches the communication stone to the bow guard, and he and his arachnid companion, Spider, collect the sash.

The Holy Being known as Wind carries him to a magnificent hogan made of sacred stones. Wind urges Nathan to be careful when entering the structure because the entrance is covered by a blanket of starlight that will set any human who touches it ablaze. For a moment, the idea of catching fire doesn’t bother Nathan, and he realizes that his malaise and “okayness with dying” aren’t normal and that he needs help to conquer them (129). Nathan recognizes many of the beings gathered inside the hogan, including Pond and Darkness. The horned toad accuses Nathan of trying to kill him and demands that he be thrown out of the sacred hogan.

First Turkey subdues the hubbub that follows the horned toad’s accusation and introduces the lizard as her assistant, Seed Collector. Nathan introduces himself and states the clans he belongs to. Darkness testifies on his behalf, declaring that the boy has “the grandest of courage” and possesses the potential to be a great medicine man (133). With Nathan’s innocence established, the meeting proceeds. Spider gives the sash to First Turkey, who says that it will greatly aid her assistant in his mission of saving plants. Pond relates his symptoms, which began about 35 years ago and include fever, dizziness, vomiting, and unintended weight loss. In addition, his scales have an unhealthy “yellowish-greenish tinge” (135). Nathan has seen this sickly hue before, and he has an idea of the root cause of Pond’s sickness, but melancholy clouds his mind.

Sensing that something is troubling the boy, a pair of Holy Beings extracts the spirit that tormented Uncle Jet from Nathan’s mind. The being leaps into the fire and disappears. The Holy Beings explain that the entity is an Ash Being created when a deceased human’s spirit latches onto his killer. They warn Nathan that the Ash Being will return to Uncle Jet now that its connection to Nathan has been severed and that only the Enemy Way Ceremony can defeat it for good. With the Ash Being gone, Nathan’s mind clears, and he realizes that Pond’s sickness is caused by radiation poisoning.

Nathan’s diagnosis frightens the Holy Beings, who worry that others of their kind may contract the same illness as Pond. Nathan explains that radiation poisoning isn’t contagious and that Pond was likely exposed by a uranium spill at Church Rock Mine. This helps the Holy Beings understand why Pond is sick because the rocks humans know as uranium are “the petrified blood of the Enemies” slain by the Holy Beings (142).

Human medicine is powerless to help Holy Beings, so First Turkey calls on Nathan to journey to the watery Third World and gather medicine. Nathan meekly accepts this quest, and First Turkey describes the rich rewards that await him, including, “fine silver jewelry, holy pelts, [and] sacred stones” (143). Instead of these material treasures, Nathan asks the Holy Beings to help the medicine man heal Uncle Jet, and they agree. Nathan’s fear of meeting Mother Water Monster makes him wish that he could find someone else to undertake the journey to the Third World.