Night of the Living Rez

The narrator visits his mother at the crisis stabilization unit, which is outside of the reservation. He’s brought her cigarettes and reveals that she’s using benzodiazepines. They chat about movies his mother has watched recently and how little sleep she’s getting. At the end of the conversation, the narrator’s mother suffers a seizure that shocks him in its intensity; in the aftermath of the seizure, she can’t remember who he is. The medics take the mother to the hospital but won’t let the narrator ride in the ambulance. He waits for her to call from the ER and tells her what happened in the crisis stabilization unit, and she’s distressed by the fact that she momentarily couldn’t remember who he was. The narrator drives to the hospital, becoming reckless as he drives. He clips a telephone pole and his car flips, resulting in a leg injury that lands him in the ER.