Prodigal Summer

Deanna is awakened from an afternoon nap by a single gunshot and goes to investigate. Eddie’s rifle is gone from the cabin, and she fears that her “obsessive dread” has “come true” (311) and he’s shot one of the coyotes, who are now leaving the den to hunt. Eddie returns with a turkey, and Deanna is “delirious” (312) with relief. They begin to prepare the turkey for a “feast […] an extravagant event to mark this extravagant summer” (314).

Deanna and Eddie share another animated discussion about predators and prey; Deanna doesn’t object to the turkey’s death because it was a prey animal, and, as she puts it, “predation is honorable”—a way to keep “populations from going through their own roofs” (317). She warns him again about shooting a predator like a coyote, an action that affects much more than “just one life” (320). Eddie insists that Deanna will never “convert” him: “I’m a ranching boy from the West,” he says, “and hating coyotes is my religion” (323).

That night, Deanna can’t fall asleep, an unusual occurrence for her, as is napping in the daytime, which she’s been doing more frequently. Something has “gotten her out of whack” (327).