Saving Shiloh

The next day, Marty tells his best friend, David Howard, that Judd Travers will be joining his family for Thanksgiving dinner. David loudly repeats Marty’s admission, catching the attention of the other children on the bus. The children immediately begin suggesting possible outcomes of Judd joining Marty’s family for dinner, ranging from showing up drunk to bringing his gun and shooting Shiloh. Marty regrets saying anything. At school, Marty and his classmates learn about the origins of Thanksgiving, and their teacher explains how all Americans, aside from Indigenous people, were immigrants. Marty imagines that Judd’s “great-great-great-great-granddaddy was somebody who’d been in jail” (10).

On Thanksgiving morning, Marty and his sisters help Ma prepare the Thanksgiving meal. Marty notices that his mother appears worried and preoccupied throughout the morning, and at two o’clock, Marty’s father asks Marty to join him in picking up Judd. In the car, Dad reminds Marty to treat Judd with respect: Marty is the eldest, and he needs to set a good example for Dara Lynn and Becky. Dad warns Marty not to get upset if Judd mentions Shiloh, imploring Marty to act neighborly. Marty agrees as long as Dad does not let Judd take Shiloh hunting with him, and Dad reminds Marty that Judd cannot hunt this season because of his broken leg.

They arrive at Judd’s house, and he is already outside waiting for them. He walks to the car using his crutches and carries a bag with him for Marty’s mother. When they arrive back home, Marty can see Shiloh waiting for him on the porch, eagerly wagging his tail, but he notices that Shiloh stops and runs inside when he realizes that Judd is with them. Inside, Ma has dinner ready, and Judd shows Ma what he brought her: a squirrel that he shot in his yard. Dad thanks Judd, telling him that he will skin the squirrels after dinner, but Marty feels ill.

The family and Judd sit down to an uncomfortable meal, and Marty notices that Shiloh is nowhere to be found. After the prayer, everyone settles in to eat, and it takes Marty a minute to realize that conversation has stalled. Marty senses Judd’s embarrassment: He might like the food, but he does not feel comfortable at their table, especially because Marty’s family, and Shiloh, were the ones who found and saved Judd after his drunk-driving accident.

Becky breaks the silence, asking what the Thanksgiving turkey’s name was, and Judd interjects, recalling how he shot a 13-pound turkey the year before after using a fake turkey call to lure in his prey. Becky is upset to hear this and tells Judd, “We’ll blow your head off!” (16), effectively bringing the conversation to a halt.

Judd appears unfazed by Becky’s outburst, pointing out that she has no problem eating the meat of a butchered turkey. Ma and Dad try to quickly steer the conversation elsewhere, their voices—“too loud and high” (17)—betraying how uncomfortable they all feel. When they finish dessert, Ma tells Judd that she will send him home with some pie as well, trying to speed up the evening, but then she asks Judd to stay and watch the football game on television. Judd declines, and suddenly the tension abates.

As Judd puts on his coat to leave, he looks around the house and asks Marty where Shiloh is. Pleased that Judd has admitted that Shiloh is Marty’s dog, he decides to bring Shiloh out to say goodbye, and he has to pull Shiloh out. Judd reaches out to Shiloh and awkwardly strokes his head, but Marty can tell that Judd means well and wants to thank Shiloh for being the one who alerted Marty’s family that Judd’s truck had gone off the road, saving Judd’s life.

When Marty’s father gets home from dropping off Judd, he is frustrated with his family, especially Marty, for not making conversation with Judd. Ma comes to Marty’s defense, but Dad does not relent. Marty can tell that his father is mostly upset, as they all are, with how the meal went. The following day is tense, and the tension only abates after dinner when Dad suggests that Ma put her feet up and asks Marty to help him skin the squirrels that Judd brought.

The process disgusts Marty, but he is careful about what he says, not wanting to insult his father, who also hunts. As Marty helps his father cut up the squirrel meat for stew, Marty cannot help but feel like “a murderer” (20). He tells his father that he could be a vegetarian, stating that he does not know how his father can shoot animals, and Dad points out that Marty eats meat, informing him that if he became vegetarian, he would have to give up other things like his leather belt and cowboy hat. Marty marvels at how complicated life is when it comes to these kinds of ethical questions and decides that he will continue to eat meat if he does not know how the animal died. Marty tells his father that he knows one thing for certain: that he does not want Shiloh to become a hunting dog. Dad tells Marty to take some of the squirrel stew over to Judd tomorrow to thank him.

The next morning, Marty prepares to go to Judd’s house to deliver the squirrel stew. Shiloh becomes excited, thinking that they are going on an adventure. Shiloh follows Marty as far as the bridge before turning around, and Marty continues his way to Judd’s alone. As he walks, Marty thinks about everything that Judd has lost in the last few months and about Dad’s statement that Judd will either change for the better or turn his self-loathing outward toward others in the community. Marty walks by one of Judd’s neighbors, who is caring for Judd’s dogs while he recuperates, and sees the dog wagging its tail for the first time.

Judd is excited to receive the squirrel stew, telling Marty that he shot them off the tree in his yard. Marty accidentally insults Judd by telling him that his family does not eat that much meat anyway, so they wanted to pass along the stew to him. Marty tries to backtrack, feeling frustrated about the difference between lying and fibbing. Marty thinks back to the previous summer: When Shiloh ran away from Judd, Marty lied to both Judd and his parents, saying that he did not know where Shiloh was even though he had been hiding him in the woods.

Marty visits David, and David’s mother asks how the dinner with Judd went. Mrs. Howard asks if Marty noticed any positive change in Judd, and Marty admits that he has not but that his father says that Judd is trying. Upstairs, David reveals that he has a secret to share with Marty that he learned from his father, a reporter at the local newspaper. David tells Marty that a man from the nearby town of Bens Run has been missing since shortly before Judd’s accident. David asserts that Judd killed the man and then crashed his truck on purpose to destroy any evidence. David quickly weaves an explanation, blaming the murder on Judd and insisting that they go to the scene of the accident to search for clues.

As Marty gets ready to leave, David’s father arrives home, and David asks if he has learned anything else about the man from Bens Run. Mr. Howard tells them only that the man’s cousin in Cincinnati reported him missing after he failed to arrive for a scheduled visit and that the sheriff is beginning an investigation.

On Saturday morning, Marty goes to his job at Dr. Collins’s veterinary clinic. During his shift, Marty asks Dr. Collins how he can help Judd Travers’s dogs and “keep them from turning mean again” after they return home to Judd once he recovers (30). Collins says that Judd could take a few practical steps to help his dogs’ temperaments, such as not beating them and putting up a fence in his yard so that the dogs can run around unchained.

At home, Marty thinks about what he wants to get his family for the approaching Christmas holiday but struggles to think of a gift for Dara Lynn because “[he doesn’t] want to waste a nickel on her” (32). He wonders why the relationship between him and his sister feels so strained lately. With Christmas approaching, Marty also worries that his parents will invite Judd again, but he is relieved when Ma says that Judd told her that he will be going to visit friends for Christmas. Ma doesn’t believe that Judd is really going to visit friends; she thinks he made up the story so that no one would feel sorry for him for being alone.

Marty’s relief is short-lived, however, as his parents tell them that they will be going to Clarksburg to visit Aunt Hettie and then Grandma Preston in her nursing home. Marty does not have to share his displeasure aloud, knowing that Dara Lynn will do it for him, and she immediately begins to complain, stating that she does not want to spend her day with Grandma Preston, who steals other residents’ false teeth. Dad reminds Dara Lynn that Grandma Preston has dementia and cannot always be held accountable for her actions.

It snows the next day, and Marty and his sisters go outside to play with Shiloh, who leaps around in the snow with excitement. Marty and his sisters enjoy sledding together until the crack of a rifle breaks through the air. They watch as a buck goes running across the field nearby, and their father calls them all to come inside immediately.