Whiskey Tender

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, death, mental illness, addiction, substance use, and cursing.

During her childhood, Taffa had a recurring dream when she was sick: A new classmate would ask her to spend the night after school on a Friday. However, when Taffa arrived at the girl’s house, it transformed into a cave that made Taffa sick, and the girl put her into a hospital bed. A man would enter the cave and speak to Taffa in a language she didn’t understand, but she knew that the cave held “generations of sadness” (161). As she woke, his cold hands would transform into her mother’s compress trying to lower her fever.

After Joan left for boarding school, Lorraine got pregnant again, giving birth to a new baby girl named Theresa, and Lori began spending all her time with a group of white girls from her varsity softball team. Edmond worked long hours, and Monica and Taffa were lonely. That summer, they headed to Yuma for the annual intertribal powwow. Taffa was eager for the opportunity to reconnect with her roots.

At the powwow, Taffa ran into her cousin Bobby and jumped at the opportunity to spend time with her “badass older cousin” (167).