Healer of the Water Monster

Nathan and his companions continue down the icy passage and enter a maze of quartz crystals. Wind is unable to see the exit, and the companions find themselves walking in circles. Nathan notices that one of his reflections doesn’t copy his actions. When Nathan decides “to do nothing” and sit still (282), this reflection points him in the right direction. Nathan sings the water monster lullaby to open the maze’s exit. Spider and Wind congratulate the boy, but the grouchy Seed Collector is unimpressed. Conceding that the other obstacles will likely be more difficult, Nathan proceeds into an icy hall where darkness and silence reign.

Nathan and his companions reach a pool so wide and deep that they cannot see where it ends. Nathan forms an ice path by singing the water monster Change song and begins walking across the pool. Nathan hears yawns followed by loud booms that shake the water. A monstrous angler fish “the size of a blue whale” rises to the surface (289), eager to make the “[t]asty and soft human” its meal (290). The angler fish crashes through the ice bridge, and Nathan saves Seed Collector from falling into the pool. Nathan uses his knowledge of the science of sound waves to hatch a plan. He sings at the top of his lungs, and Wind makes his voice echo by pushing the sound against the top of the cave. By amplifying the sound, Nathan magnifies the power of the water monster song. He creates a sheet of ice thick enough to bear the giant angler fish’s weight. Nathan cannot bear to let the creature suffocate to death, and he melts the ice so that the fish can return to the pool. The grateful angler fish shows Nathan the exit.

Exhausted, Nathan stops to rest. When he falls asleep, he dreams about the day he won first place in the science fair. He quickly realizes that this dream is one of the obstacles because his parents are happier than they were in reality. The dream-mother and dream-father urge him to stay with them. He thanks them for allowing him to relive a joyful memory, explains that he wants his parents to be happy “[e]ven if it means they have to be divorced” (297), and insists that he needs to rejoin his friends.

The pleasant dream shatters apart, leaving Nathan in darkness. He hears the Ash Being’s cruel words and realizes that he is in Uncle Jet’s dream. He urges his uncle to finish the Enemy Way Ceremony and encourages him to lean on Nali and Nathan’s father because “[i]t’s not weak to ask for help” (298). Wind is relieved when Nathan wakes up and explains that the third obstacle traps selfish people in dreams. Feeling refreshed, Nathan wakes Spider and Seed Collector and continues toward the final obstacle.

Nathan and his friends reach a corridor lined with boulders waiting to crush anything that steps between them (302). Nathan notices that the boulders have eyes, and he obscures their vision by creating fog with the Change song. A sea breeze greets Nathan as he clears the boulders. He and his friends descend the giant river reed that the First Beings climbed to escape the Third World in the Navajo creation story, and they see an ocean dotted with islands. Seed Collector excitedly begins gathering seeds, explaining that the seeds will be needed in the Fifth World after “humans completely ruin the Fourth World” (306). He cites the modification of corn as an example of humans’ ruinous manipulation of nature. Wind wishes that more humans were like Nathan. Before the boy can reply, the river reed leaf he’s standing on bends, and he plummets toward the ocean. A geyser rises to slow his fall, and he loses consciousness.

Nathan awakens and meets one of Pond’s sisters. When Nathan tells her about Pond’s illness, she laments that all water monsters “are becoming sick in the Fourth World” (309). She instructs Nathan to touch the water, and this alerts Mother Water Monster that a human is present in her domain. Mother Water Monster furiously demands that Nathan prove that he really is representing Pond, and she grows calm after Nathan sings the water monster lullaby. Nathan gives her the moon sand, and she parts the ocean so that the two of them can gather a rock, which she says contains medicine for Pond.

Because Nathan knows only part of the protection song, giant crabs try to attack him. He uses his ability to move water with his mind to stop them and hurries back to the beach with Mother Water Monster. He thanks her for her help, and she instructs him to drink her waters to recover his strength and then return to his world. Pond’s sister explains that Mother Water Monster blessed Nathan by allowing him to drink her water. Nathan rejoins his companions, and even Seed Collector is overjoyed to see him. Pond’s sister shows them a shortcut back to the Fourth World.

The shortcut takes Nathan and his friends back to the cave where they began their journey. Jet Stone Boy creates another rainbow path and brings them to Pond. The water monster cries when he sees the rock Nathan brought from the Third World, but he forces himself to smile and explains that it is an egg containing his little sister. Weeping, Nathan hugs Pond and begs him not to die. Nathan apologizes for not doing enough to save his friend, but Darkness reminds the boy that he isn't the one who poisoned Pond with uranium. Pond makes Nathan promise to teach his little sister the water monster songs so she can bring the rains back. Nathan thanks Pond for being his friend and then hugs Pond until he passes away. Nathan buries Pond’s body and then plants the water monster egg in Nali’s cornfield between the two types of corn.

A beautiful butterfly with wings of shifting colors appears to Nathan and offers him solace in his grief. He realizes that she is Changing Woman, “the most beloved of all Navajo Holy Beings” (325). Changing Woman commends Nathan for bringing Pond the medicine of hope and asks him to go to Uncle Jet. Nathan hurries to the ceremony, where he sees Nali, his father, and his father’s girlfriend. Nathan joins the singers and then sings the protection song. He begins to cry again because Pond will never teach him the rest of it, but the singers already know the song, and Nathan feels whole again. With the ceremony complete, Nathan hugs Uncle Jet and is relieved to see that the Ash Being is gone. He then embraces Nali, his father, and even Leandra.

Nathan packs his things, including a notebook that contains the results of his science project. The heirloom corn yielded plumper ears, but Nathan would like a more controlled experiment with more definite results. Uncle Jet tells Nathan that his father is ready to leave and that Nathan saved his life when he refused to leave him alone in the hogan. Uncle Jet promises to continue going to therapy and plans to move in with Nathan’s father in Phoenix. Nathan tells Nali that he’ll come back in November to check on the water monster egg and then bids his grandmother goodbye.

Nathan, his father, Leandra, and Uncle Jet begin the long drive to Phoenix. As Nathan looks at the barren desert around him, he starts to berate himself for being “too slow and too dumb” to save Pond (334), but he rejects those inaccurate, unkind thoughts. Nathan reminds himself that he and the Holy Beings are still working together to restore the rains and bring life back to the desert. When Leandra falls asleep, Nathan’s father and uncle ask to hear all about his adventures. The boy gladly recounts the story from the beginning, when he followed Seed Collector into the desert.

In November, Uncle Jet, Nathan, and his father reunite with Nali at her mobile home. When darkness falls, Nathan goes into the dunes and finds Pond’s sister, who has hatched. Together, they practice the water monster lullaby. The song gathers a little storm cloud that sheds a “tiny pearl-sized bead of rain” on the desert (336).