The Underneath

Puck is pleased with his new skills but he continues to dwell regretfully on his mistake in leaving the Underneath, which led to his mother’s death and his current predicament. He continues to feel lonely for Sabine and Ranger and to consider how he might cross the creek. He wishes that Ranger would bay, so that he’d know which direction he needs to go.

The copper-winged bird circles above. Puck hisses at it in fear and returns to his den.

The trees know that Night Song is dying when she returns to her serpent body. Once she learns that she wouldn’t be able to return to her human body and her human family, she climbs into the branches of a cypress above the bayou. Night Song turns from blackish blue to a purplish and yellow color. Grandmother calls to her daughter to come down to her, or to sing, but Night Song can hear only the desperate cries of her husband and daughter. She continues losing color until she’s clear as glass and then vanishes.

The daughter of Night Song and Hawk Man climbs out of the creek; she realizes that she has floated too far south, further than she intended to. She tries to get her bearings and remember what her mother had said about Grandmother’s location. The ground is firmer than she’s used to, and the trees are too spaced out; she wonders where she is.

Puck, in the same place where Night Song’s daughter stood 1,000 years earlier, wonders where he is, where Sabine is, and where his hound-dog papa Ranger is. He resolves to get across the creek.

When Night Song vanishes, Grandmother becomes furious. In her fury, she kills and eats all the animals she comes across.

She remembers Night Song’s daughter and decides that if she can’t have her daughter, she’ll have Night Song’s daughter, her granddaughter, as her own. The Alligator King warns that the child might not be able to step out of her human skin. Grandmother dismisses this and goes to the Caddo village. She sees the jar.

The birds call to Hawk Man to step out of his human skin and join them. He’s tempted but knows that he has to stay human to care for his human daughter. He wakes up and sees that not only Night Song but also his daughter is missing—and that her jar is gone, too.

Puck reflects on his improved hunting skills and wonders whether Sabine would be proud of him. He sees the limb of a tree floating past with five turtles sitting on top of it. He realizes that this might be his chance to get to the other side. He runs beside it and manages to jump onto it; however, his jump sets the log spinning, and he falls into the water.

He climbs back onto the bank. The log floats away, and he briefly sees the hummingbird again.

Grandmother slithers around the jar, admiring the art, which she recognizes as Night Song’s. She reflects on the fact that Night Song abandoned her twice and rears up to strike and break the jar. Hawk Man grabs her from behind and asks where his wife and daughter are.

Maliciously, Grandmother tells him that Night Song is gone and claims, “She was done with you” (208). Grandmother slashes Hawk Man’s thigh. He shoves her into the jar, pushes the lid on top, and buries it in a deep hole. A pinecone falls into this hole too; it later sprouts and grows into an enormous pine tree. Hawk Man doesn’t notice, as he digs, that Grandmother has poisoned him where she struck his thigh.

Gar Face knows that the alligator is toying with him. Gar Face feels his boat being bumped and then rocked. He knows that if he jumps off the boat onto the creek, the Alligator King will take him. The Alligator King spins the boat. Gar Face drinks vodka. He remembers the night chasing the deer and how he triumphed in the end. He dismisses the fear he’s feeling. Finding himself on the shore, Gar Face gets out. He pulls his boat in. Feeling dizzy from the spinning and sick from the vodka, he lies down on the grass.

Sabine knows that something’s wrong. Gar Face hasn’t returned, despite the sun’s having risen. Although Sabine hates Gar Face, he’s the only one who can unchain Ranger (not that he ever has) and he’s the one who (most of the time) feeds Ranger and gives him water.

Ranger snuggles up to Sabine and reflects on how much he loves her. He worries that he’ll starve to death on the end of his chain.

Puck continues to consider how he’ll cross the creek and which way he should go once he does. He wonders again why Ranger doesn’t bay, which would help him to know which direction to go. He worries that something awful has happened to Ranger.

Puck hears a squirrel high in the oak tree. He watches it scurry down a branch and jump to another tree branch across the river. He realizes that his sharp claws are perfect for climbing trees.

Meanwhile, Grandmother knows that soon her time will come.

Gar Face wakes up at midday on the side of the bayou, covered in mosquito bites. He makes his way home. As he walks across the yard, he sees a flash of something run back under the house; he assumes it’s a rat. He throws some food in Ranger’s bowl and then lies on his cot and considers that he needs bait to catch the Alligator King. At the same moment, he realizes that it was a cat that he saw, not a rat.

Sabine closes her eyes. She has no idea that a trap is being set for her.

Like the trees, Grandmother Moccasin remembers much. However, she knows nothing of what has happened since her entombment.

Grandmother doesn’t know what happened to Hawk Man. He lays on the bank of the creek in immense pain from the poison in his wound. The birds urge him to take his bird form, but he refuses; he needs to stay human to care for his missing daughter. The Caddo bring him food, sing to him, and sit with him. Eventually, the hummingbird comes for him. In the morning, the villagers find only copper feathers where Hawk Man had been. They call the creek Full of Sorrow for the Little Girl, and it eventually becomes known as Little Sorrowful Creek.

The birds that fly above Night Song and Hawk Man’s daughter in the field of grass where she stands, lost, urge her to step out of her human skin and join them. She does, flying away.

In her jar, 1,000 years later, Grandmother aches to feel wind or rain or the moon—or to hear Night Song’s lullaby or see her granddaughter glimmering in the sun.

Unknown to Sabine and Ranger, Gar Face watches Sabine from inside his window as she slips away to hunt each day. He decides that to use her as bait to lure the Alligator King onto the land, where he’ll shoot it. He obsesses over the standoff between himself and the Alligator King.

Ranger sees a hummingbird and wonders who it has come for. Gar Face sees it too; he shoots at it with his rifle. It disappears; Gar Face isn’t sure whether or not he shot it.

Puck watches the squirrels again. He tries to run fast across the high branches, but it makes them bounce too much. He starts going slowly, balancing. He hears the crack of a rifle. Shocked, he lets go.

The Alligator King knows that Gar Face will be back. He comes to the surface to sniff the air and senses that rain is coming.

The old dying tree senses that a storm is brewing—a huge storm.

Gar Face has stopped feeding Ranger, thinking, “why waste food on a dog who was doomed?” (238). He goes to the pub. Ranger and Sabine come out from the Underneath once Gar Face’s truck has rumbled away. The animals sense that rain is coming.

Puck falls through the branches and thuds to the ground, hard. He passes out.

Sabine returns to the Underneath when the rain starts. Her hunt was unsuccessful; all the animals are seeking shelter.

Gar Face sits in the tavern and hears the rain on the roof. He thinks about when he’ll be renowned as the most revered trapper in the woods.

Grandmother senses the storm above and hisses, “sssoooonnnnn…” (243).

Gar Face drives to his “victory meadow,” where he felled the deer. He thinks about how it’ll feel when he tells everyone about the alligator and how everyone will soon revere the name they use to mock him.

Still on the wrong side of the shore, Puck comes to in the rain. He retreats into his den at the base of the tree.

Beneath him, Grandmother thinks, “the daughter. I’ll take the daughter” (247).

The creek begins to rise.