Flight: A Novel

Justice is a handsome white 17-year old boy Zits meets while sitting in a holding cell at a juvenile detention center in Seattle. Justice is friendly and engages Zits in conversation. Zits is struck not only by how handsome Justice is but also by his clear skin and his tendency to gaze at Zits with genuine kindness. After they’re released from the detention center, Justice takes Zits back to an abandoned building where he’s squatting, talks to him about Friedrich Nietzsche, and expresses admiration for indigenous cultures. He and Zits stalk the Seattle streets at night and shoot people with paintball guns. Later, Justice gives Zits an actual gun, which is what he uses to enter a bank with the intention of committing a mass shooting.

When Justice is introduced, the reader senses that Zits has found a friend his own age and even a surrogate brother. As the narrative progresses, it seems more likely that Justice is not a real person but an idealized projection of Zits.

Zits describes Officer Dave as “a big white dude” with a soothing voice, like that of someone trying to talk someone out of jumping off of a ledge. Dave is the only police officer who Zits both likes and respects. Dave is empathetic, particularly toward children, and makes an effort to connect to them. In his spare time, he writes poetry and has formed “a police officer poetry slam team” (23). Dave believes that Zits is a good kid who has been repeatedly betrayed by adults, resulting in his running away, becoming a criminal and a substance abuser. Dave has a brother—a firefighter named Robert who is married to a nurse named Mary. Determined to make amends for the two toddlers that he was unable to save from neglectful, drug-addicted parents, Dave arranges for his brother and sister-in-law to adopt Zits. 

Hank is one of the bodies Zits occupies when he is teleported through time. Hank is a 35-year old FBI agent working in Idaho in 1975. He and his partner, Art, infiltrate an indigenous civil rights activist group called IRON (Indigenous Rights Now!).

Hank is “a very handsome white guy” with blond hair and blue eyes (42). He also has clear skin. He is “six or seven inches shorter” than Zits but much more muscular (43). Hank represents what Zits considers an ideal masculinity. He’s so entranced by his new image that he even checks his penis size, noticing that he’s more well-endowed than before. Hank is also married—to the most beautiful woman that Zits has ever seen—and has three children. He and Art are best friends and have been work partners for 12 years.

The second body that Zits occupies is that of a slim indigenous boy, around 12 or 13 years old. The boy is voiceless and, when Zits touches his throat, he feels a knot. He later learns that his throat was cut by a white soldier not much older than he is. Though the narrative never specifies the young warrior’s tribe, Zits meets his father—another warrior dressed in war-paint—who encourages him to take revenge against the young man who cut his throat. Zits also assumes that he has a mother and siblings who await him and his father back in their tepee, though these presumed characters are never introduced into the story.

In the body of the young warrior, Zits is transported back to the eve of the Battle of Little Big Horn in June 1876. Before the young warrior makes the decision to kill the white soldier, Zits is transported out of his body and into that of Gus (see below).

In the body of the indigenous boy, Zits experiences happiness for the first time as a result of belonging to a family. He also experiences his second moral quandary when he is confronted with yet another choice to commit a vengeful killing.

Augustus "Gus" Sullivan is an Indian hunter tasked with finding and leading an attack on a tribe of indigenous people living near the Colorado River. Gus is an elderly man suffering from arthritis, excruciating back pain, and mild senility. When Zits becomes Gus, he walks out of his tent stark naked, to the amusement of the other assembled cavalrymen. 

Small Saint is the nickname of a 16-year old soldier who is part of an attack on an unidentified tribe of Native Americans living along the Colorado River in the 19th century. Despite his youth, Small Saint is already missing half his teeth. He fights alongside an officer Zits has nicknamed “General Mustache” and with the Indian hunter whose body Zits occupies—Augustus Sullivan.

Small Saint defects from the cavalry to save Bow Boy, a five-year old who belongs to the tribe. Gus makes an effort to save the teenage soldier and the little warrior, but encourages them to move farther into the hills without him when he experiences excruciating back pain and cannot continue the journey.

Small Saint elevates his moral conscience over the call of duty, refusing to behave like a proper soldier—that is, merely following orders—in favor of doing what is right. Neither Gus nor Zits learns of the eventual fates of Small Saint and Bow Boy, but the assumption is that the cavalry will eventually catch up with and kill them.

Bow Boy is the nickname that Zits, as Augustus Sullivan, gives a five-year old boy from a tribe of indigenous people living along the Colorado River. When Augustus, or Gus, and his cavalry track down and invade Bow Boy’s camp, most of the assembled tribespeople defend themselves with bows and arrows. Zits notices how Bow Boy’s fingers are too small and not strong enough to pull the bow-string and release an arrow; h e bloodies his fingers but is determined to release an arrow. Bow Boy possesses the tenacity of a warrior and is quick on his feet, ably dodging Small Saint, who he thinks is trying to capture and kill him.

Contrary to expectations, Small Saint rescues Bow Boy from potentially being killed by one of the cavalry soldiers. Bow Boy develops trust for Small Saint, who becomes a surrogate paternal figure. The narrative suggests that Bow Boy’s actual father was likely killed in the attack. Bow Boy escapes to the nearby hills with his rescuer. The reader never finds out if Small Saint and Bow Boy survive.

Jimmy is the fourth person whose body Zits occupies. Jimmy is a philandering pilot, living in the United States, post-9/11. He is white with pale skin, blond hair, and blue eyes; he is a large, strong man. He has been married for 20 years to a woman named Linda who leaves him when she finds out about his affair with a younger woman named Helda. He became best friends with an Ethiopian Muslim named Abbad X who lived in the United States for 15 years, first arriving to study mechanical engineering in college. Jimmy trained Abbad to be a pilot. Despite Jimmy’s prejudices and lingering fears about Muslims after 9/11, he and Abbad bonded, discussing everything from their marital woes to American culture and politics. Abbad ultimately did become a terrorist and flew a passenger plane into downtown Chicago at rush hour.

Jimmy suffers from feelings of grief over the loss of his wife as well as guilt for befriending and training Abbad. Abbad became a terrorist and even involved his wife and infant daughter in his attack on the U.S. In his state of grief, and his feeling that his attempts to do good actually result in harm, Jimmy flies his plane over a “great lake” and intentionally crashes it (118).

Zits’ father is of Native American descent, though Zits doesn’t know his father’s tribe. He married Zits’ mother, a beautiful, green-eyed woman of Irish descent, but abandoned both his wife and son shortly after Zits was born.

Zits’ father grew up in an abusive household with a father who repeatedly berated him and made him feel worthless. This resulted in his believing that he could never be an adequate father to Zits. To avoid disappointing him, Zits’ father abandons his family and becomes a homeless alcoholic living on the streets of downtown Tacoma. Zits imagines his father as a temperamental, angry man who antagonizes everyone around him.

When Zits runs away from his foster homes, he lives with a coterie of homeless, alcoholic Native Americans. Knowing that his father has also become a homeless drunk, his membership among this group is an attempt to be close to his father and to reinforce their kinship through this group of surrogates.