Moon of the Crusted Snow

At the town meeting, Terry informs the crowd about what is happening in the south. He cautions the community that they will have running water as long as they can keep the diesel generator running to power the water treatment plant; this means that they must be as conservative as possible with their energy usage. The biggest immediate concern is food rationing. In the coming days, officials will assess each family’s food supply to help determine how to distribute rations. Several people call out in protest, angry that they spent time during the summer stockpiling food, while people who did not will get handouts from the council. Walter yells at the crowd that they need to act like a community.

Scott arrives, and the crowd is immediately suspicious. Walter tries to placate everyone, introducing Scott to the assembly. He says that they were waiting to introduce him until after the meeting. Scott apologizes, claiming he just wanted to say hi to the people of the community. Before Scott can say anything else, Walter suggests that Evan show him around.

Outside the assembly hall, Evan confronts Scott for breaking his promise to stay put. Scott claims he did not hear properly. Evan tells Scott that he is not a part of this community. The two men size each other up; Scott is much larger than Evan, and Evan knows that he cannot take him in a fight, though he is not afraid. Scott asks about the tour. Evan realizes that Scott needs the community more than the community needs him, meaning Scott is stranded.

Nicole counts the family’s canned provisions, aided by Maiingan, who is thrilled to help his mother with this mundane chore. Nicole thinks of her sister, Danielle, and her nephew, Will, who live in Toronto. Their unknown fate fills her with fear, so she goes back to counting cans.

Evan returns home, and Maiingan and Nangohns greet him enthusiastically. Nicole hugs him, taking comfort in his solid frame. Evan’s workload has increased substantially due to the rationing of electricity. It is his responsibility to drive Candace North around town to assess people’s food stores. The work is exhausting.

That night, Evan has a nightmare. His truck gets caught in a deep snowdrift. Unable to open the door, he is forced to smash the window. He climbs out, getting caught up in the process. He struggles to crawl to the band office, leaving a trail of blood along the way. The snow gets deeper and deeper. Suddenly, ice begins to form over the top of the snow. He kicks his legs free and climbs onto the crust of ice. He runs toward the building, knowing he must get there at all costs. He makes it inside as the snow piles up and swallows the building, blocking out the sky. The inside of the building is lit by a dim fire. He approaches the fire, noticing “strange, dark stacks lined up against the walls. […] [T]he closer he came, he realized they were bodies, frozen stiff, wrapped in blankets, and piled three-to-four high against the Gyprock walls” (122). He is horrified, though relieved to see that there are no children among the bodies. He tries to pull a blanket from the face of one body, but he jolts awake before he can see who it is.

A week after Scott’s arrival, Evan, Isaiah, Dan, and Jeff Whitesky accompany Scott on a hunt to test his skills. True to his word, Scott shoots a bull moose. Scott showed them his arsenal: His equipment contains “a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a .30-30 rifle, a smaller .22 caliber rifle, and two semi-automatic pistols,” along with “a cache of ammunition” (125).

Scott boasts over his kill. Annoyed, Dan leads them in a brief prayer over the body of the moose. Scott mimics the other men’s actions. Evan thinks, “He’s pulling his weight. […] Maybe he’ll be useful around here” (126).

Over dinner, Evan savors his potatoes—a food that will soon be scarce, if not completely unavailable—and Nicole practices Anishinaabe words with their children. Both she and Evan want to make sure that they retain knowledge of the Anishinaabe language even though schools have been shut down to conserve energy. Maiingan and Nangohns are “learning their language earlier and better than their parents had” because “Evan and Nicole had grown up in an era when Ojibwe wasn't spoken much with the younger generation at home” (128).

Evan leaves to check on his younger brother. It is a dark night, the moon hidden behind cloud cover. Most homes in the village are complying with the order to conserve electricity. However, when he reaches Cam’s duplex, he sees more lights on than usual. Smoke rises from the chimney, indicating that at least he is not using electric heat. Evan knocks on the front door. When no one answers, he opens the door and walks in. The apartment is clouded with cigarette smoke. He hears a small party in another room. Evan is annoyed, knowing that such a get-together means a greater expenditure of resources than is wise right now.

Evan finds Cam sitting at the kitchen table with Nick Jones and another friend, Jacob McCloud. Cam greets Evan enthusiastically, and Evan struggles to contain his annoyance with his brother. A plastic bottle of rye whiskey sits on the table, a brand that Evan does not recognize. Nick slurs that Evan saved him; not wanting to get involved in this drunken scene, Evan tells Cam he was just coming by to check on them.

Evan is greeted by Sydney, Cam’s girlfriend, sitting in the other room. Evan enters to see Sydney sitting on the couch, along with her cousins Tara and Jenna; Jenna is sitting on Justin Scott’s lap. Scott toasts Evan’s arrival, inviting him to join them. Evan suspected that the cigarettes and booze indicated Scott's presence. There were rumors in the town that he had a stock of these contraband goods.

Evan demands to know what Scott is doing at his brother’s house; Scott retorts that he was invited. Evan tells him to get his hands off Jenna. Sydney tells Evan to calm down. Evan fires back that Scott does not respect their ways. When Scott says that he knows Evan enjoys “the old firewater too,” they nearly fight (132). Evan realizes that he is no match for Scott, so he leaves.

The next morning, Evan is awakened by Isaiah pounding on the door. Isaiah is in a panic; something bad has happened. He waits until Evan gets dressed and gets in the truck with him before telling him that Jenna and Tara Jones froze to death last night, walking home from Cam and Sydney’s apartment. Isaiah races to the scene, where Terry, Walter, and Amanda are waiting. The two young women are frozen in the ditch by the side of the road. Walter takes charge of the scene, telling Terry to wait in the truck with Amanda. Walter suggests that they take the corpses to the shed at the health station; there is no chance of getting law enforcement involved at the moment, and the freezing cold, which makes the ground too hard for a proper burial, will preserve the bodies until they can figure out a better solution.

Evan informs Walter that Scott was with them last night. Walter curses, saying they will deal with that later. Evan, Isaiah, and Walter offer a short prayer to the girls before they move their bodies. Terry meets them at the shed after he drops Amanda off at home. Evan is on the verge of telling him about Scott's involvement when Scott himself bursts in on the scene. Evan mutters to Terry that Scott was with the girls. Before anyone can make another move, they are halted by the sound of approaching snowmobiles.

Once again, Walter takes control, suggesting they head off the newcomers. They pile in their trucks and race to meet the approaching snowmobiles at the end of the plowed road. The leader of this new group, a blond man named Mark Phillips who is even larger than Scott, asks them for help. When Terry asks him for more information, Phillips loses patience and charges forward. Scott shoots Phillips, killing him. He holds the remaining three newcomers at gunpoint.

Terry is horrified; he tells Scott he did not have to kill Phillips—he had no right as an outsider. Evan realizes Terry has lost control and given it to Scott. Scott decides that they will put Phillips’s body at the end of the road as a warning to anyone else who comes to the area.