The Marrow Thieves

Frenchie and his group arrive at a deserted property called “Four Winds Resort.” Before Miig can test if the electrified fence still has electricity, Frenchie steps in and does it for him, believing that Miig would be “too important to lose” (57). While Chi-Boy goes over the fence looking for a way to let the others in, Miig tells Frenchie, “No one is more important than anyone else” (58). Chi-Boy opens the gates and the group enters the abandoned resort, which is far more grandiose than anything any of the group has seen before. As the group investigates the rooms, they begin to relax. Frenchie observes: “It made me smile, seeing Chi-Boy, the fierce scout […] wiggling his ass to get into the softness [of the bed] with the goofy grin on his face” (64).  

Each group member gets their own room, which Frenchie notes is “strange, all of us separated by walls, divided into compartments like bees in a dusty hive” (65). Minerva starts telling an old story to the girls of the group; Frenchie sneaks nearby to listen. Minerva’s story, from her grandmother, is about “Rogarou, the dog that haunts the half-breeds but keeps the girls from going on the roads at night where the men travel” (66)—in other words, a werewolf, with whom her grandmother had a sexual relationship. She concludes, “I’m marked […] even when you are on your deathbed, he will come” (68).

Later, as Frenchie lies in bed unable to sleep, Rose sneaks into his room and climbs into bed with him. Rose tells Frenchie about her family and background, losing first her parents, then grandmother, then grandmother’s brothers. After burying the last of her relatives, Rose explains that she walked until she found Miig’s group. As Rose and Frenchie start becoming intimate, RiRi interrupts, asking to sleep with them in their room. Frenchie points out that “with no precedent to go by, she wouldn’t really understand the concept of knocking” (73). 

Frenchie awakens to find the entire group having gathered in his room to sleep. Two days later, the group starts packing up to the leave the resort. Frenchie finds Wab in a closet, drunk. She begins talking about her mother, which Frenchie says is “the most she’d ever said directly to me. It was terrifying” (76). He admits internally that Wab is a mythic figure in the group because she has never shared her background, and “everyone tells their own coming-to story” (79). Wab begins telling her story to the group.