Black Woods, Blue Sky

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, sexual content, and substance use. 

Warren flies Birdie and Emaleen to Arthur’s cabin at the North Fork. He intentionally dips the bush plane low so that Birdie can see: “[I]t was a least twenty miles and several days of hard travel if she and the child had to hike out for help” (91). Warren disagrees with the arrangement, but Birdie is persistent and clever, and he hopes that when she sees where Arthur lives, she will change her mind. It’s been a long time since Warren visited the cabin, which he and Carol built as a hunting camp when their daughters were young. As soon as they land, Arthur approaches the plane and kisses Birdie, and Emaleen regales him with stories from their flight. Hearing Arthur naming the flowers for Emaleen reminds Warren of how Carol taught him when he could no longer attend public school.

Seeing the cabin reminds Warren of the young boy Danny, who stayed with Arthur in the cabin to learn to hunt moose. When Warren returned by plane, he found Danny severely injured by a bear that attacked him when he went to bag a moose carcass.