Study Questions
1. Why does Beverly think that Henry Junior is his son?

2. Why does Beverly return to the reservation?

3. Beverly does not even ask Lulu if Henry Junior is his son, much less speak to the boy. Why?

4. Why does Nector return to the reservation?

5. What circumstance brings Nector and Lulu together?

6. What past action does Nector apologize to Lulu for in the car?

7. What does Lulu say that makes Nector vow never to see her again?

8. What political situation does Nector have to apologize to Lulu for?

9. In his distress, while trying to win back Lulu and leave Marie, what does Nector set on fire?

10. Where does Nector go at the end of the chapter? To which woman?

Answers
1. Beverly slept with Lulu after Henry’s funeral, and Henry Junior was born nine months later. Also, Beverly has formed a strong fictional attachment to the boy because he uses a photograph and made-up stories about Henry Junior while pitching his after-school workbooks.

2. Beverly returns to claim Henry Junior and sweep him off to an exciting urban life.

3. The disparity between Beverly’s fantasies and reality is so great that he is disoriented and confused. Plus, Lulu is a strong family woman who would not easily give up one of her boys. Beverly is intimidated.

4. Everyone outside the reservation wants Nector to pretend to die. Both in Hollywood and in paintings, the end result is always an image of an Indian dying. Nector wants to be appreciated while he is still alive.

5. A surplus of butter that needs to be in an air-conditioned or refrigerated environment.

6. Nector apologizes for failing to meet her when they were both teenagers. He also implicitly apologizes for loving and marrying Marie, although he also loves Lulu.

7. Lulu implies that she wouldn’t date, much less marry, Beverly, if Marie wasn’t in Nector’s life.

8. He has signed the tribal council order evicting her from the land that Henry Lamartine had squatted on many years ago.

9. He drops a cigarette on the note to Lulu, his proposal, and her house goes up in flames.

10. Nector goes home to Marie.