Shell Shaker

Durant, Oklahoma

Tuesday, September 24, 1991

Shakbatina speaks, noting that she has returned to set things right. She has waited for many years, witness to all the tragedy and persecution suffered by her people. Now, however, “Earth and spirit and story are reunited, and we pull stars down from the sky and cause a fifty-mile prairie fire” (loc 2661). Shakbatina wonders if anyone will recognize her. Meanwhile, Carl Tonica, acting chief of the Choctaw after Redford’s death, tries to get the FBI to put Auda in protective custody, enraged by their delaying tactics. As he listens to the detectives making excuses, Carl thinks about how he tried to warn Redford about the dangers of stealing from the mafia, that “McAlester was fucking around with people who carried guns and calculators in the same briefcase” (loc 2693).

As Carl tries to get the FBI to take Auda into custody, he hears a voice calling him, telling him that she is “a descendent of Grandmother of Birds. Time flows out of my beak with a sound that can pierce the most foolish plan” (loc 2713). Carl realizes the voice is coming from an elderly woman outside his office, carrying a sign that reads “I know where McAlester hid the ten million” (loc 2724).