Thief River Falls

Lisa and Purdue sit in Curtis’s four-seater plane and buckle their seatbelts. Fifty yards away from the plane, Laurel and Curtis stand in the field, arguing. Lisa can’t tell what they are arguing about. Finally, Curtis walks away from Laurel and toward the plane. As Curtis sits in the pilot’s seat and does his final safety checks, Laurel thanks him for giving them a ride. Curtis replies simply, “I do what I’m told” (116).

The plane takes off. Lisa notices, “It was a rocky flight, the worst she’d ever been on with Curtis” (117). As they fly, the weather worsens. Lisa hopes Purdue isn’t scared, but when he looks back at him, “he rode the waves like a kid on a roller coaster. She envied him that innocence” (117). After a while, Lisa notices they’re flying over Thief River Falls. Lisa notes, “Anyone who lived in this place had to embrace its fierceness and remoteness, because this was not a soft part of the world” (118). The town reminds Lisa of the deaths of her family members. While Lisa has good memories of growing up in Thief River Falls, these memories are now tainted by the tragedies.