Far North

Chapter 2 begins with Gabe being in his dorm room at the school he will be attending in Yellowknife. His father works at a remote drill site and only gets a break every fourth week, so Gabe does not get to see him a lot. Gabe begins to doubt if he should have left Texas and wonders “How much change was there that I was going to get to see the real North my father had been writing me about, and telling me about on his visits back to Texas?” (7). Gabe spends his time exploring Yellowknife and reading Zane Grey novels while waiting for his roommate to arrive and the school year to start. He discovers that his roommate’s name is Raymond Providence and that he is from a remote village. Gabe also learns that Raymond is Dene, a native people in the Northwest Territories.

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When Raymond arrives, Gabe notices that “his face was completely without expression, his dark brown eyes guarded and remote” and wondered “what he was thinking about having a roommate with blue eyes and dirty blond hair” (9). They chat about Raymond’s electric guitar and hockey stick. Gabe learns that Raymond is from Nahanni Butte, a small village that can only be accessed in the winter because of the conditions of the roads. Raymond is surprised that Gabe would want to move to the north.

Even though Raymond and Gabe are roommates, they barely see or talk to teach other. Raymond, a Dene First Nations member, usually hangs out with the other students in his tribe. Gabe accepts that Raymond and he “were as far apart as Texas and the Northwest Territories even though [they] were sharing the same room” (15). Gabe’s father spends time with him towards the end of September and they go shopping for winter clothes together. They also go fishing on Great Slave Lake together. Gabe catches a large fish and feels like “that wilderness was running like electricity through the line and right through [his] veins” (17). He and his father discuss their dream of building a log house in Texas together with the money his father has saved up from working on oil rigs over the years. Gabe’s father mentions the idea that Gabe can learn how to bush fly while in Yellowknife.

A lot of the Indigenous students at Gabe’s schools are dropping out and returning home and Gabe worries about Raymond: “The sadness in his eyes was unmistakable” (20). One day, Gabe sees Raymond sitting and watching the hockey team practice. Gabe offers to help Raymond with his algebra class. The next night, Gabe and Raymond sneak onto the hockey rink and play one-on-one together. They start to regularly play hockey together and Raymond seems a lot happier.

At the end of October, Gabe gets a call from Clint, the man who drove Gabe to Yellowknife and who is also a bush pilot. Clint invites Gabe to go flying with him the next morning since “he’d been hired by a Dene council to take a kid and a village elder back home” (23). Gabe wears his new winter gear to meet Clint the next morning, but the people they are supposed to be flying are late to arrive. At the end of the chapter, Gabe sees that it is Raymond who is flying home.

Gabe asks Raymond why he’s leaving school and Raymond reveals that he misses getting to do what he wants and that the school has too many rules. They finally all get into the plane and Gabe wishes he could share his excitement with Raymond. During the cockpit check, Clint “seemed about ten years older than he had when was driving the van” to Yellowknife (27). His seriousness reassures Gabe that they are safe in the small plane. Because they started flying late, they must stay overnight in Fort Simpson and go to Nahanni Butte the next day. Raymond chooses to room with the old man for the night, so Clint and Gabe room together. The next day is sunny, and Clint decides to take a detour towards Nahanni Butte so that Gabe can see Virginia Falls.