Flight: A Novel

Zits finds himself “running through the dark” and “toward the sound of laughter” (59). He’s running so fast that it feels like he’s flying. He finds that he’s standing “in the middle of a gigantic Indian camp” (59). There are many Native Americans around him, but they appear to be from an earlier time. The camp reeks. Tens of thousands of people are living together “in close quarters in the summer heat” (61). No one else is bothered by the stink; everyone is smiling, talking, singing, and laughing.

Zits realizes that he is around 12 or 13-years old. He’s “thin and muscular” and wears only a loincloth (62). He feels momentarily bashful about his nakedness, but everyone else is naked, too. A “huge Indian guy” walks toward him (63). He realizes that this man, whose “face and body are war-painted in ten different colors” is his father (63). The man is also carrying a large tomahawk. He bends down, picks Zits up, and hugs him. Zits tries, to no avail, to call out Daddy! He feels so secure in this man’s arms. He tries again to say something. When he touches his throat, he feels “a huge fleshy knot” on his