The Indian in the Cupboard

During the next hour, Omri glances into his pocket and sees Boone and Little Bear talking and gesturing. At lunch Patrick demands the two men; Omri wants to feed them first, but Patrick starts getting loud. Omri pulls him aside and threatens to bash him if he hurts Little Bear.

He gives the men to Patrick; Patrick fills his lunch tray and sits. Too worried to eat, Omri watches. Patrick wiggles some bread crumbs down into his jeans pocket, a tight place for the tiny men. The girl sitting next to him tells him to stop wiggling. She gives him a push; he pushes back. She shoves him hard and knocks him into another boy, and they fall onto the floor. The boy and Patrick are about to fight when the lunch lady grabs them and sits them back down.

Terrified that the men might have been crushed, Omri hurries over and quietly asks Patrick if they are all right. Patrick feels his pocket and says, “Yeah, they’re okay. They’re moving” (119). Omri walks outside, distressed. He decides that Patrick is unfit to handle the responsibility of caring for the tiny people.

Back in class, Patrick doesn’t show, and Omri’s worry increases. Patrick later sneaks into the room; he whispers that he took the men to the music room and gave them food. The teacher sees Patrick and demands to know where he’s been. When Patrick makes up a feeble lie about being in the bathroom, the teacher sends both him and his whispering partner Omri to the headmaster.

Mr. Johnson asks what they’ve done, and Patrick mumbles something about the music room. The headmaster says he looks like someone’s stabbed him with a knife.  When the boys start to giggle, Johnson demands to know more, and Patrick loses all composure and laughs uncontrollably. The headmaster shakes Patrick and threatens to call his father.

Patrick calms down and admits that there really was a stabbing, committed by someone named Little Bear. Omri is petrified. The headmaster presses, and Patrick blurts out that the knife wielder is “a real live American Indian!” (123) Insisting it is the truth, he starts to cry and reaches into his pocket. Omri tackles him. Johnson lifts up Omri, tosses him from the office, and locks the door. Omri kicks at the door, shouting at Patrick not to show Johnson the little men. Johnson’s secretary, Mrs. Hunt, grabs Omri and drags him to her office.

The headmaster appears, his face ashen, holding Patrick by the elbow. Omri knows it is too late.

Looking weak, Mr. Johnson mumbles something about going home to rest, asks the secretary to return the boys to their classroom, and stumbles off. Mrs. Hunt sends them first to the washroom to clean their faces. There, Omri orders the shaken Patrick to return the two tiny men. Patrick pulls them from his pocket; they are clinging to one another, terrified. Gently, Omri retrieves the two men and assures them that they are safe.

Little Bear reminds Omri about finding him a wife. Omri says they will visit the store after school. In art class, he sits in a corner and lets the men out onto a sheet of white paper on the desk. Boone, who enjoys drawing, pulls out a tiny pencil and begins to sketch on the paper. He creates an amazing image of a Western town, complete with people. Little Bear says it doesn’t look like a real location. Omri remembers that the two men are from times far apart. He asks Boone what year it is; Boone answers, “1889.”

The teacher hears Omri talking and asks him to show her what he’s working on. Omri hands her the tiny drawing; she pulls out a magnifying glass and examines it closely. Other kids crowd around. The teacher is amazed. She asks to show him the pencil he used; he turns away and produces Boone’s tiny one, which she examines through the magnifying glass. When asks how he does it, he says it’s a secret. Trying not to laugh, Omri asks to be excused. The teacher assents, and he walks out onto the playground where he laughs until he is exhausted. For the first time today, he enjoys himself. Omri thanks Little Bear and Boone.

At the store, Omri sets the two men on the shelf with the plastic figurines. Boone thinks they are amidst the aftermath of some sort of massacre, but Little Bear tells him the figurines are all “plasstick.” Omri digs around in a box and finds three Indian women, all from the same mold but wearing different color dresses. Little Bear rejects the yellow and blue ones but stares at the red one and nods. Omri buys the figurine and leaves.

Just outside, the proprietor, Mr. Yapp, stops Omri and demands that he “hand over the two you stole” (137). A crowd forms. Patrick appears and vouches for Omri, saying he saw the other two figurines at school. Mr. Yapp wants to see them to be sure. Omri pulls them from his pocket and, as if stifling a cough, whispers into his hand that they must lie perfectly still like “Plastic!” The trick works, and they leave.

Patrick gives Omri some chocolate, which they share with Little Bear and Boone. Omri decides to invite Patrick to his house, and they hurry there.

At the house, Omri and Patrick find that the cupboard is gone. Omri confronts his brothers; Adiel says he hid it to punish Omri for stealing his football shorts, which caused him to miss practice and earn a detention. Omri says he didn’t steal anything; he rushes upstairs and searches frantically through Adiel’s room. Adiel knocks him down and starts beating him. Patrick finds the shorts behind the radiator. Sheepishly, Adiel lets Omri up and tells him the cupboard is in the attic.

The boys retrieve the cupboard, but the key is missing. Adiel doesn’t know about the key; he hadn’t noticed it. Frantically, the boys search through the attic’s mess of toys, cards, game pieces, and sand that the various brothers have played with over the years. Finally, they get methodical and sort all the items into separate boxes. They even take the sand to the garden and sift it, but there is no key.

Omri tells Little Bear and Boone that the magic is lost. The two men tell Omri that they like him, but they need to be able to return to their original families and friends. To cheer them up, Omri brings them outside with their horses while Patrick stamps out a clear space on the grass for them to gallop. A beetle alights on the flat area and Little Bear shoots it dead with an arrow, which cheers him up, but he keeps sighing about the plastic woman who will never become a real companion.

After supper, Omri convinces Adiel to help him search for the key inside the house, but they do not find it. Later, Omri and Patrick watch TV with the two little men, who are fascinated with the device. They view a Western, and soon the Indians are getting shot by settlers, and Little Bear and Boone start to argue. Boone taunts the Iroquois, who pulls out his bow and arrow and shoots Boone in the chest.

Horrified, the boys try to save Boone. They fashion a bandage out of tiny bits of cotton, Listerine, and bandage. Omri orders Little Bear to pull the arrow from Boone’s chest and apply the dressing. He does so but says Omri should summon the tiny doctor. Omri reminds him that the magic no longer works. Little Bear seems remorseful.

Carefully they move Boone to Omri’s room, where they fold a handkerchief into a bed for the wounded cowboy. Suddenly, Little Bear throws down his chief’s headdress and stomps on it. He runs across the carpet toward his longhouse. Patrick wants to stop him, but Omri says, “Let him alone” (153).

The boys pretend to prepare for bed, with Patrick on a cot, at least until Omri’s mother comes in to say goodnight. They plan to stay up all night in shifts to watch over Boone. Omri’s mother appears and casually mentions that Gillon’s rat got out again and is living under the floorboards beneath Omri’s room. His dad already pulled up the boards but couldn’t catch the rat. Omri begins to pull up the carpet, but his mother forbids it.

After she leaves, the boys bring Boone’s tiny bed and Little Bear’s seed-box house up onto the bedside table, where they keep watch against a possible rodent attack. Omri begins to doze but starts awake when he realizes that the key must have fallen through the floorboards when his father searched for the rat. Carefully the boys move Omri’s bed, pull up a loose board, remove the lampshade, and use the lamp to peer down into the subfloor.

Omri convinces Little Bear to search for the key. He places him in the subfloor, and the Iroquois quickly trots away. Then Omri remembers the rat and loudly calls to Little Bear to hurry back at once. He hears the scuttling sound of the rat’s paws as it moves beneath him. Omri’s parents, downstairs, hear Omri’s cries, and his mother walks up the stairs to see what the matter is. Omri freezes, but Patrick shoves him into his bed, covers up the floorboards, and dives onto his cot just as she peers in.

They lie motionless until Omri’s mother leaves, then they re-open the floor and Omri peers in. He hears the rat, followed by shuffling sounds that must be Little Bear returning. He puts his hand in, and the Iroquois climbs on. Omri pulls him out just as the rat brushes against his hand. Clutched to Little Bear’s chest is the key.

Quickly, Omri locates the soldier figurine and transforms him into medic Tommy Atkins. Omri brings him to Boone’s side, where the soldier stitches up the wound, gives the cowboy an injection, pours a shot of brandy down his throat, and tells the boys how to care for Boone when he wakes. Tommy asks Omri to put him back into the cupboard so he can wake up and help his comrades, who’ve just suffered an artillery bombardment. Omri sends Tommy back to his time.

Upon waking, Boone rudely asks Little Bear how the movie on TV ended, using stereotypes and offensive language. Little Bear becomes irate, threatens to scalp Boone, and retrieves his chief’s cloak. Omri pulls Little Bear away and puts the broken headdress on the man’s head; he holds up a mirror, and Little Bear sees himself. Omri says a chief can control his temper.

He tells Little Bear that he and Boone should be come blood brothers. Little Bear looks puzzled; Omri explains it and says it’s an Indian custom that he saw in a movie. Little Bear says it must be something thought up by white men. Omri asks him to do it anyway. Little Bear gets a “crafty look” and agrees.

Little Bear keeps watch over the sleeping cowboy. Struggling to sleep, Omri worries about caring for three tiny people when he brings a woman into Little Bear’s life. They need to get back to their proper time and place. At dawn, he awakes to see that Little Bear has nodded off. Omri puts the Indian woman figurine in the cupboard on the table and locks it. He opens it and hides under his covers to watch.

Out of the cupboard steps a tiny, beautiful, black-haired young woman in a red dress. She looks around nervously until she sees Little Bear and Boone. She approaches them and sits across from the sleeping Iroquois. He wakes and sees the woman. They stare for a long time before finally rising to speak. She understands his language and takes his outstretched hand. Then she bends down and examines Boone. Little Bear takes her to his longhouse, then returns and tells Omri, “I like. Fit wife for chief. I pay much for her” (172). He removes his beaded belt and hands it to Omri.

Little Bear wants a wedding feast. Omri suggests they have it at Little Bear’s real home. The chief nods, then says Boone should come with them after they become brothers. Omri agrees, but only after Boone is well again. Patrick learns of the decision but doesn’t protest.

Over the following days, the boys spend as much time as they can with the three tiny people. Boone gets better and begins to protest that he needs hard liquor to heal; he appears to suffer a relapse, but the woman, whose name is Bright Stars, communicates that Boone is faking. Omri gives him a drop of his parents’ whiskey and Boone does well, so they give him three drops a day thereafter. Soon, the cowboy is back on his horse, though he rides slowly at first.

Omri tells Patrick that after the three visitors have returned to their own worlds, he will put the cupboard key in a safe place to keep him from the temptation to use it merely for fun.

The boys go to the store and buy food for a blood-brother feast. Boone decides it would be an honor to be related to an Iroquois chief. The ceremony is performed to Omri’s specifications, along with dances and chants from Little Bear. When the two men’s wrists are cut and tied together, their blood mingling, Boone decides he is now part Indigenous and can no longer speak ill of them. Everyone eats, the three adults their tiny portions and the boys their own plates of food.

Boone dozes as Bright Stars sings. Little Bear gestures to Omri: He says now is the right time for them to leave. Omri warns him to hold tight to Bright Stars so he does not lose her. They agree that Boone should return to his own time, lest he be killed by Little Bear’s people before they know about him.

Boone is still asleep, but they put him on his horse and into the cupboard. Little Bear puts Bright Stars on their horse and they enter the cupboard as well. Patrick wakes Boone to say goodbye; Boone starts to cry and blows his nose on his handkerchief in a loud honk. Little Bear asks for Omri’s hand; he pricks the boy’s little finger, presses his wrist against the blood, and says, “Brother.”

Little Bear jumps up behind Bright Stars and signals to Omri that they are ready. Omri steels himself, closes the door, and locks it. He waits a moment and reopens it: Standing on the shelf are plastic figurines.

He puts his on the table while Patrick pockets the mounted cowboy. Omri goes downstairs and asks his mother to keep the key for him so he doesn’t lose it. Sensing it is important to her son, she promises to wear it on a chain and hugs him.

Back upstairs, Omri wonders what to do with the cupboard. Patrick tells him to keep it empty—just in case.