When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky

The ghost of a young Cherokee man named Little Elk watches Two. Little Elk is killed when his clan attacks white settlers. He dies under a giant oak tree, and as years pass, his spirit returns to the tree. During the Civil War, he helps comfort the spirits of young Confederate soldiers who die in the same spot. Years later, he witnesses grave robbers stealing sacred relics in the area. As years pass, Little Elk becomes convinced his purpose is to stop the desecration of graves. When Glendale is built, Little Elk feels comforted by the zoo’s buffalo and bears. He becomes fascinated with Two Feathers.

Clive feels guilty that he wasn’t able to pick Two up from the hospital, and decides to visit her. Worried that he’ll run into Helen, he brings Jack along as a buffer. Jack disregards park rules and picks a bouquet of flowers for Two. Clive assures Two that Ocher did not suffer and suggests that she protected Two until the end by breaking her fall. Grateful for the company, Two asks Jack to stay after Clive leaves. Jack intentionally manipulates Two’s goodwill.

When Little Elk finds the diving platform gone, he worries that Two has left. He’s relieved to find her recovering on the porch. Crawford visits Two but feels reluctant to spend time with her on the porch or inside, worrying that rumors might start about them. He offers to build Two a buggy using parts of an old merry-go-round so she can navigate the park without crutches. When he leaves, Two wishes that Jack would visit. As her frustration builds, Franny appears with vodka.

Crawford leaves Two’s dormitory to search for the parts needed to build Two’s buggy. Remembering that human skeletons are also contained in the storage building, he gets spooked by strange sounds and quickly leaves. That night, he visits the home of Bonita Boydstun, a wealthy Black woman he is courting. Although Crawford comes from a prestigious family, he knows Bonita’s parents do not approve of their courtship. Crawford convinces Bonita’s father to let them leave the house without a chaperone, and the couple share their first kiss.

While the rest of the women in her dormitory perform their nightly shows, Two tries the vodka in her room alone, grateful to find that it relieves her pain, but worried it makes her boredom worse. Christa Belle returns and asks Two how she is paying for her room and board while she isn’t working. Two grows anxious about her spot at Glendale and asks the Montgomery sisters, who have more experience in show business, about their contracts. The sisters agree she should investigate, but encourage her to drink rather than worry.

Two wakes up hungover and walks uneasily on her crutches to see the buffalo. She begins to call to Adam, a buffalo who is also on loan from the 101 Ranch, but she’s interrupted by Jack. Delighted to see him, she accepts his offer to go for ice cream. Jack admits that he wrote her the letters under the name Strong-Red-Wolf, and begins a lecture about the Indigenous graves under Glendale Park. Repulsed, Two tells him to stay away from her and struggles back to her dorm, where she begins drinking.

Crawford has another date with Bonita. Because her parents are busy hosting a party, the couple spend the night alone in Nashville. Bonita offers her father’s open-top car to transport a wheelchair for Two Feathers. Privately, she considers how to convince her father to let her marry Crawford. Crawford pulls Bonita into an alley and begins kissing her passionately. When she seems interested, he begins to grope her and puts her hands on his genitals. Bonita enjoys the feeling of power the encounter gives her until her father discovers them.

As Two flees from him, Jack considers knocking her down and beating her, but the presence of three young boys stops him. He leaves home, takes a long bath to calm down, then returns to Glendale. Jack climbs into the tree outside of Two’s old room on the second floor of the dormitory and masturbates as Little Elk watches. The next day, Jack asks Clive for advice on how to handle Two. Clive suggests that he stop talking about Indigenous graves, and promises to ask her about him the next time he visits.

On Sunday morning, the Montgomery sisters break into Two’s room when she is too hungover to answer the door. They warn her not to drink so much that she feels sick, and she asks where the line is. In the afternoon, Two visits the barn to see Crawford. As she waits for him, she’s filled with grief for Ocher and grows depressed thinking about all the graves under Glendale. After several hours, she realizes that Crawford isn’t coming, and wonders if he has given up on their friendship. She returns to the dormitory, craving vodka.

Crawford sulks on the back porch of his house until his older brother, Josh, arrives. Crawford tells Josh how he and Bonita were caught and reveals that Bonita’s father insisted that he return to college, earn a degree, and join the family publishing company if he wants to see Bonita again. He also insists that Crawford join a Baptist church. Crawford feels reluctant to leave Glendale and resents the class divisions separating his family from Bonita’s. Josh tells him to wait, implying that Bonita will soon break free from her parents.