When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky

An Indigenous American circus performer named Two Feathers (known as Two) prepares for her act. Forty feet below her is a small pool crowded with spectators. Two puts on her gear as her horse, Ocher, is led up a steep ramp. Ocher has been diving for five years, two of which have been with Two. Ocher prefers an extreme, angled leap into the pool, and clearly loves the crowd’s applause. As Ocher’s groom, Crawford counts them down, Two leaps onto Ocher’s back, and the pair dive into the pool. After the show, crowds gather for Two’s signature.

After her act, Two visits her friends, Marty and Franny Montgomery, a juggling sister act known as the Juggernauts. Marty tells Two a boy was backstage looking for her. Two walks across Glendale Park to her dormitory, where the house mother, Helen, gives her a letter from home. Two’s family lives on the Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch, a working cattle ranch that also hosts a Wild West show. Two’s mother’s letter suggests that trouble is brewing with the Millers. Marty appears with a letter from the boy who was backstage, asking her to meet a man named Strong-Red-Wolf at a spot popular with lovers.

After a successful evening show, Two gossips with her groom, a Black man named Crawford, about his latest romance with a wealthy girl named Bonita. Because Bonita and Crawford are both Black, they cannot spend time at Glendale together: Black patrons are only allowed with white chaperones. Two thinks back to her summer romance with a fruit scientist, which ended when she learned he was also pursuing a teenager. As a thunderstorm approaches, Two crosses through the woods of the park, which are—unbeknownst to her—filled with corpses. She feels a presence following her but sees no one.

The next morning, Two meets the groundskeeper, Duncan Shelton, and the park’s owner, James Shackleford, to discuss the site of a new attraction: turtle racing. Shackleford personally recruited Two to Glendale while on a visit to the Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch. Because he discovered turtle racing at the 101 Ranch, Shackleford asks Two to help find the best spot. When they find their chosen location blocked by an Indigenous burial site, Shelton and Shackleford reminisce about looting graves in the past, including the infamous Noel Cemetery. Two ignores the conversation and vows never to visit that part of the park.

Unsettled by her meeting with Shackleford, Two decides to visit the animals at the park’s zoo. Her first stop is an enclosure holding a giant tortoise and a hippopotamus. Two notices that the hippopotamus looks unhealthy and tries to communicate with it telepathically. When two young boys begin throwing stones at the tortoise, she warns them that the giant tortoise carrying the Earth on its shell will get vengeance on them with earthquakes. Two visits the bison, including one raised on the 101 Ranch. There, a man—later identified as Strong-Red-Wolf—watches her, but Two doesn’t notice.

At the dormitory, Helen gives Two a second letter. Two immediately recognizes the handwriting as the same as the letter she received the previous day. The writer—Strong-Red-Wolf—suggests that Two is playing hard to get, and brags about his college degree. He asks her to meet him at the buffalo pen at 11— 30 minutes prior. Two thinks back to her time at the pen, but can’t remember seeing anyone. She suspects that the name is fake, and that the writer is a white person pretending to be Indigenous.

The narrative shifts to the perspective of Strong-Red-Wolf, a white man who has been stalking Two Feathers. Since childhood, Strong-Red-Wolf has been fascinated with Indigenous Americans. When he learned that he lived on Cherokee land, he decided he himself was Cherokee. Two Feathers was the first Indigenous woman he saw in person, and when he learned she was Cherokee, he developed a sexual obsession with her. He feels snubbed by Two and considers climbing the tree outside her dorm to spy on her as he has done before. Instead, he raids the crypt by the future turtle racing spot, taking burial items.

The narrative shifts to the perspective of James Shackleford, the owner of Glendale Park. Shackleford’s home, Longview, was built in 1845 for the granddaughter of the first governor of Tennessee, a man known for killing Indigenous people. During the Civil War, Longview housed the Confederate Army. Shackleford wanders the grounds worrying about his son Lewis, who—as a private investigator recently informed Shackleford—owns a horse with a notorious businessman. Shackleford worries that his son is involved in bad business, then wonders if he’s jealous of his son’s success.

Two carefully prepares for her afternoon jump, knowing that the smallest detail could result in catastrophe. Although no horses have died in professional jumps, many humans have been injured. As always, Two ignores the crowd and fails to notice Strong-Red-Wolf waiting in the stands. As Crawford leads Ocher up the ramp, Strong-Red-Wolf approaches and begins asking him questions. While Two executes her dive, Strong-Red-Wolf stands leering under the diving platform near the tank. Crawford briefly questions Strong-Red-Wolf—whom he knows as Jack—but accepts his explanation that he was asked to inspect the tank.

Shackleford visits Dinah, the sick hippopotamus, and vows to find a way to make her healthy. He attempts to visit Clive Lovett, the park’s manager and chief zookeeper, at his dilapidated cabin. Although originally from Colorado, Clive is beloved by the Nashville elite, who usually disdain outsiders. Shackleford is sensitive to Clive’s struggles with war-related post-traumatic stress: Clive is a veteran of the Great War, while Shackleford was a Southern refugee during the Civil War. Inside the cabin, Clive, who has been sober for nearly two days, ignores Shackleford and reads poetry.

After her dive, Two finds Franny and Marty absorbed in a newspaper article about the disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, a famous evangelist known as Sister. Though they hide it in the South, Franny and Marty are Catholic and believe that Sister has healing powers. Two is suspicious of Christianity but believes in spiritual healing and that spirits are sacred. Rereading Strong-Red-Wolf’s letter, she’s surprised to learn that a buffalo trace runs through the park. When she finds it, she visits the stables to tell Crawford and sees him talking to a wealthy, white woman.