- Here's another poem. We're not sure who's speaking—is it Ku'oosh? Is this part of the ritual to heal Tayo? Or does this poem stand on its own, like the anonymous poems at the beginning of the novel? It's unclear.
- This poem explains that, in the old days, warriors who killed or touched dead enemies had to go through a ritual called the Scalp Ceremony. Otherwise someone named K'oo'ko would haunt their dreams and bad things would happen—maybe a drought.
- The Scalp Ceremony involves flute music and dancing, blue cornmeal and hair-washing.
- Back to the prose part of the novel: Old Ku'oosh pulls a bag of blue cornmeal and some Indian tea out of his sack and gives them to Tayo.
- He tells Tayo that since the white people came there are some things they can't cure like they used to.
- Some of the other veterans who've had the Scalp Ceremony aren't getting better, either, Ku'oosh says. He's worried about what will happen if Tayo and the others don't get well.
- When Ku'oosh leaves, Tayo doesn't feel any better. In fact, he feels worse. The old man just confirmed what Tayo suspected—the world is so fragile that one person has the power to harm it. Yep, everything is all his fault. He feels super guilty.
- Auntie wakes Tayo up and feeds him Indian tea and blue cornmeal mush.
- Tayo Tummy Update: The cornmeal doesn't make his stomach cramp up like most food does.
- Good thing, because Tayo is convinced that if this doesn't work he will die. And he doesn't care anymore if he does.
- The text skips a space so we know some time has passed. Tayo is sitting in the yard staring at the apple tree, thinking how easy it is to stay alive now that he no longer cares about living. He can eat regular food without throwing it up. Sometimes he can even sleep without dreams. Sounds like an improvement...sort of.
- Someone drives up and Tayo goes with them. He doesn't care where they're going. Turns out they're going to a bar.
- Tayo is with Emo, Harley, Leroy, and maybe some others. They're drinking with the money they got from their disability checks.
- The boys earned the checks by being injured at Wake Island or Iwo Jima, or surviving the Bataan Death March. These are all pretty famous events from World War II that involved a lot of American and Japanese casualties.
- Now for a brief history lesson. The Bataan Death March was a forced march of tens of thousands of American and Filipino prisoners of war by the Japanese military. Thousands of POWs were either killed by Japanese soldiers or died of starvation, exhaustion, and disease.
- Whoa...is that what Tayo went through? No wonder he feels sick.
- The veterans drink a lot of beer. Getting drunk helps them cope.
- The boys sit around telling stories about the war days, when being a U.S. soldier meant they got lots of attention from white women and palled around with white soldiers.
- Tayo thinks about how one day in Oakland a white woman stopped to bless Tayo and Rocky. But Tayo knew she was blessing the military uniform and not them.
- The other guys keep pressuring Tayo to take a turn telling a story. Finally he starts talking, but he doesn't tell the same kind of story the others told about good times.
- Instead he tells a sarcastic story about how even though the Indians were treated as equals to white men when they were soldiers, as soon as the war was over they went back to being treated like second-class citizens.
- The bartender and the other guys get kind of nervous because Tayo seems a little unstable. Emo is annoyed with Tayo for spoiling their fun.
- Tayo thinks about how the stories the Indian veterans tell are like traditional medicine chants, and how the sound of the beers pounding the countertop are like drums.
- Harley tells another story and the boys forget about Tayo's violent outburst.
- Tayo starts to cry. The other guys think he's crying about Rocky, but really he's crying for them. They damn the Japanese (who they refer to as "yellow Jap bastards"), but Tayo doesn't share their hatred (VI.24).
- Another flashback to the jungle. Two Japanese soldiers stop to look at Rocky in the blanket. Tayo thinks the tall one looks like a guy he knew in Indian school.
- The Japanese soldiers push Tayo away from the blanket. Tayo gets confused and starts talking to the tall soldier as though he really is his friend from Indian school.
- The tall soldier covers Rocky up with the blanket and then jabs his rifle butt into the blanket where Rocky's head should be. Tayo is permanently scarred—he can't stand any sort of crushing sound anymore.
- Tayo screams and tries to lie down in the mud next to Rocky. The corporal tries to reassure Tayo that Rocky was already dead.
- At the prison camp, Tayo thinks he sees the tall Japanese soldier come each day to stare in his direction.
- Ready for another time warp? We're back with Harley and Tayo and the donkeys. Harley is eating grapes and Tayo has to leave because he can't handle the sound of Harley crushing the seeds.
- Tayo takes a walk by a spring that he remembers. Even in the driest years, the spring never dries up.
- Flashback: Tayo remembers Josiah telling him about the spring one day while they were collecting water. Josiah teaches Tayo a lesson about the importance of the earth: It's what "keeps us going," and it's "where we come from," Josiah says (VI.32).
- Josiah tells little Tayo not to swear at the dust and wind, even in a drought—they're a part of life, too. Droughts happen when people misbehave.
- Tayo drinks from the spring and feels like maybe he can keep going—"maybe this isn't the end after all" (VI.33).