- Here we get a long poem that tells the story of Pa'caya'nyi, a fatherless medicine man who likes to mess around with magic. He calls himself a Ck'o'yo medicine man and offers to put on a magic show for the people.
- The twin brothers who are in charge of tending the mother corn altar become interested in the magician's claims.
- Pa'caya'nyi does a bunch of magic tricks for the twin brothers and all the other people. Basically he likes to make things appear out of walls, like water and bears and stuff.
- The brothers are fooled and start playing around with the Ck'o'yo magic. They don't know it's just a trick.
- They neglect the corn altar, and Mama Corn gets angry. "If they like that magic so much let them live off it," she says. Humph.
- She leaves, taking the plants, grass, and rainclouds with her.
- Back to the prose part of the story: Harley and Tayo are on the road again . . . git' along, little doggie.
- They hear a car and tie the donkeys up so they can hitch a ride to the nearest bar.
- Flash forward to the bar. Harley jokes around with the bartender and Tayo works at getting drunk so he can remember Rocky.
- Let's take another peek into Tayo's memory, shall we? Rocky and Tayo have killed a deer. Tayo approaches the dying animal and admires how beautiful it is.
- Before Rocky can start disemboweling the deer, Tayo covers its head out of respect. Rocky doesn't follow those old fogey traditions—he listens to the white teachers at school, who tell him that the Native American ways are nothing but superstitions.
- As Rocky finishes gutting the deer, Josiah and Robert arrive and make offerings to the deer's spirit. They sprinkle cornmeal on its nose to show their love and respect so the deer will come back the following year.
- Rocky is embarrassed by the ritual of the deer, but he doesn't say anything because he knows no one will listen.
- Tayo wraps the liver and heart in a clean cloth. On the way home he feels humbled by the landscape and grateful for the love he can feel emanating from the deer's body.
- Back to the bar. Harley gets nervous that Tayo hasn't been talking. It reminds him of the time Tayo sat staring at the wall until the boys harassed him and he snapped. That was the day he stabbed Emo in the belly with a broken bottle.
- Everyone has different explanations for Tayo's attack on Emo. They mostly blame liquor and the war. Emo argues that Tayo has hated him ever since they were kids.
- Flashback to a conversation between Tayo and a doctor at the psychiatric ward. The doctor quotes a report that says a pattern of drinking and violence is emerging among Indian veterans of the Second World War. But Tayo disagrees—this is something that's been going on for a long, long time.