Night+Wanderer

**//The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel// by Drew Hayden Taylor**
Booktalk by Chris MacLennan

His name was Pierre. Pierre L’Errant. When he was a child his name was Owl. He could still see the village of his childhood very clearly in his mind’s eye. His village was the place where he had been taught the ways of his people, The Anishinabe. Most boys his age were content to learn the skills of hunting and fishing with free time to explore the land. Not Owl. The trees and water that surrounded his village no longer held any mystery for him. He craved more. Owl was brave, adventurous, and most dangerous of all very curious. One day a 14-foot birch bark canoe came to his village. In it were strange looking men with white skin and hair on their faces. They told fascinating tales of far away places, strange animals, and giant wigwams called castles. These things demanded to be seen! When these strange men left Owl ran away from his family and village and begged to be taken to the land called France. The men in the canoe were impressed by his courage and decided to take him along with them. After a long and terrible journey that found Owl seasick most of the time, he arrived in France. He now lived in a castle. The king beckoned him daily. He wanted him to talk Anishinabe, sing some of his sacred, and prance around like some animal. This strange boy from a far away land amused his guests. Owl was miserable and homesick. He missed his family. He missed the beautiful nights, the laughter of his people, and the village that he once thought was so boring. He would give anything to be back there again. Then the most dreadful thing of all happened to Owl. He got a disease called the measles. His body had no defenses to fight this terrible sickness and Owl knew that he would die. Owl was near death when the following happened.

Read page 161- “Owl was all alone” to page 162 “life”

It is now 300 years later. Owl is known as Pierre L’Errant now. He has wandered the world as a vampire. He has now decided to return home to the land of his people. He arrives at Otter First Nations located in the central lake region of Ontario. He has made arrangements to stay with the Sutter family. The family consists of a grandmother, father and a 16-year-old girl named Tiffany. It will take a great deal of skill to disguise who he is, but the need to feel the earth and breath the air of his ancestors is so compelling he is willing to take the risk of being discovered. Little do the people of Otter Lake know the danger they are in from this ancient visitor.