The Mighty Red

In 2009, the dandelion is chosen by North Dakota as its weed of the year. Ichor, although he does not eat them or make them into wine, has a healthy respect for the hearty plant.

Bing, the FBI agent who has been watching Crystal’s house, comes inside for something cool to drink. He is awkward and blushes when Crystal talks, but the mood sours when he asks her about Jeniver’s visits to her home. She tells him that she invited him in as a person, not an FBI agent, and he can leave.

Crystal sorts through Martin’s possessions, including his large collection of vests. She wonders why he of all people was so good at evading capture. She thinks he will soon be caught and identified as the bank robber.

Hugo’s job is initially grueling, although the pay is outstanding. Gradually, he moves up the ladder. His paychecks, already large, increase. He is stunned by how much money he is making. His savings account swells. He begins to pay the woman on whose property he is camping to make him hot lunches. His plan, he feels, has come to fruition.

Diz remembers the night of the party. He recalls arriving home with Winnie during a snowstorm and seeing the lights of several ambulances at their home. Two of Gary’s friends were in the ambulance. One was in their kitchen under an emergency blanket. First responders were searching for Gary. The other partygoers said that he was down at the river.

Eric drives by the Geist property and sees Kismet outside. He stops, and she shares her lunch sandwiches with him. He comments on how good of a cook she is in addition to being intelligent. He enjoys being around Kismet, but he is still uncomfortable on the property.

March 17, 2008, was the date of the fateful party. Eric begins anxiously telling the story to Kismet. All the guys from the football team had gathered at Gary’s. They drank beer and smoked pot while talking about their football coach’s hot wife, other girls at school, and Kismet. Using unflattering language, the guys tease Gary about being into that “goth girl.” After the sun went down, Gary and Jordan had set out for a snowmobile ride. Jordan put on an old leather football helmet, even though a few of the guys tried to tell him that it wasn’t a “real” helmet and wouldn’t offer any actual protection.

The other boys followed, each on their own snowmobile. Gary had encouraged them all to speed, only going faster when Eric told him to slow down. Gary managed to navigate through a tricky section of the property by the river, over a hill and through a narrow gap in a barbed wire fence, but several of the others were not so lucky. Jordan was decapitated by the fence; Charlie’s face was sliced open. When everyone came to a stop and realized the absence of Charlie and Jordan, they began to search for them. Travis and Harlan plunged immediately through the river’s thin ice. Eric managed to pull Harlan from the river and used his lighter and some dry branches to start a fire. He called 911. He located Charlie, who had a grisly mouth injury, but seemed as though he would make it.

Eric tells Kismet that he knew that if the police arrived and found Jordan’s decapitated body, that one detail would dominate media coverage of the event, and his family would be denied dignity. So, he used a rope to drag Jordan’s body into the river and let it be washed away. He did not know yet where Gary was and did not care. It had been Gary who led them through that field, going dangerously fast. It had been Gary who’d easily navigated his own snowmobile through a small gap in a barbed wire fence that, because it was obscured by snow, no one who didn’t live on the property would have known about. Just as he had done on the football field, Gary led them all. Eric recalls feeling rage. When he finishes the story, Kismet tells him that he did the right thing and that he should seek out a therapist if the night’s events continue to haunt him. Later, she asks Gary if he would like to talk about that night. Initially he says no, but later, in bed, he begins to share his version of the story.

Gary tells Kismet that eventually, he’d realized that no one was behind him anymore. Assuming that everyone had stopped and turned off their lights, he also turned off his. He’d snowmobiled into a tree and gotten stuck on a branch. He recalls feeling worried that his friends would discover him that way and mock him. He looks at Kismet, breathes deeply, and begins to tell her the rest of his story.

Gary was sure that he saw Jordan. Jordan, oddly, was wearing his football uniform and holding his own head in his hands. He refused to help Gary free himself from the tree branch and told Gary that he would be back, that he would “never leave” Gary.

Gary confesses to Kismet that ever since the accident, he sees Jordan everywhere. It’s like Jordan is following him, and he even talks to Gary. Gary finds this aspect of the haunting particularly unnerving. The only time Jordan doesn’t show up is when Gary is with Kismet.

The Pavlecky family farms differently than the Geist farm. Div has always chalked this up to Pavlecky’s ancestors being “Bohemian” and his German, but lately, he’s had issues with his land that Pavlecky doesn’t. When he brings this up with Winnie, she points to a host of new farming techniques that Diz uses and Pavlecky doesn’t, including but not limited to the use of pesticides that are, as Winnie points out, neurotoxins. She adds that Diz removed a whole series of windbreaks that kept the dirt from blowing away. That, she argues, is a big part of the problem.

Hugo sends coded postcards to Kismet. Outwardly, they appear banal, but Kismet knows that they are declarations of love.

Hugo moves into a small rental house with a few other oil workers. One night while drinking, he tells them all about Kismet. They tease him mercilessly for having allowed his beloved to marry another.

One morning, Hugo wakes to find his car gone. He explains to his roommates that he’d purchased it without a title, and they posit that its original owner came out to repossess it.

Hugo returns home, and Kismet begins to meet with him secretly. She knows that she should leave Gary, but she struggles with the logistics of organizing a divorce.

Bev sells both new and used books, and Hugo helped her set up an online shop. She is happy that he is home. She loves her son, and she missed him.

Crystal comes home to find a letter from Perfect Advantage. She is shocked to see that Martin has paid off the entire balance of the mortgage. Crystal is grateful that he has finally righted a wrong.

The women gather at Winnie’s for book club. Crystal immediately tells Kismet that she is taking her home after the event, and Kismet finally relaxes. Tensions mount, however, when someone brings up Martin. Jeniver and Bev come to Crystal’s aid, noting that Martin also stole from Crystal and that Crystal had nothing to do with the theft. The women accept this information and talk returns to that month’s book selection, The Road. They discuss the apocalypse, and Winnie brings up the way that modern farming practices ignore common-sense ideas about windbreaks and the use of poison. They all agree that there are fewer birds and insects than there used to be and that everyone’s soil is blowing away because the big conglomerate farms removed the windbreaks that used to divide small properties from one another. This, they think, portends doom. At the end of the meeting, Kismet points out that the book isn’t about the apocalypse, it’s about love: the kind of love that parents have for their children.

After book club, Kismet leaves with Crystal and Jeniver. Winnie tries to protest, but Kismet tells her that she must go.

Martin is proud of his performances as various bank robbers. They were the highlight of his career. He is also proud of having paid back the mortgage that he put in Crystal’s name, and of evading capture.

Gary calls Kismet and asks her to come back, but she will not. At first, he is devastated, but after a drive through the fields, he feels a sense of calm descending. He will, he thinks, be okay.

Ichor knows that the use of pesticides is not a sustainable agricultural practice. With the aid of a weed-control officer, he begins to show farmers how to use beetles to control weeds instead of poison. There are species of beetle, known to older farmers, that eat particular weeds, keeping crops safe without introducing harmful chemicals into the ecosystem. This, he is sure, should be the future of farming.

Gary tries to recall whether he had warned his friends about the fence on the night of the accident, but the memory is too hazy. Feeling guilty, he tries to drown himself in the Red River, but Jordan appears to tell Gary that he’s watching over him.

Ichor is out in the fields dealing with his beetles when he notices Gary walk purposefully into the river. Moments later, he pulls Gary out. He asks Gary what’s wrong, and Gary tells him the entire story of the night of the party. He admits to feeling guilty and he tells Ichor that he does not know what to do. Ichor suggests he apologize to everyone involved and tells Gary that after those initial apologies, his next steps might present themselves. Gary points out that this land used to be his mother’s farm and talks to Ichor about farming methods. His mother wants to return to the old ways, but his father is dubious. Gary admits that he would like to get out of sugar beet farming and into organics, slowly at first, but eventually, he’d like to turn their land into an organic vegetable farm.

Jordan’s body was borne northwards by the river, and after a long and winding journey, eventually provided food for various plant and insect species.

Crystal and Dale reflect on coal, pollution, and the sugar industry. Dale admits that even though he is a smoker, and cigarettes are poison, he will not touch sugar.

Martin repays all the stolen money, sending banking information for accounts containing more than $2 million to Father Flirty.

Charley becomes a first responder in the wilderness. On one trek, he gets lost and ends up alone in the woods. There, he thinks about his late friend Travis. The two were so close, like brothers. He’d loved Travis. Charley’s father was abusive, and after trying in vain to help keep Charley safe, Travis helped Charley to drown his father. Charley’s mother, he recalls, had been so relieved. Charley is sure that the river punished them for that act, and that it had taken Travis from him as revenge.

Crystal’s back hurts more and more, and she quits her job at the beet plant. She does odd jobs around town and is much happier. She walks along the river and examines the sturgeon, fish that have been in the area for thousands of years. One day, Martin returns. He tells her that he intends to get a job. She decides to let bygones be bygones and invites him in.

Out in the fields, Diz notices that the amaranth he and Gusty tried to poison has come back. They discuss the possibility of growing amaranth instead of beets. It’s hardy, and there is beginning to be a market for it. Later, in bed, Diz realizes how small he and his farm are in the grand scheme of things. Far from panicking at this thought, it comforts him.

Winnie hears about a new machine that can be programmed to tell weeds from crops and pull up just the weeds. Diz agrees to give it a try.

Kismet and Hugo are lifelong partners, although they do not always cohabit. They talk about signing marriage papers as they approach middle age, but they decide against it. Eventually, Kismet has a child. They remain together, unmarried and in love long into old age.