The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

Coyote begins Chapter 2 by foretelling that Ivan is going to be discovered after only one day. She decides she is going to get in trouble for having the kitten, however it will be a limited amount of trouble because Rodeo is a laid-back hippie type dude. She says, “Rodeo is probably the nicest man in the whole world, but even his kindness has its limits” (15).

On their way down the road, Rodeo asks Coyote to give him a “once-upon-a-time” (16)––their way of telling, usually symbolic, stories to one another. In preparation for revealing the cat’s presence, she makes up a story about a girl who travels around the world doing heroic things and then builds a driftwood castle on the beach. People sail around that point of the castle very cautiously because of a terrible wailing sound that comes from it. She expresses it is the girl inside who is wailing because she is lonely and has no friends, or even a little pet to keep her company. She says loneliness is a terrible thing. Slyly, she walks to the back of the bus knowing that her father is watching her walk away, upset.

Coyote builds a secret home for Ivan in her bedroom, but Ivan begins to make noise by scratching to get out of his cardboard box. She relents and takes the cat out of the box, letting him sleep with her. She wakes in the morning to a beautiful setting with birds singing and feeling wonderful until she realizes Ivan is gone. Walking through the bus, she sees the cat sleeping against Rodeo’s neck.

When Coyote leans over Rodeo to pick up Ivan, her dad wakes. In the ensuing confusion, Ivan latches his claws into Rodeo’s neck, causing Rodeo to leap up in total confusion. Coyote explains to Rodeo that she has had the cat for 18 hours, and it comes to light that she has been asking for a pet for some time. Rodeo says that the kitten is something she can lose, but he sees how much his daughter wants the cat. Coyote and Rodeo negotiate about a trial period for Ivan using the next 500 miles to determine if he will stay.

Along the way, Rodeo grows fonder of Ivan. Ivan wanders away from a campfire the night before they reach the 500-mile mark, and Coyote is terrified that the cat is gone for good. When Ivan comes back, mewing outside the bus, Coyote sees Rodeo pick up the cat and bring him back onto the bus, kissing him on the head. Rodeo tells a “once-upon-a-time” metaphorical story about a broken-down old bird who is cared for by a beautiful young sparrow (38).

Coyote and Rodeo stop at an RV park. She has Ivan with her by the lake when she hears the voice of another girl calling out, expressing delight at how cute Ivan is. She learns that Fiona, a girl about her age, likes books as much as she does and their taste in books is similar. Coyote is invited to go to Fiona’s campsite where she has supper with Fiona’s family.

When Fiona’s father and two little brothers walk to the lake, Coyote is left with Fiona and her mother. In their conversation, Coyote tells Fiona and her mother that she lives in a big, yellow school bus that she and her father, Rodeo, named Yager. Coyote says that her mother and two sisters were killed five years ago in an automobile accident. Fiona’s mother rejects Coyote’s offer to show Fiona around the bus after she sees Rodeo sitting on top of a picnic table playing the guitar. Coyote thinks that she has experienced this kind of rejection before, and she downplays it. She promises Fiona that she will swim with her the next day, even though she knows she and her dad will be gone before the sun rises. She explains that this is the way it will always be and she’s fine with it, but says she didn’t know everything was about to change.