Alabama Moon

Moon wakes before Hal and Kit and walks up the hill to listen to the forest waking up. Still wanting to communicate with Pap, he uses a sharp rock to write “Pap, I love you” (130) on a piece of pine bark. He is surprised to hear another bloodhound in the distance. He runs back to Hal and Kit to wake them. They dress, Hal complaining about his aches, pains, and wet clothes, and wait for the dog to reach them. Moon assures them that it will be another bloodhound. Sure enough, Sanders sent another dog to find them: “We set out that morning with another dog added to our company: Sawbone. Davey Sanders. 34 Big Pine Road. Gainesville, Alabama” (131). Moon forages thistle stems, acorns, and more cattail roots for their food that day.

The three walk until evening. Moon discovers a puma track; this means they are deep in the forest with “no sign of people” (134). He finds a location at the bottom of a small ridge and says it will make a good camp. Hal is irate when Moon cooks a black rat snake with a “dressing” of acorn, cattail roots, and thistle mashed into a paste and stuffed inside. Hal refuses to eat his share, but Kit loves it. Moon begins to watch the sky and listen for thunder. He finds a half-fallen tree that will make a good shelter and shows it to Kit. Kit is happy with the snake, the location, and the whole notion of learning more about living in the forest, but he says of Hal, “I don’t think Hal likes it out here” (137). Moon assures Kit that Hal will have a good attitude once they have a shelter, which he plans to start constructing at dawn, and better food. Inside, he worries he made a mistake in not starting the shelter immediately.

A hard rain soaks them through the night. Moon moves them under a magnolia tree, which helps, but does not stop them from becoming more wet. He tries to remind them about their upcoming shelter, soon-to-be-had deer meat, and how they have no school obligations. Hal, however, reaches his breaking point and tells Moon to shut up.

Moon is awake before dawn to start the shelter. He uses “poles” of thin bay trees and branches to form a protective wall against the leaning pine and covers it all with pine needle branches to keep the inside dry. He clears the inside of debris and fashions a “platform” for a lookout. When he returns to the magnolia tree, Hal and the dogs are gone. Moon chases Hal and tries to get him to stay, but Hal is intent on leaving the forest and going to see his father. Moon tells Hal he does indeed care about who came with him, but he also knows how Hal feels about wanting to see his pap. He advises Hal to follow the creek until it comes to road. They part ways amicably, with Moon wishing Hal luck in “hidin’ out” with his father and Hal saying, “Thanks for getting me out of Pinson, Moon” (144).

Moon and Kit finish the shelter and make a cooking pit. Kit finds two logs and rolls them near the fire pit for seating. He also finds a soup can they use to boil water and cook acorns. Moon catches a snapping turtle and adds the meat to their meal that day. Later, Moon uses intestine from the turtle to tie squirrel leg bones to cattail stems for arrows, and he uses a shoestring to finish his bow. Moon knows a cold front is coming and he sends Kit to get stones from the creek which they heat in their fire’s coals, then bury under a light layer of dirt and marsh grass inside the shelter. They eat the turtle soup for dinner. Moon rinses the soup can in the nearby creek and extinguishes the coals: “as the fire hissed and smoked, I sat and listened to the forest and felt proud of all we’d accomplished” (147).

The heated stones keep the boys warm in the icy night. They discuss Hal and Moon says he probably made it to a road the day before but had the dogs to keep warm with if he had to weather the night. Kit says, “Bet he likes those dogs now” (148), and they laugh. Moon sees Kit shivering despite blankets and the sun. When Kit says, “Maybe we should make those deerskin clothes” (148), Moon is ready and goes hunting. He soon finds a doe. He worries his bow and arrows will not be strong enough, but his first shot is good, and he strikes the doe above the shoulder. He tracks the blood trail until he finds the doe dead. He cannot haul her himself, so he field-dresses the deer, then strings her up off the ground with a wisteria vine. He gets Kit to help drag the deer back to camp. Moon then butchers the meat to smoke it for venison jerky. He also dries the stomach, intestine, bladder for food storage, and sinew that can be used like string. Moon saves the deer’s eyeballs, hooves, and brain in a rock-lined pit in the ground for more products later (ink from the eyeballs, waterproof oil from boiling the hooves). They work on the deer hide over the next week, drying it and rubbing it with the brains.

Moon and Kit hear a plane one day. Moon goes to check on the deer carcass the next morning and discovers Sanders looking at it and swearing. Sanders is not in good shape; he is exhausted, staggering, confused, and stumbling. Moon reports back to Kit: “Last I saw him, he was fallin’ down the ridge […] I think he got lost. And if he finds us, he’s so mad there’s no tellin’ what he’ll do” (153). Moon says their only choice is to “whip” Sanders again. Kit is hesitant but Moon insists.

Moon fashions a lasso-style snare that will trap Sanders when he trips over it. The boys hoist a large, heavy log upright against a tree with the wisteria vine “lasso” tied to it. Moon thinks the weight of the tree when Kit tips it over will pull the snare tight and drag Sanders halfway into the creek. Moon pokes Sanders awake and gets him chasing after him. Sanders trips over the raised rope, gets snared and pulled by the falling log, and must catch hold of a bush to keep from going into the creek with the log. With his hands are clutching the bush, Moon walks up and takes his pistol. Sanders threatens to kill Moon. Moon, angered, yells that he will be the one to kill Sanders. Kit calls for Moon to come away.

Moon assumes that Sanders found his way out by following the creek. Two weeks pass and the boys improve the shelter, continue their hide project, and discuss plans for Alaska. When Moon says they have everything they need, Kit says they should get medicine because he is worried about not feeling well. Moon makes aspirin powder from black willow bark. Moon finishes two deerskin hats; Kit’s has the tail attached. Moon shoots the pistol twice at a log and is amazed at its power. He tells Kit it is an automatic, unlike his rifle. Moon is thrilled: “We’re gonna get something big with this thing in Alaska, Kit!” (164).

A cold front moves through after another 10 days. Kit becomes ill, first with congestion, then with vomiting. Days of rain prevent Moon from making a fire, though he tries whittling down a piece of firewood to get to the dry fibers when Kit complains of cold. Not even Moon’s yellowroot tea makes Kit better. Moon begins to panic: “I don’t know… What do I do, Kit? […] I don’t know how to make any more medicine!” (166). Kit becomes unresponsive and Moon decides to go for help. He quickly realizes he cannot leave Kit alone. Instead, he fashions a “sled” from the blankets to pull Kit on and they leave camp together. Moon promises aloud he will not go to Alaska without Kit and admits that he does not care about Alaska so much as he wants Kit to live. Moon says he does not want to be alone anymore.

It is a struggle to pull Kit through the forest, but eventually Moon discovers a tram road. After pulling Kit all day, Moon gets him to a blacktop road where he waits for a car. As soon as an older couple stop, Moon runs back into the forest.

Moon is exhausted from pulling Kit and he dozes against a tree some distance from the road. Sanders arrives, sees the blankets Moon used to pull Kit, and kicks and spits on them. Once Sanders is gone, Moon gathers the blankets and climbs up to the bowl-like crook of a tree when he leaves; Moon thinks he should “be there if Kit returned” (171). The next morning, a reporter and camera operator arrive at the spot where the older couple picked up Kit. Moon can hear the reporter speaking into her microphone. She relays what occurred when the older couple stopped there and refers to Moon as “the boy they call Alabama Moon” (171). She says Kit is being treated at a hospital and mentions how Constable Sanders tried four times to find the boys in the forest without success, and how Sanders says that on the last try Moon attempted to shoot him. The reporter mentions Pap by name, says it is thought he died in January, and suggests “Alabama Moon can remain in the wild indefinitely” (172).

An hour after that report, a truck pulls up, and Hal gets out to call for Moon. Moon is thrilled to see him. Hal says he and his father came to see if Moon wanted to stay at their home. Moon meets Mr. Mitchell, who is kind to him. Hal says he still has the two bloodhounds along with a “wiener dog” who found him. They think it might be Sanders’s mother’s dog. Mr. Mitchell drinks alcohol as he drives. He says Davy Sanders, whom he knows from childhood, is a “dangerous fool” who went on TV to warn everyone locally about Moon (177).