Wandering Stars: A Novel

Opal goes to the Friendship Center to connect with people in her community. while there, she is approached by Maxine, her mother's old friend. Maxine gives Opal the box that Victoria left for her daughters years ago. When she picks up Lony, she asks him how he thinks Orvil is doing, even though she wants to ask the same of Lony. Lony responds that he changed, and either he or Orvil has superpowers because he survived. When Opal asks why it couldn't be that he simply survived the bullet, Lony tells her that imagination can make anything true.

Loother does not fit in with the other kids in his school and does not want to. Loother is both direct and shy, something he realizes makes people think he is angry. He thinks that if he is angry, he has a lot of reason to be, especially since his brother was shot just trying to dance at the powwow. Loother offers to help the girl he likes with English. Loother loves language and even begins to rap, though he wonders if this might be cultural appropriation. Because he still wants to write but isn't sure if he can write rap, he begins writing poetry.

He writes Vee, the girl he likes, a poem and she becomes his girlfriend. He is texting her while he waits with Lony outside of Jacquie's Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, which Loother refers to as double-A meetings. While they wait, the brothers share memories and play childhood games. One game requires them to say two-syllable words, which they then must rhyme. When Lony says recovery, Loother asks whether he understands what that word means. He asks whether Lony knows what a relapse is, but the conversation ends.

Jacquie decides to throw Loother a birthday party. She asks Lony what he might be into, and he tells her their favorite movie used to be Donnie Darko. They begin talking about movies and time travel, and Lony tells Jacquie that Indigenous people are like time travelers because everyone thinks they're in the past even while they live in the present.

He tells Jacquie that he believes the bullet in Orvil could be a time-traveling artifact, but Jacquie keeps asking Lony what Loother might want for his birthday. He tells her he thinks he might like Opal's Rice Krispie cake and, though Jacquie feels silly for throwing the party, she asks Opal for the recipe.

At Loother's party, Orvil stays in his room. As they sit down to watch Donnie Darko together, Loother discovers the cuts on Lony's arms. When Opal asks him to explain himself, he tells her about his ritual and that he feels someone needs to be doing something. Opal tells him they are doing everything they can and that they should help each other. Lony remains unconvinced.

Lony goes outside to dig in the spot where he's been burying his blood, hoping something might happen. Loother and Jacquie follow him out. Loother asks whether he is going to stop cutting, and Lony says he will. Loother, angry about what's happening with Lony, wonders why no one in his family is normal. In response to Lony's cutting, Jacquie and Opal decide to get him a dog. Jacquie is late to the pound, and Opal doesn't get the dog she wanted, but they bring home a dog that Lony names Will.

The family celebrates Christmas together, and things seem calm. One day, Orvil leaves the door open. Will gets out. Though they look for him throughout the night, they cannot find him, and Lony goes missing trying to find him. When they return home, they find Lony in his room with the dog. Orvil misses school for weeks at a time, and Opal covers for him.

Orvil has been staying at Sean's, taking pills they call Blanx because the pills are different mixtures of substances each time. Though he knows he is developing a substance use disorder, he is trying to control his use. He justifies dropping out of school and leaving his substance use disorder untreated, assuming that's what all the best musicians did. He continues to play music, feeling that it takes him away from his pain and into the moment.

He tries a new batch of Blanx before he is supposed to go on a walk with Opal. Orvil feels the effects very strongly, apologizing to Opal. Opal tells Orvil that she is having a biopsy to find out if she has cancer. He goes home with Opal and takes another pill. He plays his guitar so loudly that his brothers come into his room to find out what's going on, but Orvil doesn't stop playing. When he goes back to school, he realizes the Blanx give him a confidence he never had before. He notices his desperate want for more pills even when he has already taken some.

Opal goes to Sean's to look for Orvil and falls asleep on the front porch when no one answers. She knows that Orvil is taking substances, and she knows that Sean is supplying them to him. Opal is now receiving chemotherapy to treat her cancer. She wanted to find a way to heal through ceremonies but didn't know where to look. While she receives her treatments, she realizes that she has lost hope. Once she opens the box that her mother left for her, however, and reads Charles’s writing, she realizes the history from which she came. She learns that survival means to come back “better made” like the stories.

Orvil and Sean completely stop going to school. Although Orvil feels bad about abandoning his family, his substance use disorder is in control. Orvil sees the footage of his grandmother falling asleep on Sean's porch, which makes him feel guilty. To escape this guilt, he continues to use substances and play music. He feels close to Sean. He feels that the life they are living is more real than the rest of the world. They go to a rave and take acid alongside their pills. While there, Orvil dances. When he goes to the bathroom, he imagines hearing a voice telling him that he is the instrument, and that everything had been left to him (256). He doesn’t understand. Once they leave, they continue to consume substances and play music; Orvil feels trapped with no way out, comforting himself with thoughts of artists like Jimi Hendrix and knowing Sean is by his side. When he wakes up, he realizes he is supposed to go to Alcatraz with his family and believes he can make things right with them.