Jackrabbit of a Man

"The truth is, Frederick, I think you're just a terrible person."
"You don't mean that."
"As your sister, I completely and utterly mean it."

All Frederick wants is to turn a new leaf over, to find some semblance of peace in his already chaotic and directionless life. With his sister coming back into his life through a flood of letters begging him to come back to the reservation, and the strong yearning to not rest until he makes a name for himself in the mainstream world of American literature with his poetry, his heart is being pulled in many directions.

Characters

Frederick

A quiet yet nervous wreck of a man, he tends to liken himself to the jackrabbits who dwell in the Arizona desert. Underneath his surface-level irateness lies a sensitive and emotional man, one who is not afraid to cry as well pour his heart out into his writing.

Myrtle

She is an angry, bitter, and extremely resilient woman who deep down is defined by her extensive trauma.
Who could blame her, after everything she's been through?

Excerpts

"Why did you leave, Hikwsu? We were close to escaping it all for good, and you just up and left one day. You didn't say anything. No goodbyes, nothing. You just left me to rot at that school."

He did not look up at his sister. He kept his gaze locked behind her at the wall of butterflies in her room, their little bodies pinned to the white paper background, enclosed behind glass and wooden frames.

"I wanted to prove myself. Prove I was capable as any man in this country."

"Prove what? Prove yourself to the White Man? The White Man you so desperately idolize? The White Man which will never see you as their equal? No, Hikwsu, you've only proven you're a coward."

Stunned into silence, Frederick could only squeak out, "That's not true."

"It is, though. You just don't see it yet. But you will one day, and you will completely regret what you've done."

Meta Analysis

This story was a long time coming. I've had a special interest in WWI since I saw 1917 in 2019, so writing a WWI-centric story was sort of invetiable.

As with most of my stories, the idea stemmed from me fleshing out a character. In Frederick's case, I developed him for a WWI/WWII OC server I was in at the time so I could interact with other people. However, doing research for his backstory and looking into the history of Indigenous Americans in the military during this time period caught my attention more. My desire to tell this fictional man's story is also rooted in my interest in the history of the military service of non-white men. (This is something I am particularly interested in with thanks to my grandfather's service.)

To this day, I'm still struggling to make the story as accurate and sensitive as possible within my limits. It's been an intersting challenge so far.