# Read the first page of The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich Read the opening of The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich free, no signup. A young bride confronts secrets in a struggling farm town. - Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/the-mighty-red-louise-erdrich - Genre: Literary fiction - Year: 2024 - ISBN: 9780063277083 - Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9780063277083&s=read-page - Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9780063277083 - Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9780063277083 ## The opening The Red River of the North is young. From the sky it looks like a length of string arranged on a flat board in a tight scrawl of twisting loops. The river gathers in the Ottertail and Bois de Sioux rivers and runs north on a slight incline from Wahpeton to Winnipeg. The river is muddy, opaque with sediment and toxic from field runoff. Not a river you’d swim but good to fish, at least at its source. The river is changeable, a slow and sleepy trickle in summer, rampaging like a violent toddler in spring, when it sweeps across the land reflecting the sky like its mother—a vast prehistoric lake. Over millennia, the waters have given the Red River Valley earth its blackness, its life. The river is shallow, it is deep, I grew up there, it is everything. @@CHAP@@ THE NIGHT DRIVER @@BR@@ 2008 @@CHAP@@ CRYSTAL On a mild autumn night in the Red River Valley of North Dakota, Crystal pulled herself up behind the wheel of an International side-dump, steered out of the sugar processing plant, and started her haul. Out in the country the sugar beets from Geist’s fields were piled in a massive loaf on the company piling ground. Crystal drove down the highway, turned onto the access road, and got loaded from the pile. She cruised back to the plant, unloaded. Repeated for as many times as fit into a twelve-hour shift. On night hauls she always packed a certain lunch. Two sandwiches—turkey salami on whole wheat—carrots, apple chips, peanuts, two cookies. She’d attached a segmented canvas tool bag to her lunch cooler. The pockets of the bag were always filled with the same things: phone, multiuse tool, Black Jack gum, Icy Hot roll-on, Tylenol, lip balm. She brought jalapeño meat sticks, her toothbrush, wallet. In her pocket she kept a lucky hat knitted by her daughter. Crystal also wore an olive-wood cross brought back from the Holy Land by Father Flirty. She wasn’t much of a Catholic, but like other people who crave order, she was superstitious. Her shift was 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. By the time she left for work, her daughter was at her homework, unless she was waitressing. Crystal got back in time to see her off to school. At 11 p.m., Crystal ate her first jalapeño stick and used some Icy Hot. She left the plant and was going back out to the country, high beams cutting into strange mats of fog that lifted and fell, when a brilliant shadow vaulted across the road. Before she could touch the brakes, the animal was snatched away into blackness. It was a mountain lion, the first she’d ever seen. There was the flow of it, her lights glancing off its pelt, the ruthless slope of its head. Crystal rammed her elbow into the side window and slowed down. Driving over the place she’d seen the big cat disappear, Crystal felt a slight electric charge along her jaw. Even in the cab of the heavy truck something had touched her. A twinge of unease. A prophecy. She tried to shake it off. Her daughter, Kismet, and her husband, Martin, were certainly winding down their days at home. Maybe Kismet had made popcorn and Martin had brewed himself a cup of the special bedtime tea he liked. They were safe. ‘Tune your thoughts to a better station,’ she muttered. Then her thoughts were broken up as she turned down a gravel road and drove toward the powerful halogen lights out on the piling ground. On her way back to the plant, it crossed Crystal’s mind that the sighting might have to do with the grandmother who’d raised her, Happy Frechette. Happy had lugged whiskey to Fargo to sell during Prohibition. She had traveled on foot and wasted a bottle beaning a mountain lion. Good money! She had fumed about it over seventy years later. Each time she told of her walk it got longer and more eventful. Was sighting the cougar a sign she’d finally died? Avidity and cruelty had kept Happy alive, but nobody could live forever. Although if there was anyone . . . Crystal reeled in her thoughts, drove up the lift at the beet plant. She put on the hat Kismet had made out of sparkly gold yarn; it was like a warrior helmet. A couple of the guys teased her but she mocked them back, pretending they were jealous. She was still buzzing from the mountain lion, but she didn’t say a word about it. The big cat had appeared just for her. The lift rose, until the mercury switch opened the side gate and tipped out thirty-two tons of sugar beets. By the time Crystal was back on the road, the call-in show she liked to listen to was on. Tonight, the topic was angels. Are they out there? Are they listening to us? Answer, yes. The host, Al Ringer, was talking to an expert. They were discussing Creatures of Holiness, the Prince of Faces, Tetragrammaton, and the Order of Cherubim. The angel expert said she would break this down. If you watched the heavens, you could ask for help from the Angel President involved in governing the movement of the stars that night. For instance, the configuration of Libra, on display now, was ruled by Zuriel. Was it worth addressing Zuriel? Probably. Although Zuriel was above speech, Zuriel communicated with the Lord of Hosts by signs. Told what was needed, what was wanted, on earth. Zuriel’s mute requests might be said to elicit more attention because Zuriel wore special rings that flashed and glittered. ## Books with a similar feel - [Bewilderment by Richard Powers](https://uncovered.ink/read/bewilderment-richard-powers.md) - [Foster by Claire Keegan](https://uncovered.ink/read/foster-claire-keegan.md) - [Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi](https://uncovered.ink/read/transcendent-kingdom-yaa-gyasi.md) - [Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro](https://uncovered.ink/read/never-let-me-go-kazuo-ishiguro.md) - [Wounded by Percival Everett](https://uncovered.ink/read/wounded-percival-everett.md) - [The Story Prize by Larry Dark](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-story-prize-larry-dark.md) --- Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.