The Setting Sun and the Rolling World

A young boy named Hama hears his father talking to a medicine man in the next room. For most of Hama’s life, he lived with his Aunt Rudo. One day, Hama’s father arrived at Aunt Rudo’s with a woman, demanding to take Hama back so the boy could attend school. On the drive home, the deeply inebriated father crashed the car, leaving his female companion dead and Hama with an amputated leg.

The father begs the medicine man to improve his luck at the horse track, as he has lost most of his money to bad bets, drinking, and the string of wives he alienated. The medicine man says the father can improve his luck, but only if he is willing to sacrifice something he loves—and in the medicine man’s view, the father loves nothing. When the father says he loves Hama, the medicine man says that feeling is not love; it is guilt. Although their voices are low, Hama can make out a few phrases; he hears the medicine man say, “Only his heart, a piece of his liver, his genitals. Mix them with this...” (83).

The following morning Hama’s father wakes him and tells him Hama is going home. Hama assumes this means he will return to Aunt Rudo’s.