The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

Coyote gives another “once-upon-a-time” where she tells a story from five years ago. Coyote describes how she and her two sisters and mother created a memory box full of precious things and took it to the little park down the street from their house. In a wooded area, they buried the box beneath a stone. They promised they would all return in 10 years to retrieve the memory box. Coyote promised she would never forget its location and would dig it up when the time came. She then says that the accident that killed her mother and sisters happened only a few days after they buried the memory box. Coyote is determined that she will return to the little park and dig up the box.

Coyote knows she must complete this trip without her father realizing what she is doing. She thinks that he will stop and refuse to proceed if he knows her true intention. Coyote explains that she does not want to burden her grandmother with the task of digging underneath the 30 trees in the park until she finds the memory box. She also reveals that the memory box is hers and she doesn’t want anybody else opening it.

Coyote realizes that her father absolutely will not return to the place where his wife and two daughters died, so she must trick him into making the trip. Coyote tells Rodeo that she had a “D.E.A.D Dream,” an acronym for “Drop Everything and Drive Dream” (61) about eating a pork chop sandwich from a cafe in Butte Montana. Rodeo responds by immediately getting on the bus and driving west.

Coyote sits in her room at the back of the bus, calculating how long it will take to drive to Washington. She has 96 hours before Wednesday. She calculates it will require 60 hours of driving, leaving 36 hours for sleeping.

Coyote dozes off. When she wakes, she discovers Rodeo has pulled off to the side of the road near a diner and is asleep on his bed. She attempts to get him up and driving again but he refuses, saying he needs to get some sleep.

She leaves the bus and goes to the little diner to order a hamburger. As she eats, Coyote tries to figure out how she can stimulate her dad to drive more. She overhears one side of a conversation in the booth next to her where a young Black man is talking on his phone to someone named Tammy. He says that even though he doesn’t have any money to speak of, he is on his way to be with her.

When the conversation ends, Coyote sits down in the booth opposite the young man and asks him where he is going. Reluctantly, he tells her he is bound for Boise, Idaho. She opens the atlas she brought with her and looks to see how close Boise is to her destination. She finds out his name is Lester and asks him if he has a driver’s license.

Coyote introduces Lester and Rodeo to each other. She hopes Lester will be a second driver for their journey to help them get home in time. Having just awakened, Rodeo is compliant and open to the possibility of Lester riding with them. Coyote convinces Lester that he has no other options to get to Boise. He grudgingly agrees this is true. Coyote tells Rodeo to ask Lester three questions they always ask before allowing any passengers on the bus. Rodeo asks Lester “what’s your favorite book”; “what is your favorite place on the earth”; and “what is your favorite sandwich” (75-76). He successfully passes that test and Lester joins them on the bus.