The Return Of The Indian

Name: The Return Of The Indian
Published: 1986
Author: Lynne Reid Banks
Main Players: Omri, Patrick, Little Bear, Bright Stars, Boone

We join Omri, whose family has moved to the ghetto. He's walking home from school and notices he's the only one wearing a private school uniform. He gets all nervous when he has to walk past some skinheads and rightfully so. The first skinhead tries to trip him (how mature) but Omri expects that and hops over it. He then takes off running. Someone reaches out and grabs a hold of Omri's shirttail and it rips. He gets away but loses his bag and goes back with Adiel only to find his books in the trash and his bag filled with trash.

We learn Patrick's parents have divorced and the friendship has sort of fizzled with the distance between them. I beleive this is probably the best thing to happen to Omri; Patrick was such a little bitch. Three days ago, Omri was walking toward the high school, where he's in his final year of schooling, and finds Patrick waiting for him. They chat and Omri asks if he kept Boone. Patrick plays dumb and when Omri presses, Patrick tells him he must be insane because the events in the previous book never happened. After all, how could they?

Omri gets a letter in the mail telling him his story The Plastic Indian won first prize in the Telecom Creative Writing Competition for his age group. He won three hundred punds and an invite to a party at some fancy pants hotel. W00T! Congrats, Omri.

We head up to Omri's room next, where Miss Banks describes some of the stuff decorating it. Omri gets two cool points for having a Snoopy poster AND a Police poster. He also describes a chest he found at a local market with the inscribing L. Bear on the plate. He's super proud of it and even though he doesn't really believe it used to belong to Little Bear, he gives it tender loving care. I'm pretty sure the chest plays an important part later in the series, so keep that tucked into the back of your melon, or something. He goes through the chest and pulls out the cupboard. He thinks about Little Bear and Bright Stars (the plastic Indian princess Little Bear had picked out to be his wifey), Tommy the medic and Boone. he's given his mum the special little key to his mother so he could resist the temptation of bringing them back.

The next morning, Omri sits down to breakfast and his mum is telling Gillon and Adiel Omri has fantastic news. Omri offhandedly tells them he's won a prize and Gillon and Adiel are kind of asses about it. Adiel is all like whatever but Gillon is paying attention now because he remembers there was some prize money involved. Gillon asks him if he nicked it from a book or if it was entirely original. Omri tells him of course it's original. His mum has read the story and is in tears because it's such an awesome story. It gets him thinking about Little Bear and Boone once again and his urge to bring them back is even stronger.

He heads back upstairs, armed with the special little key, and puts Little Bear, his wifey, and his horse into the cupboard and turns the key. When he opens the door, he finds Little Bear unconscious and covered in blood with two bullet holes high up on his back. Bright Stars begs Omri for help. Omri takes the trio out of the cupboard and puts Tommy the medic inside, knowing he is the only one who can help Little Bear. But when he opened the cupboard all that's inside was a neatly folded uniform, a pair of boots, the puttees and khaki bandages medics used to wear around their legs in the war. Nothing else. At once, Omri knows Tommy didn't live to be a grouchy old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn from the front porch while shaking his cane. No. Poor Tommy had been killed in the war, struck down by a German shell or some other weapon. This totally bummed me out when I was a kid. And it still bums me out. Tommy was kick ass.

Bright Stars tells Omri it's up to him. He tells her to lay him flat and remembers what Tommy had done for Boone when Little Bear shot him in the chest with an arrow. Bright Stars tries to tell Omri something, but he can't understand her. She points at Little Bear's wounds and repeats the foreign word, only louder. Bright Stars, that never works. Side story, I went to class called Survival Spanish for Law Enforcement Officers with this detective from a neighboring county. He joked all he had to do was repeat the English commands louder each time and people would eventually get what he meant. He was an old dude and all sorts of awesome and cracked my shit up when he tried to read the Miranda Rights in Spanish.

Anyway, back to Little Bear in peril.

Omri grabs some mouthwash so Bright Stars can clean and disinfect the wounds. He cuts off the finger of a glove and pits Little Bear inside it to keep him warm. Omri asks what happens and Bright Stars tells him soldiers shot Little Bear in the back after he fell from his horse. Those bastards! The soldiers had come to their village and set it ablaze. They killed many of the villagers and took prisoners. Little Bear followed which is when he fell and the sons of bitches shot him. Omri leaves Bright Stars and Little BEar and rushes downstairs. He calls Patrick and tells him he's coming over. Patrick is bitchy and tells him he's washing his hair or something. Omri insists and heads on over.

When he gets there, Patrick poo poos the idea the plastic figures were ever alive to begin with, never mind Little Bear is dying in his bedroom as we speak! Or as they speak. Omri finally forces him to remember and they try to solve the problem of finding a medic. They find surgeon, who happens to belong to Patrick's cousin and take him over to Omri's. And guess who shows up just as they're about to leave? You guessed it, Patrick's cousin, Tamsin. She notices they're "stealing" her figurine. They ask her if they can borrow him and she gets all bratty and says no. She then kicks Patrick's ass. I kinda like Tamsin, even if she is a brat. They escape the clutches of Tamsin, but without the surgeon. They end up with a nurse instead, which isn't so bad.

When they get back to Omri's, Little Bear is awake but in pain. they bring the nurse to life, but she faints from shock. She wakes up, but is convinced she's gone mad. They take her to Little Bear and ak her to help him. She scoffs and insists they take him to her hospital, St. Thomas. They tell her they can't, seeing as how Little Bear is her size and St. Thomas is their size. She tells him there is no way she can do the job of a surgeon because she has no instruments. Omri goes and gathers Tommy's medic bag. The nurse goes through the medic bag with disgust, even holding up a hypodermic needle with her thumb and forefinger that must seem like the size of a gas nozzle in relation to the needles today. She uses Bright Stars as an assistant (greeting her with "How!" like she's fucking Tonto or something) and operates on Little Bear which ends in complete success. After sending the nurse back, Patrick mentions Bright Stars' big ole belly, which means she's going to have a baby! Yay!!

Omri goes downstairs to gather some food for the group to eat and notices something, or someone rather, in the reflection of the streetlight. He notices it gleams at if it had no hair.

Little Bear recovers quickly and he remarks Omri has grown up, but is still a boy, not a chief like he. He asks for the longhouse he built and gets pissed when he sees it's not in the best shape. He then asks for his other brother. Omri and Patrick suddenly realize he means Boone. Patrick tells Omri he's had Boone in his pocket the whole time, which surprises the hell out of Omri. They bring Boone back to life and surprise surprise, Boone's crying as soon as he's back in the cupboard because he's scared of the dark. They let Boone out and Bright Stars takes him to Little Bear. Boone and the boys toy around with sending a whole army back to Little Bear's time to kick some Frenchie butt. Omri nixes the whole idea, telling them to remember each little figure they bring back is a living breathing human being and it isn't a game. However, Boone does have an idea to bring back the little toy soldiers back just long enough to take their weapons.

Little Bear wants to get back and fight. Omri tells him to chill and goes downstairs to grab some food. When he gets back upstairs, he walks into a firefight, the soldiers Patrick brought to life (against Omri's immediate wishes, again) firing upon Omri. He slams the cupboard door shut and sends them back, pissed, but staying silent, because really what would good would that do? Patrick is never going to learn.

Little Bear is all about the now-guns, though, and demands Omri bring the now-guns back so he can take them back and kick ass.

Okay, check in Friday morning for the rest. It's three in the morning and I'm tired, yo!