Through Black Spruce

The narrator is Will Bird, a pilot. He is speaking to his nieces, Annie and Suzanne, telling them stories from his past. “Talking to you, it keeps me warm,” he says (4). He is speaking from his coma.

Will is a bush pilot in the northern Ontario town of Moosonee. He survives three plane crashes. His first crash is due to a blizzard, although he is drunk at the time. He admits he is an alcoholic: “I used to fly a bush plane better with a few drinks in me” (1). Despite being drunk at the time of his first crash, he manages to make a fire and keep warm during the cold winter night. Thinking of his wife Helen helps him stay focused. In the morning his friend Chief Joe flies to him and helps him get his plane unstuck.

Annie visits Uncle Will at the hospital. Her nurse friend Eva tells her she needs to talk to him, but at first she feels too foolish. Soon she starts visiting every morning to tell him stories about her life. He has a head injury and isn’t expected to wake up from the coma that he has been in for a month already.