Flight

Flight Summary | Detailed Summary

Out on the coast of California, 15 miles south of Monterey, Mama Torres lives on her farm with her three children, Emilio-12 years old, Pepé-19, and Rosy-14. Overall, they are a hard-working family except for Pepé, who, much to his mother's disappointment, is incredibly lazy. While Emilio and Rosy go out and catch fish when the tides cooperate, the gentle, Pepé does not do anything around the house or the farm. However, Mama Torres loves her eldest child dearly and thinks that he is very brave, though she never tells him this.

One fine day along the coast, Mama Torres is looking for Pepé because she has some work for him to do. She calls for her son several times, but decides to search for him when he does not respond. She does not have far to look, since Pepé is just outside the house, entertaining his brother and sister with his knife-throwing skills. He places the switchblade knife, which once belonged to his deceased father, in his lap. Then, with an almost unnoticeably quick motion, he throws it into a redwood post with deadly accuracy. In fact, he must have been practicing this for a while, since he can repeat the trick over and over again with absolute precision. However, Mama Torres is unimpressed and merely wants her son to stop fooling around and get some work done.

Mama Torres tells Pepé that he must ride into Monterey to buy some medicine and salt, since the family is out of these important goods. Pepé is to ride there alone, and Mama Torres admonishes him to buy only the medicine and the salt—no candy, and to avoid spending too long in church. Mama Torres also tells her son that he should stay with Mrs. Rodriguez, a friend of the family, and come back the next day with the supplies.

Hearing that he is to ride alone to Monterey, Pepé is excited. After all, this is a manly thing to do, and it will allow him to ride one of the family's horses while wearing his father's hat and silk bandana like a real man. Thus, Pepé quickly catches the horse, puts on the saddle and rides off into the distance.

That night, Pepé returns home with the salt and medicine, but Mama Torres is surprised that Pepé did not spend the night with Mrs. Rodriguez. When she asks Pepé why he came home so quickly, Pepé explains that he went to Mrs. Rodriguez's house but, while he was there, a man who was also there began insulting him horribly. Because Pepé had been drinking wine, he was not thinking clearly, so he threw his switchblade at the man and killed him.

Hearing this tale, Mama Torres knows that there will be men chasing Pepé, so she quickly rouses Emilio and Rosy and they all help Pepé get ready to run away. Mama Torres gives Pepé a rifle and ten bullets, a bag of beef jerky and a full water bag to help him along the road. Then, once the horse is loaded with all the supplies, Pepé quickly mounts and rides off toward the mountains.

Following the instructions of his mother, Pepé rides all through the next day in order to put as much distance as possible between him and any pursuers. He eats lightly and drinks sparingly to keep from using up his meager supplies while he flees. However, as he rides along the road, a man approaches and Pepé ducks behind a large redwood tree to avoid being spotted. Fortunately, the man does not notice Pepé and Pepé escapes capture. Unfortunately, Pepé knows the men pursuing him are close by.

Pepé continues on through the canyons and over the mountains as he resumes his flight, much more wary now. However, he does not see anyone else chasing him, though he does see one of the mysterious dark watchers—strange men who live in the mountains—but Pepé knows that they will not bother anyone who does not bother them.

After crossing the mountains, Pepé arrives in a large, flat valley where he finally has an opportunity to refill his water bag and rest. Pepé believes that he is finally safe enough to get some sleep, because he has not seen any pursuers since he hid behind the redwood tree. In the middle of the night, Pepé is awoken when his horse whinnies. Knowing that there must be a cause for this, Pepé listens carefully until he hears the answering whinny from another horse. Knowing this is not good, Pepé jumps onto his horse and rides onto a trail leading away from the valley and back up into the mountains.

By the time dawn arrives, Pepé is feeling safer. There is no sign of anyone about and he believes he can relax. However, just then, Pepé's horse falls dead beneath him, killed by a shot from a rifle. Pepé quickly scrambles behind some rocks and takes aim with his rifle. He does not know where the shooter is, but Pepé knows that the man will be coming. Therefore, he waits patiently for a sign of the shooter and, when Pepé sees movement in the brush, he fires. However, an answering shot comes back and sends a sliver of granite into Pepé's right hand. Though the wound is not too severe, it does bleed badly and Pepé uses spider webs to stop the bleeding before he flees farther into the mountains.

Throughout the day, Pepé works his way through the canyons and along the ridges in order to escape his pursuers. Unfortunately, the cut on his hand is infected and it makes both his hand and his arm swell and throb horribly. Adding to the misery, Pepé does not have his water bag and he is suffering from severe thirst. Since he is in the mountains, there is no water to be found anywhere; even the streambeds are dried up.

That night, Pepé falls asleep in a dry streambed, and he continues sleeping until the following noon. Then, as Pepé wakes, he notices a mountain lion watching him carefully. However, when the mountain lion suddenly runs off, Pepé knows that the men pursuing him are nearby. He escapes into some brush where he hides until nightfall.

Under cover of night, Pepé works his way forward as best he can but, after taking in some needed sleep, he forgets his rifle in some brush, leaving him completely unarmed and unprotected from the men chasing him. Because when he goes back to look for the rifle he cannot find it, he must go on without it.

As Pepé climbs over the top of the next hill, he looks down into the canyon to see another dead, dry streambed that clearly has no water at the bottom. As well, he looks at the cut on his hand, which has turned black from infection and it now sending a black line all the way up into his armpit. Though Pepé tries to scrape the dead flesh out of his wound, he realizes it is no use. He cannot go forward; he cannot go back, and he will die from either dehydration or infection even if he does somehow manage to get away from men chasing him on horseback.

With one final struggle, Pepé drags himself to his feet and climbs up onto a rock standing high on top of the ridge. Then, waving his good arm weakly at his breast, a bullet fired from below strikes the young man dead.