Fat Crack Ortiz’s death is framed through what he passes on and the people who must carry on without him. Before his death, he entrusts Brandon Walker with a medicine pouch intended for Lani Walker, and their shared Peace Smoke becomes a quiet farewell. Wanda Ortiz later confirms that Fat Crack Ortiz is gone; the family’s funeral plans then make clear that mourning will be shaped by the living as well as by the deceased.

The Farewell and the Handoff

Fat Crack Ortiz gives the pouch to Brandon Walker with a specific instruction: when Lani Walker comes home, Brandon is to give it to her. He explains that Looks at Nothing and he, both old and blind siwanis, wanted Lani to have it. Brandon understands that this is more than a routine transfer and recognizes what Fat Crack Ortiz is telling him. He accepts the responsibility and thanks him.

The exchange is practical as well as ceremonial. Fat Crack Ortiz gathers the lighter and remaining pieces of paper from the blanket on his lap and puts them into the huashomi before offering the bag. Once Brandon promises to deliver it, Fat Crack Ortiz directs him to find Wanda and check whether the tortillas are ready. That ordinary household task follows a moment of parting without diminishing it: the conversation moves from a legacy being entrusted to Brandon back to the continuing rhythms of family life.

The pouch is not the only thing Fat Crack Ortiz gives away. He and Brandon have smoked the Peace Smoke many times during their friendship, but on this occasion the act is described as Fat Crack Ortiz’s own friendly gift of thanks and goodbye. The significance becomes clear to Brandon through the combination of gestures: the medicine pouch is being sent on to Lani Walker, and the tobacco has been given away. The handoff makes the coming loss legible before anyone formally reports it.

Foreboding and Confirmation

After Brandon leaves, Wanda Ortiz asks her husband to come inside because it is getting hot. Fat Crack Ortiz refuses, and Wanda returns to the house. The chill he feels, the narration makes clear, is not caused by the weather. Having completed the Peace Smoke and given away the pouch and sacred tobacco, he is left with a foreboding he identifies as neijig.

That unease belongs to a life in which glimpses of the future have sometimes come to him. When Leo Ortiz and Delia Ortiz told him that Delia was pregnant, he had understood that one baby would die before birth and that another, a boy, would thrive. He kept both predictions to himself. Now he senses that something is wrong concerning his old friend Brandon Walker, but he no longer has Looks at Nothing’s precious crystals, and his blindness leaves him unable to clarify or prevent what he fears. The episode places his foreboding beside the farewell, without suggesting that he knows or controls the circumstances of his own death.

Wanda Ortiz confirms the death directly when Lani Walker calls. Wanda says that she went outside to check on Fat Crack Ortiz and that he is gone. Lani Walker does not ask for clarification: she understands what Wanda means, says she is coming home, and plans to call her parents before setting out. The brevity of the exchange conveys both the certainty of the news and the distance Lani must cross to respond to it.

Lani Walker’s Return and the Funeral Plans

Lani Walker is away and has to arrange her return rather than leave immediately. She contacts her professors, makes arrangements for her finals, and organizes for her belongings to be packed and shipped home. The only available flight will not bring her to Phoenix until early the following afternoon. Only after purchasing her ticket does she try to call her parents. Her return is therefore shaped by the practical demands of travel and school, even as Fat Crack Ortiz’s death has made home her immediate destination.

Brandon Walker also comes to the house to express his sympathy. Wanda Ortiz tells him that Fat Crack Ortiz was ready, then explains the funeral plans: the service is scheduled for four o’clock Monday afternoon in the high school gym, led by the minister from the Presbyterian church. The family plans to bury him at Ban Thak, where Fat Crack Ortiz’s parents and his aunt Rita Antone are buried. These details place the funeral within established family ties and a community setting rather than presenting it as a private or isolated observance.

The choice of minister exposes a difference between Fat Crack Ortiz’s religious identity and Wanda Ortiz’s understanding of what the family needs. Fat Crack Ortiz was a Christian Scientist, and Wanda explains that Christian Scientists do not believe in funerals. She nevertheless chooses a Presbyterian service because she grew up Presbyterian and believes that the funeral is for her, the children, and The People. The plans are not represented as a simple statement of what Fat Crack Ortiz would have wanted; Wanda distinguishes his beliefs from the needs of those who remain.

What the Death Leaves Behind

The sequence gives the death a shape through acts of entrustment, recognition, and communal preparation. Fat Crack Ortiz does not merely leave a pouch behind: he directs Brandon Walker to place it in Lani Walker’s hands and identifies Looks at Nothing as part of the intention behind the gift. The paired reference to the two blind siwanis ties the object to a relationship and a shared judgment about its recipient, while the Peace Smoke marks the exchange between the two old friends as a goodbye.

The scenes also distinguish private foreboding from public confirmation. Fat Crack Ortiz senses that something is wrong but cannot resolve it; Wanda Ortiz is the one who discovers that he is gone, and Lani Walker receives the news at a distance. Brandon Walker, meanwhile, has already recognized the meaning of the handoff. By the time the funeral is planned, the loss has moved through several forms of response: an entrusted object, a phone call, a journey home, and a service arranged according to the needs of the survivors. The event’s emphasis falls not on the circumstances of death but on the relationships and responsibilities it leaves in motion.