Love Medicine: Scales Summary & Analysis

Albertine is on her third or fourth drink sitting at a bar with Gerry Nanapush and Dot Adare. Gerry hasn’t had a drink in 13 years, and he sits at the bar with a tonic water. He is 35 years old and has been in and out of prison for most of his life. Albertine first met Dot in a bar just like this one, and it was through Gerry, too. At that time, Gerry had just broken out of prison, and since he was famous on the reservation, Albertine decided to find him.

Albertine found Gerry at a nearby bar, so she sat next to him and starting talking. Then Dot came in, at least six months pregnant, and threatened to “bend [Albertine] out of shape.” She charged Albertine, but Gerry caught her mid-run, allowing Albertine a chance to run away. The next day, Albertine reported for her first day of work at a local construction site and discovered the only other woman on the job was Dot Adare.

Dot glared at Albertine for most of the day, but Albertine wasn’t convinced Dot recognized her until Dot cornered her by the coffee truck. Albertine sized Dot up and quickly realized she could never overpower her. Plus, she was very pregnant. Albertine tried to explain that she wasn’t after Gerry, but Dot only appeared to get more upset. Finding no other option, Albertine threw her coffee in Dot’s face and took off running. Later that afternoon, Dot appeared out the door of the weigh shack where she worked, looked at Albertine, and threw her arms in the air. “Okay then!” Dot yelled. As she turned back to the weigh shack, Albertine could see that Dot was laughing.

Dot’s baby had been conceived in the visiting room during Gerry’s last prison stay. She sat on his lap in the crowded room, and they somehow managed to do the deed through a hole in Dot’s pantyhose and a rip in Gerry’s coveralls. Not long after that, Gerry broke out of prison. Gerry was constantly breaking out of prison and getting caught again, and most of the time he spent there had nothing whatsoever to do with his original crime. Still, Gerry was pretty good at breaking out, and he once even slipped through a prison wall greased up with lard.

Each time he broke out, Gerry would go back to Dot and hide in her trailer. Gerry always said he “believed in justice, not laws,” and since he had already paid for his original crime—a bar brawl with a racist man who insulted him—Gerry would not concede to go back to prison. Now, with Gerry hidden in her trailer, Dot is angry at him for making her go through most of her pregnancy alone, but she loves him deeply and can’t turn him away.

One day in October, Dot arrives to work at the weigh shack with what she thinks are labor pains. She tells Albertine that Gerry better hurry up and get there, and moments later he appears at the door. He squeezes into Dot’s compact car and they head for the hospital. Days pass and Albertine hears nothing from Dot or Gerry. It is already a week after Dot’s due date, and she is anxious for news. Suddenly Gerry pulls up on an old motorcycle. He tells Albertine that Dot is asking for her, and she climbs on the back.

Gerry and Albertine arrive at Saint Adalbert’s Hospital, where they go directly to the waiting room. Gerry is allowed to see Dot, and he is gone for nearly 30 minutes. He comes back to the waiting room and sits silently for a minute, then he stands up. He tells Albertine that he is going out for cigars, and Albertine thinks about the time Dot told her that Gerry went out for a roll of toilet paper and was gone for eight months. Albertine is just about to tell Gerry that it is okay to run, when two local cops come through the door. Gerry looks at them and back to Albertine, and then he runs to a back window, jumping three stories to the ground below.

Outside, Gerry lands on the police car, caving in the entire hood. Albertine makes it outside just in time to see Gerry jump on the old motorcycle, pop a wheelie, and race down the street. Two weeks later, Dot comes back to work at the weigh shack, along with her newborn daughter. A few weeks later, Albertine and Dot hear that Gerry had been caught by the police down on the Pine Ridge reservation. There are plenty of guns on that reservation, so when federal agents stormed the place, Gerry pulled a gun. He shot and killed one of the cops, a state trooper according to the local paper, and has been sent to a prison in Illinois.