Summary: The Bean Trees

With­in a rur­al Ken­tucky set­ting, Tay­lor Greer, a young lady, rec­ol­lects a dis­tress­ing child­hood inci­dent relat­ed to tires that had instilled fear in her. Mem­o­ries of a trag­ic end meet her school­mate, Newt Hard­bine, weigh on her as she looks back. Despite sim­i­lar begin­nings, Tay­lor choos­es to break free from the lim­i­ta­tions of her small home­town. By toil­ing at a hos­pi­tal, scrimp­ing funds, and acquir­ing an old Volk­swa­gen, she charts her path out of famil­iar confines.

Post high school, five years down the line, bid­ding adieu to her moth­er, she departs her town. Renamed based on her car’s ces­sa­tion, her jour­ney lands her at Tay­lorville, where her vehi­cle fal­ters, lead­ing to the adop­tion of her new moniker. A twist of fate presents her with a baby from an enig­mat­ic woman pos­ing as the infan­t’s kin, depart­ing with­out elab­o­ra­tion. Over­come with aston­ish­ment, Tay­lor opts to raise the baby girl, chris­tened Tur­tle, due to her clingy demeanor. Even­tu­al­ly find­ing their way to Tuc­son, Ari­zona after a sequence of vehic­u­lar glitch­es, Tay­lor cross­es paths with Lou Ann Ruiz, anoth­er Ken­tucky res­i­dent left solo with her infant son fol­low­ing her hus­band’s aban­don­ment. A stint at a fresh job lat­er, Tay­lor con­fronts work insta­bil­i­ty, even­tu­al­ly rent­ing a space from Lou Ann.

A bond swift­ly forms between the two women as Tay­lor delves into employ­ment under genial Mat­tie, over­see­ing a tired estab­lish­ment. An encounter with undoc­u­ment­ed Guatemalan immi­grants, Este­van and Esper­an­za, unfolds intro­duc­ing Tay­lor and Tur­tle to their poignant past sto­ry, hav­ing left their off­spring behind to safe­guard numer­ous oth­ers. As the nar­ra­tive pro­gress­es, Tay­lor grap­ples with bur­geon­ing affec­tion toward Este­van amidst rev­e­la­tions that Tur­tle, actu­al­ly aged three, has stunt­ed growth due to pri­or abuse. Legal com­pli­ca­tions fur­ther cloud their sit­u­a­tion upon a police probe unrav­el­ing Tay­lor’s lack of legal guardian­ship over Tur­tle. Amidst tri­als, a sojourn to Okla­homa is under­tak­en, aid­ing Este­van and Esper­an­za in find­ing fresh refuge, while scout­ing for Turtle’s kin to secure poten­tial legal adop­tion. In Okla­homa, Tay­lor orches­trates a ruse where Este­van and Esper­an­za pose as Turtle’s birth par­ents. A con­fronta­tion with an Okla­homa legal fig­ure ensues, cul­mi­nat­ing in heart­felt farewells. Tay­lor and Tur­tle mean­der back to Tuc­son now deemed their homestead.

Chapter 1

Nar­ra­tion tran­spires through the lens of Mis­sy, pre­vi­ous­ly rec­og­nized as a native of Pittman Coun­ty, Ken­tucky, sub­se­quent­ly rechris­tened Tay­lor. Elab­o­rat­ing on pro­longed des­ti­tu­tion mir­ror­ing Newt Hard­bine’s, a fel­low townsper­son shar­ing her like­ness, she traces their shared strug­gle for sur­vival. As Tay­lor pur­sues high school, Newt opts for farm labor post-dropout, lat­er mar­ry­ing an expec­tant lady. Owing to preva­lent teen preg­nan­cies with­in their local­i­ty, Tay­lor vows to divert this norm.

A piv­otal junc­ture arrives when her appeal­ing sci­ence tutor acquaints the class with a hos­pi­tal job prospect. Backed by mater­nal encour­age­ment, Tay­lor tri­umphant­ly secures the posi­tion. A ghast­ly hos­pi­tal inci­dent marks a water­shed chap­ter in Tay­lor’s life, involv­ing Newt and his spouse, Jolene, ush­ered into the ER, with Newt suc­cumb­ing under the shad­ows of pro­tract­ed mal­treat­ment by his father. The grue­some sight trig­gers Tay­lor’s nau­sea, yet instills a new­found resolve to per­se­vere. Cald­well’s said post, Tay­lor’s acqui­si­tion of a dilap­i­dat­ed car ini­ti­ates her escape from Pittman’s con­straints, assign­ing her­self a fresh iden­ti­ty upon its stalling. Jour­neys lead her to Tay­lorville, enti­tling her­self anew as ‘Tay­lor.’ Flout­ing her ini­tial pact of set­tling at her car’s halt, she voy­ages onward, mild­ly acknowl­edg­ing Okla­homa’s plains. Despite her Chero­kee lin­eage claim, the Chero­kee Nation in Okla­homa fails to cap­ti­vate Tay­lor. A tav­ern vis­it engen­ders an unfore­seen bequest – an infant entrust­ed by a stranger, mas­querad­ing as her deceased sib­ling. Fear-strick­en instruc­tions enforce the stranger’s warn­ing against bar revis­i­ta­tion. Tay­lor hits the road once more, cloaked in uncer­tain­ty sur­round­ing the infan­t’s wel­fare. A pit stop unveils a dire truth – the infant, now brand­ed Tur­tle, bears scars of phys­i­cal and sex­u­al abuse. Over­whelmed, Tay­lor grap­ples with impend­ing nau­sea, pen­ning a post­card to her moth­er, pro­claim­ing, “I found my head real­ties, Mama. They’re com­ing with me.”

Chapter 2

Shift­ed focus to Lou Ann Ruiz, a preg­nant Ken­tucky dweller sta­tioned in Tuc­son, Ari­zona, aban­doned by her spouse, Angel. Angel, hav­ing lost his limb in a road mishap three years past, per­ceives Lou Ann’s aver­sion to his dis­abil­i­ty, imput­ing her with desires for oth­er men. Lou Ann ascer­tains Angel’s waned affec­tions towards all, includ­ing her­self, deduc­ing his depar­ture on Hal­loween, urg­ing her baby’s birth be dis­so­ci­at­ed from Christ­mas, align­ing Face­book averse with her child’s hol­i­day asso­ci­a­tion. Post med­ical reas­sur­ance on weight loss req­ui­sites, a bus home­ward steers Lou Ann through Lee Sing Mar­ket, amass­ing diet pro­vi­sions. Lee Sing antic­i­pates a daugh­ter birth to Lou Ann, adorn­ing the prophe­cy with some­what deri­sive under­tones. Per­turbed, Lou Ann revis­its her and her broth­er’s Ken­tucky exit his­to­ry. Home­bound reflec­tions expose Angel’s defin­i­tive aban­don­ment ear­marked by his selec­tive item retrieval; dis­card­ing items, includ­ing beer mugs and elec­tron­ics, while retain­ing kitchen­ware. Accost­ed by door­bell trick-or-treaters, Lou Ann’s Hal­loween aware­ness dawns as she suc­cumbs tear­ful­ly with swollen feet and shoes ill-disposed.

Chapter 3

Tay­lor’s stint assist­ing Mrs. Hoge at an Okla­homa inn over the Yule­tide sea­son accu­mu­lates some sav­ings. Dubbed Tur­tle for her tena­cious grip, Tay­lor embarks with the infant into Ari­zona on New Year’s Eve. Ari­zon­a’s sur­re­al vis­tas seize Tay­lor’s admi­ra­tion, pre­cip­i­tat­ing her deci­sion to anchor there. A serendip­i­tous hail­storm guides her to Tuc­son, con­front­ed by news of her strand­ed tires. Chanc­ing upon Jesus Is Lord Used Tires, she acquaints with the kind-spir­it­ed pro­pri­etor, Mat­tie. Strapped for fresh tires, Tay­lor finds solace in Mat­tie’s benev­o­lence, offered in cof­fee and snacks. Mat­tie’s blunt demeanor, accen­tu­at­ed by her provoca­tive rab­bit mug amidst a Chris­t­ian tire premise con­founds Tay­lor, rem­i­nisc­ing on the shop’s incep­tion by Mat­tie’s devout Chris­t­ian part­ner. A brief, jit­tery encounter tran­spires with a priest escort­ing an Indi­an fam­i­ly in a car­riage. Tay­lor lauds Mat­tie’s met­tle as an auto­mo­bile-savvy, inde­pen­dent pro­pri­etor, cog­nizant of the com­mu­ni­ty back­lash such empow­er­ment typ­i­cal­ly stirs. Mean­der­ing Mat­tie’s excep­tion­al gar­den teem­ing with botan­i­cal, edi­bles, and auto­mo­tive fusion, Tay­lor imbibes a tale revolv­ing around pur­ple beans gift­ed by a Chi­nese neigh­bor, cit­ing their her­itage trac­ing back to Chi­na in 1907. Tay­lor dis­cov­ers Tuc­son to be exot­ic and cut­ting-edge com­pared to Ken­tucky. She and Tur­tle set­tle in the inex­pen­sive Hotel Repub­lic. She explores a con­tem­po­rary art gallery, inquires about a posi­tion at a med­ical cen­ter receives a neg­a­tive response, and strikes up a friend­ship with San­di, an employ­ee at Burg­er Der­by, who is delight­ed that Tay­lor comes from the birth­place of the Ken­tucky Derby.

Chapter 4

Lou Ann’s moth­er, Ivy, and her grand­moth­er, Granny Logan, jour­neyed from Ken­tucky to vis­it Lou Ann and her new­born son, Dwayne Ray. Angel, Lou Ann’s part­ner, pre­tends to be resid­ing with them tem­porar­i­ly to por­tray a hap­py fam­i­ly facade. Granny Logan insists on keep­ing the drapes drawn, fear­ing the unusu­al warmth in Jan­u­ary could be detri­men­tal to the infant. In a con­ver­sa­tion with her moth­er, Lou Ann dis­cov­ers that her par­ents actu­al­ly lived with Granny Logan, and not the oth­er way around. Granny Logan express­es her dis­plea­sure with Tuc­son’s heat and accus­es Lou Ann of being pre­ten­tious. She presents Lou Ann with a bot­tle filled with murky water from the Tug Fork Riv­er, where Lou Ann was bap­tized, instruct­ing her to use it for Dwayne Ray’s bap­tism. After their depar­ture to Ken­tucky, Lou Ann imag­ines her­self accom­pa­ny­ing them, stuck on a bus between the squab­bling pair. Upon return­ing from see­ing them off, she pur­chas­es toma­toes from a man named Bob­by Bin­go and unex­pect­ed­ly con­fides in him about Angel’s depar­ture. She finds it pecu­liar that she shared this secret with a stranger, after pre­tend­ing to be hap­pi­ly mar­ried in front of her fam­i­ly. Back at home, while nurs­ing Dwayne Ray, she attempts to recall her bap­tism. Angel returns home, smelling of beer, gath­er­ing a few belong­ings. He notices the Tug Fork water bot­tle, and upon learn­ing its pur­pose, he emp­ties it down the drain.

Chapter 5

Tay­lor secures a posi­tion at Burg­er Der­by along­side San­di. They super­vise their chil­dren through the mal­l’s com­pli­men­ta­ry child­care ser­vice, feign­ing shop­ping while actu­al­ly work­ing. How­ev­er, Tay­lor’s time at Burg­er Der­by is short-lived due to a dis­agree­ment with her super­vi­sor, result­ing in her dis­missal. Con­cerned about her finances, Tay­lor embarks on a quest for afford­able hous­ing and responds to two adver­tise­ments. The first adver­tise­ment leads her to a res­i­dence occu­pied by three uncon­ven­tion­al hip­pies: Fei, La-Isha, and Tim­o­thy. Upon hear­ing about Turtle’s hot dog diet, La-Isha cau­tions Tay­lor about the health risks, while Fei dis­clos­es that the house oper­ates as a soy-milk col­lec­tive with a com­pul­so­ry sev­en-hour week­ly curd-strain­ing duty. The sec­ond adver­tise­ment brings Tay­lor to Lou Ann’s abode. The women instant­ly bond, con­nect­ing over their shared Ken­tucky ori­gins, their chil­dren, and a mutu­al amuse­ment at the soy milk col­lec­tive. Tay­lor con­fides in Lou Ann about Turtle’s back­ground, and Lou Ann intro­duces her son, Dwayne Ray. Upon request­ing to move in, Lou Ann enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly agrees, as she had been con­cerned that Tay­lor and Tur­tle were too refined for her and Dwayne Ray’s hum­ble way of life. Tay­lor assures Lou Ann they are not supe­ri­or and self-dep­re­cat­ing­ly labels her­self as “just a sim­ple hill­bil­ly from East Jesus Nowhere with this adopt­ed child that every­body keeps on telling me is dense as a box of rocks.” Lou Ann, reas­sured by Tay­lor’s words, radi­ates with joy, real­iz­ing they share a sim­i­lar vernacular.

Chapter 6

Valentine’s Day brings the ini­tial frost to Tuc­son, freez­ing Mattie’s beans. Despite a past trau­ma relat­ed to tires, Tay­lor agrees to work at Mattie’s tire shop after some per­sua­sion. Mat­tie pro­vides her with two com­pli­men­ta­ry car tires as part of their arrange­ment. She also allays Tay­lor’s fear of tire explo­sions, explain­ing the explo­sion sever­i­ty depends on the tire size. While Tay­lor works, Lou Ann cares for Tur­tle and Dwayne Ray. Tay­lor dis­cov­ers that many Span­ish-speak­ing indi­vid­u­als reside with Mat­tie, whose dwelling she likens to a human sanc­tu­ary. Feel­ing irri­ta­ble, Tay­lor is not pleased with how she and Lou Ann are start­ing to resem­ble an elder­ly mar­ried cou­ple, with her work­ing and Lou Ann tend­ing to the chil­dren. Dur­ing a drink­ing ses­sion, Tay­lor requests Lou Ann to refrain from doing her favors. As they con­tin­ue to drink and con­verse, a slight­ly intox­i­cat­ed Lou Ann express­es her fear of behav­ing embar­rass­ing­ly while ine­bri­at­ed, men­tion­ing a for­got­ten night of view­ing a mete­or show­er with Angel that she fears may have con­tributed to their sep­a­ra­tion. Tay­lor sug­gests that Angel might have been play­ing a prank, an idea Lou Ann had not con­sid­ered. Tay­lor shares her per­spec­tives on rela­tion­ships, uti­liz­ing an anal­o­gy from an instal­la­tion guide for a toi­let part: “Parts are includ­ed for all instal­la­tions, but no instal­la­tion requires all of the parts.” She believes no man can ful­ly accom­mo­date her intri­cate per­son­al­i­ty. Their exchange leads to a bout of laugh­ter. Lou Ann notes how Angel would nev­er stay up late just to con­verse, in con­trast to their cur­rent situation.

Chapter 7

In the spring, Mat­tie, Lou Ann, Dwayne Ray, Tay­lor, Tur­tle, and Mat­tie’s acquain­tances from Guatemala, Esper­an­za and Este­van, enjoy a pic­nic by a creek. The group is impressed by Este­van’s flu­ent Eng­lish skills, and Esper­an­za seems cap­ti­vat­ed by Tur­tle. Este­van explains that Tur­tle reminds Esper­an­za of a child they know back home. Tay­lor and Este­van par­take in a brisk swim in the creek, and on their jour­ney back, they brake sud­den­ly to avoid col­lid­ing with a quail fam­i­ly. Tay­lor is moved by the sight, while Lou Ann reflects that her ex-hus­band Angel would have aimed to hit the birds. Tur­tle reacts to the sud­den stop by laugh­ing, her first vocal­iza­tion. Tay­lor, relieved, feels val­i­dat­ed in her par­ent­ing. Lat­er, while plant­i­ng a gar­den with Mat­tie, Tur­tle utters her first spo­ken word: “bean.” Lou Ann con­fides in Tay­lor her appre­hen­sions about her dark thoughts mate­ri­al­iz­ing. She recounts her teenage expe­ri­ences when she used to stand on a cliff, con­tem­plat­ing leaping.

Tay­lor empathizes, com­fort­ing Lou Ann that she is not alone in such mus­ings. In the evening, two elder­ly neigh­bors, Edna Pop­py and Mrs. Vir­gie Par­sons, join them for din­ner and to watch Mat­tie’s tele­vi­sion appear­ance, along­side Esper­an­za and Este­van. Mat­tie dis­cuss­es human rights, asy­lum, and the per­ils faced by immi­grants com­pelled to return to their home­lands. The group, includ­ing Tay­lor, strug­gles to com­pre­hend her intri­cate sub­jects. Mrs. Par­sons mis­tak­en­ly assumes Tur­tle to be Esper­an­za and Este­van’s daugh­ter, and makes a deroga­to­ry remark about her. Este­van, who works as a dish­wash­er, uses chop­sticks for din­ner, elic­it­ing dis­dain from Mrs. Par­sons. She inti­mates that immi­grants should remain in their own nations rather than occu­py Amer­i­can jobs. Tur­tle, grap­pling with the chop­sticks, is uplift­ed by Este­van’s tale. He nar­rates a sto­ry about indi­vid­u­als in hell unable to eat due to lengthy spoons, while in heav­en, they employ the same spoons to nour­ish each oth­er. Este­van demon­strates this by feed­ing Tur­tle a piece of pineapple.

Chapter 8

In the park, known as Dog Doo Park by local young­sters, Tay­lor and Lou Ann spend time with Tur­tle and Dwayne Ray. Tay­lor is dis­heart­ened upon learn­ing that her moth­er intends to mar­ry Har­land Elle­ston, a work­er at a paint and body shop. Lou Ann insists that Tay­lor should be pleased that her moth­er is viva­cious enough to wed again, even accus­ing Tay­lor of har­bor­ing a dis­like for men. Tay­lor silent­ly dif­fers, her thoughts drift­ing to Este­van. Lou Ann rem­i­nisces about her ini­tial fas­ci­na­tion with Angel. They observe the once life­less wis­te­ria vines in the park cur­rent­ly bloom­ing vibrant­ly, a scene Tay­lor com­pares to a tale from the Bible about water gush­ing from a stone. Mean­time, Tur­tle frol­ics in the soil, nam­ing var­i­ous veg­eta­bles. Edna Pop­py and Mrs. Par­sons wan­der by. Tay­lor play­ful­ly ribs Edna about her all-crim­son out­fit. Mrs. Par­sons acci­den­tal­ly reveals that Angel vis­it­ed Lou Ann’s res­i­dence while she was away. When Tay­lor asks, Lou Ann con­fess­es she would wel­come Angel back if he desired. On a sep­a­rate occa­sion, Tay­lor endeav­ors to make amends to Este­van for Mrs. Par­son­’s com­ments about immi­grants. He likens her to many Amer­i­cans who believe dis­tress is earned. They exchange com­pli­ments about each oth­er’s way of speak­ing: Tay­lor admires Este­van’s impec­ca­ble Eng­lish, while he finds her Ken­tucky accent and expres­sions delight­ful. Grad­u­al­ly, Tay­lor under­stands Mat­tie’s com­par­i­son of her shop to a sanc­tu­ary, where peo­ple seek refuge from their tribu­la­tions. Mat­tie often dis­ap­pears for days on ‘bird­watch­ing’ excursions—essentially seek­ing out indi­vid­u­als in need of pro­tec­tion. Tay­lor opts to take Tur­tle for a med­ical exam­i­na­tion due to her past mis­treat­ment. When the nurse mis­tak­en­ly assumes Tay­lor is Turtle’s fos­ter moth­er, Tay­lor does not cor­rect her. Dr. Peli­nowsky deter­mines that Turtle’s growth has been stunt­ed by abuse, a con­di­tion known as ‘fail­ure to thrive.’ He shows x‑rays of Turtle’s frac­tures, men­tion­ing that despite his ini­tial belief that Tur­tle was two, the x‑rays indi­cate she is actu­al­ly three. Tay­lor dis­putes this, point­ing out Turtle’s recent growth. He reas­sures her that ‘fail­ure to thrive’ can be reversed. As he speaks, Tay­lor gazes out of the win­dow at a bird nest­ing in a cac­tus. After the med­ical vis­it, Tay­lor and Tur­tle meet with Lou Ann at the zoo. Tay­lor learns that Angel has come back to inform Lou Ann that he is per­ma­nent­ly leav­ing to join a rodeo in Col­orado-Mon­tana. Lou Ann accus­es Tay­lor of tak­ing Angel’s side. Tay­lor clar­i­fies that any cur­rent crit­i­cism of Angel might lead to Lou Ann resent­ing her if Angel returns. Dur­ing their con­ver­sa­tion, Tay­lor men­tions ‘April.’ Upon hear­ing this, Tur­tle responds, prompt­ing the women to con­clude that April is Turtle’s true name.

Chapter 9

Esper­an­za, in a moment of despair, con­sumes a large amount of aspirin in an attempt at sui­cide. Este­van informs Tay­lor about this while Mat­tie rush­es Esper­an­za to a clin­ic. Tay­lor and Este­van spend time togeth­er at her place dur­ing this cri­sis. She real­izes that in such sit­u­a­tions, she tends to rely on tra­di­tion­al female roles. She gives Este­van the option of being fed or engaged in con­ver­sa­tion, to which he choos­es the lat­ter. As they talk, Tay­lor feels a strong attrac­tion towards Este­van. She recounts a sto­ry about Scot­ty Richey, a for­mer class­mate who took his own life on his six­teenth birth­day. She dis­cuss­es the social hier­ar­chies in high school and how Scot­ty always felt like an out­sider. This frus­trates her regard­ing Esper­an­za, who despite hav­ing sup­port­ive peo­ple around her, tried to harm her­self. Este­van shares details about the cru­el meth­ods used in Guatemala, par­tic­u­lar­ly the use of tele­phones to admin­is­ter shocks to sen­si­tive parts of the body. He sug­gests that Tay­lor is choos­ing to ignore such hor­rors, which she denies, stat­ing she does not sup­port such prac­tices and often feels out of place in Tuc­son. Este­van then reveals that he and Esper­an­za had a daugh­ter, Ismene, who was abduct­ed dur­ing a raid due to their involve­ment with the teacher’s union. They had to decide between reveal­ing the names of their union col­leagues or get­ting their daugh­ter back. They chose the for­mer and escaped to the U.S., leav­ing their daugh­ter behind. This rev­e­la­tion brings tears to Tay­lor’s eyes. Lat­er, when Tur­tle wakes up, Tay­lor envi­sions a pic­ture-per­fect fam­i­ly with her­self, Tur­tle, Este­van, and the cat, rem­i­nis­cent of a set of paper dolls from her child­hood. After Tur­tle goes to bed, Tay­lor and Este­van end up shar­ing the couch for the night. They find them­selves cud­dled up in sleep, but Tay­lor, under­stand­ing Esper­an­za­’s pain, decides to move to her own bed after gen­tly kiss­ing Este­van’s hand.

Chapter 10

After Esper­an­za­’s sui­cide attempt, Tay­lor feels a sense of hope. She and Lou Ann chat about bird calls, mark­ing the change of their liv­ing space into a fam­i­ly home rather than Angel’s aban­doned place. Lou Ann returns from a meet­ing with Angel’s fam­i­ly, the Ruizes. The infor­ma­tion she shares brings her joy; despite Angel’s absence, they still con­sid­er her part of their fam­i­ly, view­ing Angel as the prob­lem­at­ic one. Togeth­er, Lou Ann and Tay­lor take their chil­dren to Roo­sevelt Park, where they relax beneath a wis­te­ria arbor. When Tur­tle, gaz­ing at the vines, utters ‘bean trees,’ Tay­lor real­izes that the wis­te­ri­a’s blos­soms have trans­formed into bean-like green pods. After the park vis­it, Tay­lor encoun­ters Edna Pop­py at Lee Sing’s gro­cery store. When Edna, hold­ing a white cane, asks if she’s hold­ing lemons or limes, Tay­lor is sur­prised to learn that Edna is blind. Sev­er­al pecu­liar things now make sense to her, such as Edna’s pref­er­ence for red cloth­ing for easy dress­ing, Vir­gie Par­son­’s habit of announc­ing every­one’s name to assist Edna in know­ing their pres­ence, and Edna’s ten­den­cy to look over peo­ple’s heads while con­vers­ing, as she can only direct her gaze towards voic­es. Tay­lor vis­its Esper­an­za, who is resid­ing with Mat­tie. Through­out the vis­it, Esper­an­za remains silent while Tay­lor keeps the con­ver­sa­tion going, try­ing to offer words of com­fort. She express­es her sym­pa­thy for Esper­an­za­’s lost child and urges her to hold onto hope. By the end of their talk, Esper­an­za begins to cry, which Tay­lor sees as an improve­ment from the vacant look in Esper­an­za­’s eyes ear­li­er. On her way back home, Tay­lor encoun­ters Lou Ann, who’s been job hunt­ing. Lou Ann recounts her unpleas­ant expe­ri­ence dur­ing a job inter­view at a con­ve­nience store where the inter­view­er objec­ti­fied her. Pass­ing by Fan­ny Heav­en, a strip club, Lou Ann express­es her dis­gust towards it, par­tic­u­lar­ly the dis­taste­ful door han­dle. Tay­lor advis­es her to con­front it rather than avoid it and ‘talk back to it.’

Chapter 11

Lou Ann lands a job at the Red Hot Mama’s sal­sa fac­to­ry, tak­ing immense pride in her work despite the con­di­tions resem­bling a sweat­shop. She starts to appre­ci­ate her body more and brings home var­i­ous sal­sa vari­eties and recipes. Her work shifts are in the evening, so Tay­lor takes charge of putting the chil­dren to bed. When Lou Ann returns home, they enjoy a late meal togeth­er. Dur­ing one such din­ner, they dis­cuss Lou Ann’s anx­ious nature. She recounts a dream she had after Dwayne Ray’s birth, where an angel pre­dict­ed that he would­n’t live past the year 2000. She believes this prophe­cy is sup­port­ed by their horo­scopes, inten­si­fy­ing her exist­ing fear of mor­tal­i­ty since child­hood. Despite acknowl­edg­ing her irra­tional fear, Tay­lor reas­sures her that her con­cerns make her a car­ing moth­er. Angel sends a pack­age con­tain­ing a hair clip for Lou Ann and boots for Dwayne Ray, along with a let­ter express­ing his desire for them to live with him. This dilem­ma leaves Lou Ann torn between the flat­tery of being missed, her new man­age­r­i­al role at the fac­to­ry, and Angel’s invi­ta­tion. Tay­lor is anx­ious that Lou Ann might accept Angel’s pro­pos­al. The poten­tial depar­ture of Lou Ann, com­bined with Esper­an­za and Este­van’s uncer­tain cir­cum­stances, weighs on Taylor.Mattie wor­ries that Esper­an­za and Este­van may be deport­ed and put to death in Guatemala. Pro­vid­ing evi­dence of their lives being in dan­ger in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca is nec­es­sary for them to stay in the U.S., but they do not have this proof.

Chapter 12

The desert plain, with its bumps and crevices, resem­bled the hand of a for­tune teller wait­ing to be inter­pret­ed. In the mid­dle of July, a silence descends on the desert as the cicadas pause and Tay­lor and Mat­tie notice a dis­tant rum­ble of thun­der. Mat­tie stops her work and guides Tay­lor, Esper­an­za, and Este­van into the desert to enjoy the scent of the first rain. She recounts how the indige­nous tribes cher­ished the ini­tial sum­mer show­er, mark­ing it as their New Year’s Day. Reach­ing a hill­top, a brief driz­zle falls on them before the storm dis­si­pates. On their way back to the car, they see a rat­tlesnake coil­ing around a tree, pos­si­bly search­ing for bird eggs. At home, Tay­lor sens­es a trou­bling air from Lou Ann’s expres­sion. Lou Ann dis­clos­es a dis­tress­ing event involv­ing Tur­tle. While under Edna Pop­py’s care in the park, a man attacked Tur­tle. Edna’s blind­ness hin­dered her full under­stand­ing of the sit­u­a­tion, but she fought back upon hear­ing the com­mo­tion. Turtle’s vacant look reminds Tay­lor of the day she found her in Okla­homa. The police and a social work­er arrive short­ly. Tay­lor steps aside to help Mrs. Par­sons with a spar­row that flew into the house. The bird hits the win­dow and falls, appear­ing life­less, but it revives, and they release it “into the omi­nous night.” The doctor’s exam­i­na­tion reveals bruis­es on Turtle’s shoul­der but no signs of mis­treat­ment. Lou Ann, furi­ous with Tay­lor for focus­ing on the bird rather than Tur­tle, is deter­mined to care for Tur­tle and find the assailant. Tay­lor sinks into deep despair, bare­ly eat­ing and bury­ing her­self in work after the har­row­ing incident.

Chapter 13

Tay­lor and Tur­tle inter­act fre­quent­ly with Cyn­thia, a social work­er whose for­mal man­ner irri­tates Tay­lor. Learn­ing about Turtle’s back­ground, Cyn­thia reveals that Tay­lor has no legal rights over Tur­tle, mak­ing her a ward of the state. This news per­turbs Lou Ann, who urges Tay­lor to chal­lenge the sys­tem, caus­ing Tay­lor to feel despon­dent and con­tem­plate giv­ing up on main­tain­ing guardian­ship of Tur­tle. Lou Ann regrets the change in Taylor’s once resilient demeanor. Mat­tie has­n’t been suc­cess­ful in assist­ing Esper­an­za and Este­van to escape to a safe haven. Reflect­ing on her ini­tial meet­ing with Tay­lor, Mat­tie admits to see­ing through Taylor’s facade of con­fi­dence ini­tial­ly. Mat­tie advis­es Tay­lor that per­fec­tion is not a require­ment in par­ent­ing; the cru­cial ques­tion is whether she gen­uine­ly wants to do right by Tur­tle. Tay­lor sets up a meet­ing with Cyn­thia to dis­cuss Turtle’s cus­tody, ques­tion­ing the legal vari­ances on Native Amer­i­can reser­va­tions and how she can dis­cern dif­fer­ences in laws of oth­er states. Through their dia­logue, Tay­lor real­izes that Cyn­thia sup­ports her, pro­vid­ing a con­tact in Okla­homa for legal guid­ance. After a sleep­less night, Tay­lor deter­mines to jour­ney to Okla­homa, aim­ing to offer refuge to Esper­an­za and Este­van and seek out Turtle’s rel­a­tives. Lou Ann express­es con­cerns about poten­tial claims from Turtle’s fam­i­ly or the risk of not find­ing them, over­look­ing the sub­stan­tial dan­ger of Tay­lor get­ting caught for trans­port­ing undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants. Mat­tie, unlike Lou Ann, grasps the immi­nent per­il. On the night before Tay­lor’s depar­ture, Vir­gie Par­sons invites them to wit­ness the bloom­ing of the cereus, a plant that blooms only once a year in the night. The fra­grance and beau­ty of the flower are inter­pret­ed as a pos­i­tive omen. Depart­ing from Mat­tie’s abode, Tay­lor, Tur­tle, Esper­an­za, and Este­van embark on their jour­ney. Though anx­ious, Mat­tie admires Taylor’s courage, recall­ing how Alice, Tay­lor’s moth­er, used to gaze at her. Along the way, they come across a deceased black­bird. Despite the ini­tial impulse to stop, Tay­lor real­izes halt­ing for a dead bird serves no purpose.

Chapter 14

Tay­lor, Esper­an­za, Este­van, and Tur­tle are trav­el­ing east towards Okla­homa and encounter an Immi­gra­tion check­point. Tay­lor’s anx­i­ety leads to a pause when asked about Turtle’s par­ents, prompt­ing Este­van to assert that Tur­tle is theirs. While agree­ing with the tac­tic, Tay­lor is per­turbed, espe­cial­ly when Tur­tle begins call­ing Esper­an­za “Ma.” Este­van clar­i­fies their Maya her­itage and their gen­uine Native Amer­i­can names. Tay­lor is impressed by their abil­i­ty to speak mul­ti­ple lan­guages. She reflects on Esper­an­za unveil­ing her St. Christo­pher medal­lion, the patron saint of refugees, and con­tem­plates Stephen Foster’s resem­blance to the saint. To enter­tain Tur­tle dur­ing the jour­ney, Esper­an­za sings to her while Tay­lor and Este­van chat. Upon arrival in Okla­homa, they stop at the Bro­ken Arrow Motor Lodge, where the pro­pri­etor, Mrs. Hoge, has passed away. Tay­lor sug­gests drop­ping off Este­van and Esper­an­za at their new loca­tion, but they opt to stay back to help find Turtle’s bio­log­i­cal fam­i­ly. Tay­lor is dis­heart­ened hear­ing Esper­an­za call Tur­tle by anoth­er name, Ismene, and she miss­es her friend Lou Ann. The quest for Turtle’s rel­a­tives takes them to a bar where a Native Amer­i­can woman had entrust­ed Tur­tle to Tay­lor ear­li­er. How­ev­er, the own­er­ship has changed, and the cur­rent pro­pri­etors have no infor­ma­tion about Turtle’s fam­i­ly. The bar wait­ress informs Tay­lor about the pres­ence of the Chero­kee nation in the Ozark Moun­tains. This rev­e­la­tion induces guilt in Tay­lor for her erro­neous assump­tions about the Chero­kee Nation. Unable to locate Turtle’s kin, Tay­lor sug­gests a vis­it to the Lake o’ the Chero­kees in the Ozarks, which Este­van and Esper­an­za agree to.

Chapter 15

The group trav­els to a lake with­in the Chero­kee Nation. Tay­lor, the sole Cau­casian, feels out of place. She observes Este­van and Esper­an­za relax, enjoy­ing an envi­ron­ment where every­one resem­bles them. Tay­lor is pleas­ant­ly sur­prised by the vibrant, hilly land­scape of the Chero­kee Nation, con­tra­dict­ing her pri­or assump­tion of des­o­la­tion. Turtle’s cry of “Mama” at a gas sta­tion and ceme­tery along the way leaves Tay­lor uneasy. Arriv­ing at the lake, they find a cab­in for the night. They spend the after­noon by a stream where Este­van presents Tay­lor and Esper­an­za with flow­ers. Tay­lor notices a change in Esper­an­za, a sense of con­tent­ment. Lat­er, Este­van and Tay­lor rent a boat for a lake out­ing. Over­whelmed by the thought of Este­van’s depar­ture, Tay­lor tear­ful­ly express­es her will miss him. Este­van sug­gests mak­ing a wish, using beer pop-tops as a stand-in for coins. Tay­lor makes two wish­es, one seem­ing­ly unattainable—her wish to retain both Este­van and Tur­tle. Sub­se­quent­ly, the group enjoys a pic­nic. Tur­tle buries her doll under a tree, prompt­ing Tay­lor to gen­tly explain the dis­tinc­tion between seeds and dolls. When Tur­tle refers to the mound of earth as “Mama,” Tay­lor real­izes she is mir­ror­ing her bio­log­i­cal moth­er’s bur­ial. Tay­lor reas­sures Tur­tle of her endur­ing love and her com­mit­ment to car­ing for her for­ev­er. Towards the end, Tay­lor asks a favor of Esper­an­za and Este­van, to which they agree.

Chapter 16

Under the pseu­do­nyms Steve and Hope, Este­van and Esper­an­za vis­it Mr. Jonas Wil­ford Armis­tead­’s cham­ber with Tay­lor and Tur­tle, mas­querad­ing as Turtle’s bio­log­i­cal prog­en­i­tors with Tay­lor as the adop­tive mater. Mr. Armis­tead, obliv­i­ous, expounds on the adop­tion’s irrev­o­ca­bil­i­ty, urg­ing Este­van and Esper­an­za to declare they can sur­ren­der their off­spring. Esper­an­za touched to tears, asserts they cher­ish their girl but lack the means to nur­ture her. She envi­sions the like­li­hood of hav­ing more prog­e­ny in a forth­com­ing abode. While observ­ing Esper­an­za with Tur­tle, Tay­lor admits she could­n’t deny Esper­an­za if she desired to retain Tur­tle. Nev­er­the­less, Esper­an­za trans­fers her St. Christo­pher tal­is­man to Tur­tle, guar­an­tee­ing Tay­lor of Turtle’s forth­com­ing felic­i­ty. Con­sent­ing to the guardian­ship shift, Este­van and Esper­an­za affix their sig­na­tures to a doc­u­ment val­i­dat­ing their men­tal acu­men and vol­un­tary choice. Fol­low­ing this, Esper­an­za dis­plays authen­tic elation.

Chapter 17

Tay­lor accom­pa­nies Este­van and Esper­an­za to a sanc­tu­ary, bid­ding adieu to Este­van. She con­fides that this marks her pre­miere expe­ri­ence of releas­ing a cher­ished indi­vid­ual. Este­van dis­clos­es that any mes­sages can sole­ly be relayed through Mat­tie. They exchange a farewell kiss, and Tay­lor pon­ders on the bereave­ment endured in Okla­homa. After part­ing ways, Tay­lor con­tacts her prog­en­i­tor and divulges her poignant state. Alice, in response, shares her resolve to cease house­keep­ing and learns of Turtle’s for­mal adop­tion. Tay­lor and Tur­tle engage in a heart­felt dia­logue where Tay­lor assures Tur­tle of her sole mater­nal sta­tus, pre­sent­ing her as April Tur­tle Greer. On a spur-of-the-moment deci­sion, Tay­lor dials 1–800-THE-LORD, a num­ber she had con­tem­plat­ed reach­ing out to in times of des­per­a­tion, akin to her prog­en­i­tor’s fall­back strat­e­gy of invok­ing their Chero­kee Nation enti­tle­ments. The num­ber turns out to be a dona­tion hot­line, which elic­its amuse­ment from Tay­lor. Sub­se­quent­ly, they vis­it a library, where Tur­tle iden­ti­fies wis­te­ria as bean trees in a botany tome. Tay­lor elu­ci­dates how microbes facil­i­tate the flo­ra’s devel­op­ment, estab­lish­ing a par­al­lel between this and the assis­tance indi­vid­u­als pro­vide one anoth­er. Tay­lor retrieves Turtle’s adop­tion doc­u­ments from the tri­bunal and checks on Lou Ann, who con­firms her deci­sion not to return to Angel and ref­er­ences her fresh roman­tic involve­ment. Lou Ann reaf­firms her estab­lished famil­ial con­nec­tion with Tay­lor and Tur­tle and express­es relief upon learn­ing of Turtle’s adop­tion. Tay­lor and Tur­tle even­tu­al­ly depart from Okla­homa City and ini­ti­ate their jour­ney back to Tuc­son. En route, Tur­tle croons a melo­di­ous tune incor­po­rat­ing the names of her acquain­tances and fam­i­ly, with Tay­lor as “the main ingredient”.