Garden Spells

The Fourth of July celebration is held downtown. The Waverleys’ honeysuckle wine helps people see in the dark but also brings about revelations, since “[a] side effect of being able to see in the dark […] is being aware of things you weren’t aware of before” (150). Sydney sits with Claire at the Waverley table. Since Claire identified her talent, Sydney has felt like a Waverley. Sydney finds this odd, but Claire reminds her that it is just who they are.

Evanelle gives Bay an old-fashioned brooch. Evanelle is pleased about having Fred stay with her, but Claire feels hurt that Evanelle doesn’t seem to need her. Claire notes that a handsome blonde man making ice cream at the Hopkins Dairy stand keeps staring at Sydney. Sydney says she and Henry were friends in elementary school. Tyler approaches and says he dreamed of Claire looking like this, with her hair in a headband.

Henry Hopkins remembers befriending Sydney Waverley on the monkey bars on the playground. In middle school, when Sydney began to mature, Henry felt embarrassed by the power of his attraction to her, and he stopped speaking to her. He feels speechless again when she approaches his table. Lester laughs and says Henry acts like he was electrocuted.

Fred waits to meet James, who asked to meet him at the fountain. Evanelle, there for moral support, reflects on how long-term complacency will sometimes make people break out of their habits, as the Burgess women are known to do. James arrives to tell Fred he’s taken his things out of their apartment and moved to another town. James is tired of having to show Fred what to do and wants him to figure things out for himself. James tells Fred he should pursue an acquaintance with Steve, an instructor at Orion College.

Sydney sits on a quilt, and Henry Hopkins asks to join her. He says he’s glad she is back. Claire packs her van, and Tyler asks why she is leaving. They kiss, and Claire feels overwhelmed by the images and sensations rushing through her mind. Tyler, too, seems overcome. Claire is worried about starting something that will end.

The narrator reflects on how the Waverleys were once wealthy but lost their family fortune. Reecey Clark, an ancestor of Emma’s, takes some apples from the Waverley garden, and eating them inspires the Clark women to have erotic fantasies. When Reecey tries to sneak back to steal more apples, she gets caught on the fence and is sent away. When she is caught having an affair with a stable hand, Reecey (who is married) complains to all the Clark family about the Waverleys.

After Emma and Hunter John make love, she tries to get him to talk about Sydney. Her mother tells Emma not to keep comparing them and to keep working to keep Hunter John.

Bay keeps trying to recreate the image of sparkles on her face and the sound of rustling paper in the tree. One day, Bay and Sydney walk to Bay’s school, and Bay says she’s fallen in love with their house. She feels she belongs in her school. They run into Henry, who invites them to his house for banana splits. Lester asks Sydney her age and is delighted to learn she’s a few months older than Henry. Bay thinks her mother and Henry belong together.

When they return home, Claire is upset because she thought Sydney had taken Bay and left. Claire goes into the garden, leaving smoldering handprints on the door. Sydney makes a call.

Tyler is still thinking about his kiss with Claire. He wonders what she is scared of. He talks with a colleague, Anna Chapel, who informs him that local legend is important in the town and shares the example of Phineas Young, considered the strongest man in town, even though he is 91 years old. Anna says the Waverley apple tree is an established myth. Tyler suspects there might be some truth to myths.

That evening, Sydney calls to tell Tyler that Claire is in the garden, and the gate is open. Claire is gardening in her nightgown and crying. She tells Tyler he’ll leave, and Sydney will leave just like her mother and grandmother; even Evanelle has someone else. Tyler kisses her.

Claire wakes up the next morning to find that she is in her garden, naked, with Tyler. She asks him to forget the night ever happened. Tyler sees the words “Thank You” written in the dirt. Claire believes the tree wrote that.

Fred reflects on when he first met James. Fred dropped out of college to help his father with the grocery store, and James followed him back to town. They were partners for 30 years. Fred is making a room for himself in Evanelle’s attic, and she offers to go with him to his old house to collect his things.

Evanelle explains how she got her reputation in 1953, when she gave Luanna Clark condoms in front of all of Luanna’s friends. Luanna’s husband had been made infertile by a war wound, so Luanna took this as an insult. Later, Luanna got pregnant, and after that, everyone in town acted like Evanelle was going to expose their secrets.