Meet Me in the Garden

Lionel is fired from the plant for smoking marijuana with two secretaries. That evening, he brings two friends from work, Jeremy and Ginny, home for dinner. Odette feels an immediate attraction to Ginny, which she tries to suppress. Ginny shares a story about being fired from a previous job: Her boss’s wife took an interest in her at a company party, and the next day her boss cut her position. Before leaving, Ginny gives Odette a knowing wink.

Later, Adele confides in Odette about her ongoing strained relationship with their mother. This prompts Adele to ask what caused the final rift between Odette and Maman before they left New Orleans. Odette reveals that she and Delphine secretly visited their father at the mental hospital and found him lucid. Odette also admits she used her own earnings to replace his simple grave marker with a proper tombstone. In return, Adele confesses that she and Claire saw Delphine in a Los Angeles department store years earlier. Delphine was with a baby, but Claire steered them away before they could speak, and they decided not to tell Odette.

Furious about the missed opportunity to see Delphine, Odette confronts Claire. The argument continues until Claire says she doesn’t feel well and goes to the bathroom, where Odette discovers her having a pregnancy loss. Overcome with guilt, Odette buys Claire a gift of suede slippers, but Claire refuses to see her for a week. Adele explains that Claire is irrationally blaming Odette for the pregnancy loss due to the stressful confrontation. Odette then asks for more details about the Delphine sighting. Adele describes Delphine as looking more mature and styled like a white woman, with a fair-skinned baby girl.

Learning that Delphine is in Los Angeles and seemingly well shifts something in Odette. Soon after, Ginny appears at the plant to announce she and her roommate, Mare, are moving to Montana. She invites Odette and Lionel to a going-away party. At the party, Odette and Ginny step outside for air and share a kiss, an act that feels safe to Odette only because Ginny is leaving. The experience galvanizes Odette, who begins to imagine an independent life for herself and Clément. On the drive home, she tells Lionel she will never marry again.

Over the next several months, Odette saves money in a shoebox for her own apartment. Her plans are spurred by envy when Lionel announces he has found a place of his own. Feeling pressure from Adele to move out, Odette redoubles her efforts. Lionel takes Odette and Clément to see a man’s collection of Birmingham Roller pigeons, a breed that performs acrobatic tumbles in the air. Odette is captivated by their flight.

A few weeks later, Odette and Clément go to Union Station to pick up a pigeon Lionel ordered. There, they encounter Felix. Sometime later, Odette sees the film The Snake Pit with her work friends. Afterward, watching her friends process the film’s depiction of a woman in a mental institution, Odette wants her sisters there so they can finally talk about Papa together. She calls and urges them to see it, but they refuse. Feeling angry and rejected, Odette impulsively buys a 1941 Studebaker from her coworker Marcus for $900, spending nearly all of her savings.

Upset that Odette has spent her savings, Adele gives her a one-year deadline to move out. Odette saves diligently but, a year later, still lacks enough money for a deposit and a safety net. Fortuitously, her coworker Lawrence offers to let her take over the lease on his affordable two-bedroom apartment, which will be available just as her year is up.

A week later, Odette is driving when she sees Delphine in the middle of Crenshaw Boulevard. Delphine is disoriented and erratically applying lipstick, seemingly unaware of the cars honking at her. Odette tries to approach her, but Delphine flees. The family mobilizes, searching police stations and hospitals to no avail. Desperate, Odette calls Mama Laurent and asks her to have Hattie ask around for Bill’s surname.

Hattie calls back and tells them Bill’s full name is Robert Kelley, which she obtained from Mr. Halpern, who had sold Bill fabric for backdrops. The family finds an address for a Robert Kelley on North Harper Avenue. Odette and Lionel drive there and find that a new family now lives in the apricot-colored house. The new owner, Naomi, and a former neighbor, Linda, tell Odette that Delphine’s husband left her. Afterward, Delphine’s mental state deteriorated rapidly, and one day she and her young daughter, Nathalie, simply vanished, leaving the house in disarray. Naomi shows Odette a tree in the backyard scarred with numerous knife gashes. When Odette returns home, Adele informs her that the police called: Delphine has been found and taken to Camarillo State Hospital.

Odette calls Camarillo State Hospital and confirms Delphine is a patient, though she is not yet permitted to visit. A hospital receptionist facilitates a brief, cryptic phone call in which Delphine tells Odette that Nathalie can be found at a specific laundromat because it is “laundry night.” Odette and Al go to the location and find five-and-a-half-year-old Nathalie alone. Nathalie recognizes Odette’s name from a story her mother told her about a painter in a blue house. They take her home, where she is quiet but insistent on hanging her wet clothes on the line outside, even in the dark. Later, she tells Odette that she and her mother lived in a place called the “moon room.” One night, Adele tells Odette that the social worker confirmed the most important qualification for adoption is being married, and that Claire would be the most obvious choice, although she also acknowledges that Odette has a special bond with Delphine.

Adele and Claire take charge of Nathalie’s care, but the girl struggles to adjust, experiencing violent tantrums. Odette is the only one who can calm her, and she forms a bond with Nathalie by patiently teaching her and speaking openly about their shared love for Delphine. Delphine’s doctor calls Odette with a formal diagnosis of schizophrenia and confirms that Delphine will have to give Nathalie up for adoption. The family assumes Claire will be the one to adopt her.

Claire begins to prepare for her role as Nathalie’s mother, though Odette remains the only one who can handle Nathalie’s outbursts. Odette is finally allowed to visit Delphine, who is heavily medicated. In the same visit, Delphine asks Odette to tell Nathalie that she is dead. She then insists that Odette, not Claire, must adopt Nathalie. When Odette explains that she cannot because she is unmarried, Delphine threatens to tell Odette’s family that she’s a lesbian if she does not find a way. Terrified, Odette later agrees with her sisters that telling Nathalie that Delphine is dead is the only option. Jointly, the three sisters decide to wait until after Christmas to tell Nathalie. However, a few days later, Nathalie finds Odette in the yard and flatly states, “My mommy is dead” (139).

Furious that her sisters told Nathalie without her, Odette takes Nathalie to the beach to create their own funeral ritual. They buy armfuls of flowers, tear off the petals, and cast them into the ocean, saying goodbye to Delphine. Shortly thereafter, Claire announces that she is pregnant and that the baby’s heartbeat is strong. Maman sends a package from New Orleans containing gifts, including two framed paintings that Papa loved for Odette and a silver tray for Claire, but pointedly nothing for Adele. Witnessing Odette’s natural bond with Nathalie, and feeling secure in her own pregnancy, Claire holds a family meeting. She withdraws her intention to adopt, stating that it is clear Nathalie is meant to be with Odette. Despite the legal obstacles, Odette tearfully accepts.

To satisfy the social worker’s marriage requirement, Adele lies and says Odette is expecting a Christmas proposal. Odette endures a series of miserable dates. When Felix arrives for a holiday visit, the family sees him as a perfect match. During a party, Odette watches through her bedroom window as Felix pulls Al close and kisses him, after which Al jerks back. The moment gives her a new understanding of Felix’s loneliness and their easy friendship. Later that night, Odette proposes a marriage of convenience to him, explaining that she needs a husband to adopt Nathalie. She makes it clear it would be an “arrangement” that would allow them both personal freedom. Moved by the offer of family and companionship, Felix accepts.