Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Hagar directs Fern and Zinnia to wash their hands. She and her sister Miriam are experienced midwives, and they direct Fern and Zinnia to help massage Holly’s back muscles while she is pushing. The labor is difficult, and unlike Fern, Holly does not have the benefit of medication to ease the pain. Holly struggles. When the baby is partially delivered, Holly can push no more, so Hagar directs the girls to turn her onto her hands and knees. After a few more brutal pushes, the baby is delivered. Fern observes that its high, thin wail sounds exactly like her own baby’s first cry. She is exhausted.

Miriam ties off the umbilical cord, and Hagar makes everyone coffee and breakfast. She tells the girls that they have to go to the hospital because she doesn’t want to get in any kind of trouble. In an effort to convince Hagar to let them stay for a few days, Zinnia explains that Holly was repeatedly raped by her pastor and that he intends to adopt the child.  Hagar resolutely insists that the girls must leave, but her sister Miriam has more compassion and tells them that they can stay with one of the neighbors for a few days. However, the girls will have to walk there alone; Hagar and Miriam cannot be accomplices. As the girls head that way, Nurse Kent, Miss Wellwood, and several officers show up. They are furious. Holly is taken to the hospital. Fern is sent to the local jail, and Zinnia is sent back to the home. Hagar attempts to convince Miss Wellwood that delivering Fern and her child back to her abuser is morally wrong, but Miss Wellwood angrily tells Hagar that she doesn’t want her judgment, declaring that Holly is her responsibility, not Hagar’s.

The officers ferrying Fern to jail inform her that they have to stop at the home. When they arrive, Fern sees Reverend Jerry run up and take hold of Holly’s baby. She feels a profound sense of hopeless despair, and bile rises in her throat. She tells the officers that she is going to be sick, and they let her out of the car. She starts running and finds that she doesn’t want to stop. She does not know what to do. She remembers that Hagar placed the ashes of How to Be a Groovy Witch in an old glass bottle and buried them. She digs up the bottle, breaks it, and cuts open her tongue. She knows that spells require pain, and she is sure that she has to bleed in order to do anything magical. She is unsure of what she is trying to accomplish, but she hopes that her efforts will summon Miss Parcae. She is ready to pay the ultimate price to save Holly: joining Miss Parcae’s coven. At first, nothing happens, but soon, hail begins to fall. A powerful storm starts to destroy the home and crush all of the cars that are parked in front of its entrance. Fern looks up and sees Miss Parcae.

Miss Parcae tells Fern that it is time to leave. Fern refuses and runs away as fast as she can. She takes in the destruction around her, realizing that most of the home’s grounds have been destroyed. The house itself is also in terrible shape. She finds Reverend Jerry lying crumpled on the ground and initially thinks that he is dead. He moans softly. She considers killing him, but she cannot bring herself to do it, so she runs around to the back of the house. She enters Hagar’s kitchen and finds Zinnia on the ground, her body curled around Holly and Holly’s tiny baby. Zinnia protected them from the storm. Miss Parcae is still on Fern’s trail, so Fern runs into the woods. Miss Parcae stops her and tells her that it is time to fulfill her destiny. The entire coven appears, and as Miss Parcae summons an ancient goddess, Fern feels her consciousness beginning to slip away. Just then, there is a loud noise, and she is herself again. She hears Holly screaming and sees Holly biting Miss Parcae’s hand with all her might. 

Holly tells Miss Parcae to take her instead, but Miss Parcae refuses. There is some commotion amongst the witches, and a few of them begin to argue about whether Holly could take Fern’s place. Some want both girls to be left behind; they do not mind the idea that the line will die with Miss Parcae. Others think that Fern, because she was chosen, should be the one to go. The rest are willing to take a risk on Holly. Ultimately, Holly is the one who goes, reasoning that she would rather live as a witch than return to her old life. After the witches make their retreat with Holly, Holly’s baby, and Miss Parcae, the police arrive. Fern is taken to the hospital so that her tongue can be stitched up. Wellwood Home has been destroyed, and Fern feels exhausted. The next day, her father picks her up. On the drive back home, he chatters endlessly, and Fern realizes that he is nervous because she has gone through something that he cannot understand, and he no longer knows how to behave around her.

Fern/Neva writes a letter about her experiences, noting how young and disempowered she and the other girls were. They were robbed of the right to maintain control of their own bodies. She explains that just three years after she got pregnant, Roe v. Wade became law, and homes like the one she was taken to disappeared. She waited for decades for Charlie Brown to contact her, but her daughter never did. Finally, in 2000, Neva gave up and decided to stop thinking about her lost baby. 

One day, she receives a letter from Rose and goes to visit her in a remote, rural compound, where Rose lives with other women. Rose’s daughter, Blossom, and her granddaughter greet Neva. Rose explains that she and Blossom reconnected 30 years ago. Neva is quiet, thinking of Charlie Brown. She tells Rose that Charlie Brown found her. Neva had given her father’s wedding ring to Holly when she went into labor. Her father had given her the ring during the drive to the home so that she could wear it when she went into stores. She gave it to Holly, hoping that with a ring on, Holly would be treated better in the hospital. In the confusion of Holly’s labor at Hagar’s, Neva had forgotten about the ring entirely. Holly, who was still with the coven, somehow found Charlie Brown and left the ring with her. The ring contained Neva’s father’s first initial and last name, and Charlie Brown had tracked down Neva’s sister and then Neva herself. Neva hasn’t spoken to Charlie Brown yet, and she does not know what to do. Rose advises her to call her daughter. Neva does so, and the two have a tearful reunion. Her daughter tells her that she doesn’t blame Neva for her choice; she understands that young women were placed in impossible situations back then. Neva wants to tell her daughter about the other girls, and about the fact that she was a witch. She feels free.

The author states that nowadays, adoption is a regulated industry, but this was not always the case. Between 1943 and 1973 in what was known as the “Baby Scoop Era,” countless young women were forced to give up their infants in homes very like the one described in this book. The homes were often run by clergy and were mostly located in rural areas, where the girls could be safely hidden away, even from the local residents. Some of the homes kept physicians on staff, but others did not. Some treated their residents well, and others were harsher. Some sold babies outright, and others worked with more reputable adoption agencies. Roe v. Wade ushered in a new era in which women had more choices and bodily autonomy, and after 1973, the homes gradually closed.