Moon Over Manifest

Devlin, Burton, and the county medical examiner step off of a train, as they know about the influenza ruse. Devlin smugly tells Mrs. Larkin that he knows she wouldn’t have participated in the charade if she’d known. He asks her to dinner, kisses her hand, and says her husband was a fool. Miners must now work double shifts. Devlin is in a punitive mood, and the workers will suffer if they can’t win the bid for the land.

The group meets and counts the money. They have $740, which means they need an additional $260 by noon. Burton comes into Shady’s place and boasts about knowing their plot. A young man no one knows comes in with a briefcase and orders a water from Shady. He pours powder into the water and examines it as it fizzes. He asks if there is ore nearby, and he suspects people are sick. He also asks about a nearby spring and wonders aloud if it might have healing properties. He drinks half the water. He winks at Burton, finishes the rest of the glass, and leaves.

In court, Mrs. Larkin tries to tell Judge Carlson about Shady and the bootlegging, but the Widow Cane’s property is the first issue. Burton unexpectedly bids on the spring the young man mentioned. Shady and Burton bid up to $741, and Burton wins. Mrs. Larkin then produces a map. She says that Burton’s purchase of the spring reduces the total amount of land in the Cane bid. Now, according to law, Burton owes back taxes on the property. The spring is considered a public resource, which means its taxes go to the nearest township: Manifest. Now they have enough money to buy Widow Cane’s land. Devlin bids $5,000, but Judge Carlson reminds him that it’s not an auction. The town has the first right to the land. Devlin fires Burton, who laughs and defiantly says they’ll come to him to buy the healing spring water.

The young man with the briefcase, whose name is Fred Macke, gives Carlson an envelope. It contains several recipes that are from his aunt, Eudora Larkin. Burton tries to withdraw his bid, but it’s too late. Fred says the fizzing water he drank was just mixed with seltzer powder. Jinx tells Shady that he and Mrs. Larkin worked this part of the plan out together. Shady buys Widow Cane’s land for the town, and when the judge asks Shady if he also speaks for the town, Shady says no and that Manifest speaks for itself.

The News Auxiliary for October 2, 1918, recaps the first meeting of the Manifest Township Committee. They negotiated better working conditions with Devlin. To celebrate, they will hold a party for the town on Widow Cane’s land. Fred Macke says the war may be close to its end.

Ned writes a letter to Jinx from Mont Blanc dated October 4, 1918, and says that his regiment is at half strength. The muddy trenches and the war make him think of home because “[i]t’s the farthest thing from it” (294). He tells a story about running into an armed German soldier while looking desperately for food. The German, as sick of fighting as Ned is, let him go and told him to go home.

Abilene looks at the skeleton key and dreams of harmonica music. When she wakes, she realizes the music is real. She goes outside and follows the music to the train tracks, where men are seated around a bonfire. She recalls that places like this are referred to as “The Jungle” by people living on the road. Shady is there, playing the music and offering coffee to the drifters. He is trying to give others hope instead of indulging in alcohol and self-pity. Abilene hopes her father is somewhere similar, thinking of her.

The response to the Remember When contest is impressive. Everyone in town has a funny or moving story to share. Hattie Mae prints several entries prior to announcing the winner. Ruthanne, Abilene, and Lettie serve as judges. As they read the entries, Ruthanne finds the match to the handwriting from the note that was left on the treehouse. The handwriting unmistakably belongs to Mr. Underhill, the undertaker. His entry chides the newspaper and says they should be careful about what they print. He also defends himself and claims that he never made a mistake on a tombstone as one of the Remember When entries suggested.

Shady isn’t home, so Abilene goes to tell Miss Sadie the news about Mr. Underhill. Miss Sadie is distracted and distant. She tells Abilene that “as much as [they] want[] it to be true, it [is] nothing but a myth” (304).

Miss Sadie returns to the story, where everyone preps for the party. The mood is good, and people allow themselves to hope for the war’s end. Jinx notices Sheriff Dean watching him. He also feels someone else’s gaze but tries to convince himself that it’s his imagination. Jinx tells Shady he has skeletons in his closet, but Shady interrupts and tells Jinx to follow him in a couple of minutes after he leaves. Dean trails them after watching Jinx follow Shady. Outside of town, he catches them with two jugs. Shady laughs when Dean takes the jugs away after threatening them with legal action. Shady tells Jinx that the jugs he let Dean take contain one part alcohol and two parts prune juice.

Sheriff Nagelman arrives from Joplin that night. One of his church elders was recently in Manifest and said that Jinx is the boy who was healed during the Joplin revival. Jinx recognizes Nagelman and runs into the woods, only to find Finn waiting for him. Jinx refuses to go with him as Finn mocks him for being cursed. He puts a gun to Jinx’s back when Jinx threatens to turn him in. Finn admits to killing Junior, but he’s going to tell the Sheriff that Jinx committed the murder. He forces Jinx into a grove of trees at gunpoint. Suddenly, a dark figure appears at the edge of Jinx’s vision just as the gun goes off. The next afternoon, Shady, Donal, and Hadley lower a casket into the ground. Sheriffs Dean and Nagelman appear as Shady finishes the eulogy.

Abilene cries and tells Miss Sadie that the story is wrong. She insists that Jinx lived and that she is his daughter. Abilene is still grateful for the story and feels she has come to love the people in it, but she has to continue to the end.

Nagelman says the name on the stone is wrong, but Shady says Jinx wasn’t his given name. This satisfies Nagelman, who never sees that Finn’s body is in the coffin. After Nagelman leaves, Shady tells Dean that Jinx was shot in the shoulder and is being cared for and that Finn is the real killer. Before he could shoot Jinx, he stepped into a raccoon trap and hit his head during the fall, which killed him. Dean says it explains the story about a foot that had been found in a trap.

That night, Jinx and Shady watch people dance at the homecoming celebration. Hattie Mae dances with Fred. Pearl Ann tells some women about how Jinx and her mother tricked Devlin and Burton. When an army truck arrives, a soldier gives Hadley an envelope. Shady reads the letter aloud. It says that Ned was killed on October 8 and was buried in St. Dizier. The news devastates Jinx.

Ned writes to Jinx on October 6, 1918, saying that he got some shrapnel in his arm during a fight, but he says that it’s just a scratch. Replacements arrived for his unit, and he pitied them. He describes an unlikely gratitude for the trenches that sheltered them because he would always imagine the man before him, who dug the trench, as if the man had done it to provide comfort for the next poor soldier. He quotes the line from Moby Dick about true places never being on a map. Ned closes by saying that while there is hope for an armistice, he thinks hope is dangerous.

Abilene takes the compass and walks away from Perdition. She goes to the tombstone that she never got a good look at and clears the leaves and dirt from the name: Gideon Tucker. She realizes that her compass belonged to Ned. Gideon engraved the date of his death and burial site on it. Abilene suspects that Jinx thought Ned’s death was his fault since he believed he was cursed.

Shady tells her that Jinx left that night and never returned. Weeks later, the influenza truly began in Manifest. He shows her dozens of graves nearby. Margaret Evans was the first to die in 1918. Mrs. Larkin is gone, along with Judge Carlson, Donal MacGregor, and many others.

On the way back to Shady’s house, they get coffee at The Jungle. Abilene thinks her father must have thought it was part of his curse when she got sick. She said the same thing Ned wrote about the shrapnel—that it was just a scratch. Her father hadn’t abandoned her. Rather, he sent her away out of fear and protectiveness, to distance her from his curse.

Shady says when they got the telegraph about Abilene coming to Manifest, he decided that Miss Sadie might be the best way for her to hear the story. However, Shady says he and the others needed to hear their stories as much as Abilene did. The Remember When contest “reminded [them] of who [they] were and what brought [them] together” (327). He says that Abilene is their do-over.

Abilene takes the skeleton key to Miss Sadie’s shed. She uses it to open a box containing pictures, report cards, and other mementos of Ned. Then she heats up a knife and lances Miss Sadie’s infected leg, which she cleans. Miss Sadie’s relief is instant and obvious. She can’t remember if Miss Sadie finished the story or if she divined it herself, but the final piece of the story they discuss follows under the name of “The Diviner.”

A Hungarian woman has a son named Benedek. She takes him to America for a better life. However, when they arrive at Ellis Island, a physician diagnoses the mother with trachoma and says she can’t enter the country. She leaves the boy with Gizi, a woman from her village. Gizi says she’ll keep Benedek in New York until the mother can return.

The mother gives Benedek a locket with a compass inside. She says her heart is the compass that will always guide her back to him. In Europe again, she works, saves, and finally gains admittance to America after another voyage by boat. She goes to the place where Gizi worked as a seamstress, only to learn that she died of an illness. No one knows where Benedek is.

The Hungarian woman wanders New York for a year, searching. Eventually, someone at an orphanage tells her that the boy was sent west on a train. As the Hungarian woman goes west, people grow more suspicious of her, her mannerisms, her accent, and her appearance. She finds Benedek in Manifest, Kansas. He is now seven years old and newly adopted by a good man named Hadley Gillen. If the Hungarian woman reveals her connection to her son, they will shun him. Instead, she remains in the town to be near him. She becomes a seer and helps people by telling the truth.

An insightful nun notices her profound pain and promises to keep the Hungarian woman’s secret. Periodically, the nun delivers the boys report cards, drawings, and other items to the Hungarian woman.

Abilene tells Lettie and Ruthanne the story over the next few days. The town revives, largely due to the Remember When contest. After 18 years, Ivan DeVore asks Velma to the second homecoming celebration after years of sending her anonymous notes. The women make another quilt, which is called a friendship quilt this time. Miss Sadie makes the center square.

Abilene learns that Miss Sadie’s last name is Redizon. That’s the word, badly welded on her gate, that Abilene read as “perdition.” They learn that Mr. Underhill wasn’t the Rattler, although he wrote the note that said, “leave well enough alone.” However, he had indeed been charging people full price for shorter graves than advertised, cheating them. He was also Devlin’s mole and thought the girls discovered it, which is why he left the note. When confronted, he confessed to Hattie Mae. The Rattler is still at large, and the Remember When entries continue.

One entry from Pearl Ann says that when the victory quilt was returned to Mrs. Larkin, Ned and Jinx included an apology in a handwritten note. They signed the middle square over Wilson’s blurred autograph. Now she’s giving the quilt to Abilene.

Heck Carlson wins the Remember When contest. His entry contains these words: “For those of us who made it home, let us always remember. And for those of us who didn’t come home, let us never forget” (336). Abilene, however, still doesn’t know where her home is.

She realizes she accidentally stole Moby Dick while escaping from the high school and she still has it. After 600 pages, she still hasn’t found the words about the map and true places. However, there is a checkout card taped to the inside cover. One date stamp is from September 12, 1917. It has Ned Gillen’s name next to it. The next name is Gideon Tucker, from March 6, 1918. Abilene has finally found him.

On August 30, Abilene wears a pretty dress that Mrs. Evans made for her daughter. Lettie asks if Abilene sent a telegram, and she says yes, although they don’t mention who she sent it to. Charlotte gets off the train and is surprised to see Abilene.

Abilene is briefly worried when her father isn’t there. Then she remembers how he likes to approach a town. She runs down the railroad tracks and eventually finds him walking toward her, holding the telegram she asked Ivan DeVore to send. It informed him of Abilene’s serious (but fictitious) fight with lumbago. Her last words in the telegram to her father claimed that Melville was wrong and that there are true places on maps.

Abilene tells her father the story of her summer and gives him the mementos. He cries at Ned’s letters, before telling her that what she thought was a spy map is just a drawing of home. He says the Rattler wasn’t a spy, but a figure people claimed to see in the woods at night, often accompanied by a rattling sound.

Abilene can only think of one person who might have been in the woods on the night Finn stepped into Louver’s trap. She thinks it was Sister Redempta, on her way to help someone deliver a baby. The rattling noise may have been her rosary beads: “A nun’s rosary beads rattle. It’s a universal” (341). Now Abilene knows what story to turn in to Sister Redempta on September 1.

The final News Auxiliary is from September 6, 1936. Hattie Mae is giving her duties to Abilene Tucker, at Sister Redempta’s suggestion.