The Miracle of Dog Doo Park
- Taylor's Mama has called with some big news from back in Kentucky: she's getting married.
- Lou Ann and Taylor take Turtle and Dwayne Ray to Roosevelt Park. Turtle plays in the dirt, Dwayne Ray sleeps in the stroller, and they chat. Good way to spend an afternoon.
- The group sits in their favourite spot: a little area underneath a trellis that has wisteria vines growing all over it. The wisteria is budding, and Taylor is looking forward to seeing it bloom.
- Lou Ann tells Taylor how she and Angel met, and they chat about men, marriage, and Taylor's Mama.
- As they're sitting, Edna Poppy and Virgie Mae stroll by. Virgie Mae tells Lou Ann that Angel was just at the house looking for her.
- News of Angel's visit prompts Taylor to ask Lou Ann what she would do if Angel ever decided to come back. Lou Ann is surprised by the question, and makes it clear that she'd take him back in a second.
- Really?
- Taylor's narrative skips ahead again to describe a conversation with Estevan, in which she tries to apologize for Virgie Mae's behavior on the night of the dinner party.
- Later that same evening, as she listens to Mattie tell a story, Taylor reflects that she is slowly starting to understand more about the "sanctuary" that Mattie has upstairs.
- Want another hint? Mattie sometimes takes trips away from the shop "for days at a time," taking "the four-wheel Blazer and her binoculars" (8.104-05). After she returns, a doctor named Terry sometimes stops into the shop and goes upstairs.
- Back to Taylor and the kid. Turtle has now been in her custody for about five months, and Taylor has taken the child to the doctor's for a check-up.
- At the doctor's office, Taylor bluffs her way into letting the nurse think that she is a registered foster parent. Good white lies pave the road of the medical system.
- When they finally see Dr. Pelinowsky, Taylor tells him she believes that Turtle has been sexually abused. As the doctor checks Turtle over, he tells Taylor that there isn't any "residual physical damage," but that there might be "behavioral evidence" (8.139).
- Dr. Pelinowsky decides to run some x-rays, just to be sure.
- When the results come back, both he and Taylor are disturbed to see that Turtle's bones bear evidence of multiple fractures that have healed over time. More than that, her skeletal structure suggests that she's older than either of them thought: nearly three years old, rather than two.
- After their appointment, Taylor and Turtle meet Lou Ann and Dwayne Ray at the zoo. When they arrive, Lou Ann is crying, and she tells Taylor that Angel returned to tell her that he was leaving for good. We can't help thinking this is pretty good news for Lou Ann.
- As the two young women sit and talk, Taylor says the word "April" at one point. When she does, Lou Ann sees Turtle's head bob up "like an apple on a string" (8.197).
- After testing it out a few times, Lou Ann and Taylor agree that April must be the child's given name.
- So first a month, then a reptile. This girl has had a hard life.
- Since Taylor has gotten used to calling the child Turtle, she decides to combine the two. Turtle becomes April Turtle. But Taylor figures she'll stick with Turtle for short. Because why would you pay attention to what the kid's used to being called when you prefer nicknaming it after a slow-moving leathery creature with a cartilaginous shell?
- Maybe the little tyke needs that shell to protect her from the names people keep giving her.