Taylor Greer Timeline and Summary

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• Taylor is born Marietta Greer in Cincinnati, Ohio—or so she's been told (1.56).
• Five and a half years after high school, Marietta leaves Pittman County, Kentucky, where she's spent most of her years, and intends never to look back.
• When she stops for gas in Taylorville, Illinois, she changes her name to Taylor. Hey, it's better than Cerro Gordo Greer.
• When her car breaks down in Oklahoma, Taylor stops to have it repaired. And car repairs always make people hungry, so she stops into a nearby bar for a bite.
• When she gets set to leave, a woman from inside the bar comes out to Taylor's car. The woman pulls a small child out from under a blanket and puts the child in the car. Which normally would require some sort of explanation, but with only a few words, she leaves.
• Taylor gets her second shock of the day when she's undressing the child for a bath and sees signs that the little girl has suffered violent sexual abuse.
• Within a few weeks' time, Taylor and the little girl have settled in Tucson, Arizona. Taylor has decided to keep the child, and has named her Turtle. Yes, it's a funny name.
• In Tucson, Taylor begins to establish a close network of friends. They include Lou Ann, her housemate; Estevan and Esperanza, Guatemalan refugees who are staying temporarily above the used tire lot where Taylor works; and Mattie, in charge of aforementioned tire lot.
• After roughly five months since Turtle first crawled into her life, Taylor brings the child to a doctor's office for a check-up. There, she learns that the child is roughly a full year older than everyone had assumed.
• In mid-summer, Taylor heads up to the mountains one evening with a few friends, leaving Turtle with neighbors who often look after her. When she returns, she's horrified to learn that Turtle has been attacked by an unknown person in the park.
• The attack sends Turtle back into the withdrawn, catatonic state she was in when Taylor first accepted her. Which makes Taylor pretty depressed, in turn.
• Taylor's depression lasts weeks, but she comes out of it when she realizes that she needs to fight to keep Turtle. If she doesn't, the child will be seized as a ward of the state. Which is even less fun than living with someone who names you Turtle.
• Taylor decides to drive back to Oklahoma to find Turtle's family. Her hope is that they will sign some kind of release that will prove her legal right to keep and care for the child.
• Taylor also decides to take Estevan and Esperanza with her, so that she can transport them to a new sanctuary in a church in Oklahoma. That's what we call two birds with one stone.
• After retracing her route back through Oklahoma, Taylor finds the bar where Turtle's aunt gave the child away. But O, twisty fate! She learns that the bar has changed hands, and nobody knows the woman she's looking for.
• Taylor is pretty durn sure that she's never going to find Turtle's family. Since she can't think of anything else to do, she decides to head up into the nearby mountains for the day. Nature is good for a think, you know.
• Estevan and Esperanza decide to come with her, and the group rents a cabin at Lake o' the Cherokees. That night, Taylor asks Estevan and Esperanza if they'll do her a favor. The narrative doesn't tell us what it is.
• The next day, Taylor, Estevan, and Esperanza take Turtle to the office of Mr. Jonas Wilford Armistead, a public notary in Oklahoma City.
• Estevan and Esperanza pose as Turtle's birth parents. Yes, that was the favor. Mr. Armistead totally buys it and witnesses a signed declaration that turns Turtle over into Taylor's care.
• After the pseudo-adoption is complete, Taylor drives Estevan and Esperanza to their new safe- house.
• After picking up the finalized adoption papers in Oklahoma City, Taylor and Turtle get back on the road and start the long drive home to Tucson as (adoptive) mother and daughter.