Saturday Afternoon
September 16, 1961
- Abby spends her time watching TV in bed.
- When Cherokee Strip Day—"an annual parade in the name of the Iroquoian Indians who were relocated from North Carolina and Georgia to Oklahoma"—comes along, Abby is still spending her time this way. Abby is also still not speaking.
- Patience assures her daughter she won't be at the parade long, and then she heads out.
- As Patience watches the parade, a float goes by with a "blond queen" on it, and for reasons that elude her, this sight gives Patience chills. She goes running home.
- While Patience has been out, Abby has fallen asleep and dreamt about a woman wearing winter clothing with a hat covering her face: "She was carrying something on the shovel she used to clean away the snow from the path in winter. She had a net over her face."
- Abby starts calling out for her mom as Patience runs home calling her daughter's name.
- Before she gets to the house, Patience can hear Abby's screams. When she finds her daughter, she—and everything around her—is covered in wasps.