Summer Timeline and Summary

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• Summer ends up coming to live with Uncle Ob and Aunt May because she's an orphan and her relatives have been passing her off to one another, like the saddest game of hot potato in the world.
• After six years of living with Aunt May and Uncle Ob, Aunt May unexpectedly passes away while gardening. Poor Uncle Ob and Summer are left to deal with her loss.
• There's an odd kid in Summer's class named Cletus who comes over a lot to hang out with her and Uncle Ob. She's not that into having him around, but at least he's keeping Uncle Ob busy.
• One day Uncle Ob declares that he can feel Aunt May around. He wants to figure out a way to communicate with her spirit, even though Summer's pretty skeptical.
• Summer goes out to the garden with Uncle Ob and Cletus and they try to communicate with May. It doesn't work.
• After this, Summer wakes up and finds that Uncle Ob is pretty depressed and won't get out of bed. Uh-oh. Like a good twelve-year-old caretaker, she stays home from school to keep an eye on him.
• After school, Cletus comes over and tells Summer and Uncle Ob that he found an ad for a spiritualist medium in Putnam County who can talk to the dead. They all decide to head off during school break (which is the following week) to track down this medium.
• That Saturday, Summer accompanies Uncle Ob to Cletus's house—they have to ask his parents for permission to bring him along on their trip, after all.
• Summer is surprised to see that Cletus's parents are really nice and not weird, and that Uncle Ob doesn't tell them that they're going to see a spirit medium. Instead he says that they're going on a sightseeing trip to the capitol.
• Finally they set out to on their trip. When they get to Putnam County though, they find out that the spiritualist medium has died, so there's no one to help them get in touch with Aunt May.
• Oh no—is Uncle Ob just going to give up on life now? It sure seems like it as they all drive home in silence, but then Uncle Ob has a change of heart and turns the car around. To the capitol they go.
• At the capitol, Uncle Ob, Summer, and Cletus gallivant around and see all the big buildings and museums.
• Afterward, they go home and an owl flies overhead. Suddenly Summer starts crying as she's overcome with memories of Aunt May. She finally gets to mourn in earnest as Uncle Ob comforts her.
• That night, she feels Aunt May's presence telling her how much she is loved, and the following morning, she wakes up to find Uncle Ob making breakfast. They're going to keep going with their lives.