Chapter 18
Miss Sadie's Divining Parlor, June 13, 1936
- Abilene brings the worms to Miss Sadie, and she puts her to work hoeing rows in the garden.
- Miss Sadie's in an awful mood because it's hot and her leg is much worse. (Wouldn't you be grumpy, too?)
- Finally, Abilene works up the courage to ask her what the curse was that she had used on Mrs. Larkin. Miss Sadie responds that it was this: "May your life be as long as the hair on your chin" (18.10).
- Zing.
- As she hoes, Abilene thinks about her dad again and wonders why he sent her away. Poor thing.
- She remembers how she cut her own knee on a tree branch one as she dangled her legs from a moving boxcar.
- The infection from it had made her delirious for days, and when she was finally better, her daddy started treating her differently.
- Miss Sadie suddenly, randomly tells her that Jinx thought it was his fault that Ned left to join the army.
- Abilene asks her if Jinx left town after Ned did, and that starts her off into the story again.