Moon Over Manifest

The girls can’t believe Abilene is working for Miss Sadie. They think she’s mentally unstable, a witch, or both. Miss Sadie puts Abilene to work in the garden, breaking up hard ground.

As she works, Abilene recalls that her father worked as a groundskeeper in Chicago when Abilene was three or four. She asks Miss Sadie about Ned, Jinx, and the Klan rally. Speaking to herself, Miss Sadie says Jinx and Ned have things they want to keep hidden. She says Jinx was running and that Shady never asked what he was running from. She also says that Ned came to America by boat and to Manifest by train, where Hadley Gillen adopted him. Abilene wonders again, only in her thoughts, why her father sent her here. When she accidentally asks “Why here?” aloud, Miss Sadie says the coal mine consumes people. Miss Sadie enters a trancelike state and begins another story.

Jinx waits for Ned to exit the mine shaft at the end of his shift. He is living with Shady and going to school. He notices that the Italians and Austrians work separate shifts. Mr. Devlin, the grand knight of the KKK, and the owner of the mine are arguing with a mine geologist nearby. Ned asks about the bike that Jinx is riding, and Jinx says Shady won it in a poker game the night before.

Lester Burton posts a notice for the workers entitled “AMERICAN DEFENSE SOCIETY WARNING” (92). It says every German or Austrian will be treated as a suspected spy. He encourages the workers to inform each other when they see suspicious behavior. He also says that Ned must work another shift starting now, which will have him underground for nearly 20 hours by the end of the double shift. When Jinx protests Ned’s double shift, Ned says Burton does this because he’s beaten Devlin’s son too many times at recent track meets. Jinx says Pearl Ann Larkin wants to see Ned at the fair that night, hoping it will cheer him up during his double shift.

That night, they look at Mr. Hinkley’s fireworks booth at the fair. Ned plays the shell game, in which the worker hides the ball beneath one of three shells that he shuffles across a table. Ned guesses correctly twice, and then a monkey jumps on his shoulder just as the third round of shuffling begins. Jinx points out the correct answer on the third move, ignoring the shell that Ned pointed to. The worker is angry, but Jinx knows the monkey was used to distract Ned while the worker switched the shell.

After they walk away, Jinx shows Ned a firework that he took. Jinx says that it isn’t theft because he plans to return it like they do at the library. Jinx wants them to replicate it and sell them. Suddenly, when Jinx sees Sheriff Dean nearby, he quickly dips into the diviner’s tent.

Abilene has the afternoon off. She put Ned’s silver dollar—one of the mementos that he won in the shell game—next to the lure. She starts to understand why people would visit Miss Sadie because she’s excited to see what other stories the woman can come up with. Abilene listens as Betty Lou, the beautician, visits Miss Sadie about being barren. Miss Sadie gives her a tea recipe.

Abilene wants to know more about what happened with Jinx. She has also been helping Hattie Mae, in addition to spying with Ruthanne and Lettie. One afternoon, they go frog hunting in the woods. Abilene follows a frog and sees a gravestone. Before she can read the name, a scream comes from what turns out to be a small house nearby.

The girls watch as a man named Billy Clayton appears and chops wood near the porch. Sister Redempta comes outside without her veil. She tells Billy that his baby brother and mother are fine. Lettie says Sister Redempta is skilled with difficult births. Abilene wonders about the gravestone on the way back home.

Abilene wonders if Mr. Underhill measured the grave, but thinking of him makes her uneasy, and she feels like someone is following her on the way to Miss Sadie’s. She plays the rhyming game for her nerves and bumps into Sister Redempta as she walks. Sister Redempta overheard her rhyming, and she tells Abilene that some of the immigrant children at the orphanage often sang themselves to sleep. Abilene gets emotional because she thinks that she feels like one of the orphans and asks if it helped. Sister Redempta says that sometimes it worked. She tells Abilene to get a dictionary and look up the word “manifest” before working on her summer assignment.

Miss Sadie puts Abilene to work in the garden again. Somehow, she already knows about Mrs. Clayton and the new baby. She doesn’t react when Abilene mentions her conversation with Sister Redempta, and Abilene senses that there is something important between Miss Sadie and Sister Redempta. Miss Sadie says a phrase in a Romani language: “The person you encounter is often more than the person you see” (113). She starts to speak about Manifest, a war, and a curse.

Miss Sadie returns to Ned and Jinx’s timeline. At the fair, Mrs. Eudora Larkin is passing out fliers for the Daughters of the American Revolution. They’re advertisements for the “Victory Quilt Auction” (115). The quilt will be signed by President Wilson and auctioned at the New Year’s celebrations. Each woman who enters will provide one square of the quilt. The proceeds will be used to buy liberty bonds.

Ned flirts with Pearl Ann Larkin before her mother calls her away. Pearl Ann says her mother is uncomfortable with people lacking a long lineage. Ned hates this because his lineage is what allowed Burton to bully him into a double shift. Lance Devlin, the mine owner’s son, encircles Ned with some friends who are wearing military uniforms. They mock Ned for not enlisting and for his “unknown heritage” (119). After defusing the situation, Ned tells Jinx he agrees with the plan to make fireworks.

By December 1, the victory quilt is missing one square. Although the deadline has not passed yet, Mrs. Larkin refuses to accept Miss Sadie’s square because of her profession. Miss Sadie speaks in a foreign language and curses her. Mrs. Larkin tries to play it off as a joke, but she is increasingly worried each day until New Year’s.

The demand for Jinx and Ned’s fireworks has grown. They use the mine shaft that Shady uses for mixing liquor to craft their pyrotechnics. The shaft is on land owned by the Widow Cane. For one firework, they use a Hungarian olive canister they got from Miss Sadie after Jinx helped her with her fence. Ned asks Jinx how he learned fireworks, distraction, and more.

Jinx says his mother got sick in Chicago. After she died, his uncle Finn taught him various tricks to make money. Jinx went with Finn after his mother’s death instead of to the orphanage. He came to Manifest after what he calls a “mediocre con” (122). Jinx pretended to suffer from various maladies at a religious revival in Joplin, and Finn pretended to cure him. The preacher that night had impressed Jinx with his humility and guilt, which was the opposite of the bombast he associated with sermons. Then they sang a beautiful song about peace and green pastures.

Jinx wanted to settle in and stop running. He and Finn were camped outside of town afterward when a man named Junior Haskell approached their fire. He called Finn by name and told Jinx that they used to run cons together. Junior wanted money, and he threatened to blackmail Finn. He said he would turn him in for murdering a banker’s son in Kansas City. Finn twisted Junior’s arm behind his back and told Jinx to get a rope. Jinx tied Junior badly on purpose. He took a knife and whispered to Junior that he should work himself loose and leave while they packed. Finn overheard him and punched Jinx, who regained consciousness to find Junior dead beside him. Finn said that Jinx killed him. He said Jinx was bad luck and that staying with Finn was his only chance.

Jinx tells Ned that the sheriff was looking for the killers within days and that Jinx took a train away from Finn. Ned tells Jinx that the murder couldn’t have been his fault before they finish reconstructing Mr. Hinkley’s original Manchurian Fire Thrower. They cut a long fuse, and business booms for the next few days. They make $50.75 and split it, and Ned gives Jinx the 75 cents for having the idea. Some kids set off the fireworks in town, ruining things and angering many mothers.

On New Year’s Day, Ned Gillen enlists at the military recruitment office, and the officer doesn’t ask Ned for his age.

Hattie Mae’s News Auxiliary is dated January 2, 1918. It describes the New Year’s celebrations. Fireworks exploded unexpectedly in the water tower, which erupted, dousing both President Wilson and the signed quilt. The auction resulted in a high bid, despite the blurred signature.

During the auction, Jinx beat Shady in a bidding war and took the quilt for $25.75. The Daughters of the American Revolution offered $5 for the location of the fireworks salesman because the fireworks resulted in the destruction of several chicken coops. An advertisement for “VELMA T.’S VITAMIN REVITALIZER” follows (132). It promises stamina and energy with a teaspoon in the morning and at night.

Private Ned Gillen addresses a letter to Jinx dated February 10, 1918, from Camp Funston, Kansas. Ned’s letter apologizes for leaving. He used the money he made from the fireworks to convince the officer to ignore his age. He asks Jinx about the search for the Rattler and says they can probably rule himself out as a suspect now that he’s gone to war.

Abilene tells Ruthanne and Lettie about Junior, the fireworks, and the rest of the story. Lettie thinks the Hungarian woman must be Miss Sadie. Abilene thinks Jinx must have told her things while fixing her fence, which could explain her uncanny knowledge. Lettie wants to know why Shady bid against Jinx for the quilt. Abilene thinks that because Jinx’s fireworks caused the explosion that marred the signature, Shady wanted to make him buy it as payback, just as a lesson.

As they look for a cottonwood tree, Lettie sings “Riding the Rails in the Moonlight Night” (138), and Abilene sings along. The three of them take a break, eat gingersnaps, and talk about Abilene’s school assignment. Abilene knows that Lettie is lying when she says she’s already eaten her fill. She knows Lettie traded something so the two of them could have an extra cookie.

Ruthanne tells a story about her Uncle Louver. While checking traps in the woods, he saw a terrified man. He also said that a ghost was floating toward him. One of his traps snapped shut, and he ran. They only found a boot in the trap, with the foot inside, which her uncle then buried. Abilene wonders if the ghost is the Rattler.

Under the full moonlight, Abilene sees hundreds of worms at the base of a cottonwood. They put them into a bucket and return to Shady’s to sleep. Abilene looks at the silver dollar again and wonders about the connections and questions.

Ned responds to a letter from Jinx from Camp Funston, Kansas, dated March 14, 1918. He says that his regiment is shipping out soon, to tell Pearl Ann not to be jealous of French girls, and to thank Velma T. for the care packages. He also reports that many of the men in camp are ill.

In the News Auxiliary from May 30, 1918, Hattie Mae recaps the commencement ceremony for the senior class. She lists the seniors who are now overseas: Luther (Heck) Carlson, Ivan (Holler) Carlson, Lance Devlin, Ned Gillen, and Douglas Hamilton. She thanks Pearl Ann Larkin for spearheading various war initiatives and mentions that Velma is producing a special elixir at home. She includes a rousing cheer, written by Margaret Evans, senior class president. Her column ends with an advertisement for “OLD ST. JACK’S LUMBAGO LINIMENT” (149), which helps with back soreness.

The worms that Abilene found burrow easily into the garden. Miss Sadie is in a bad mood when Abilene asks her about cursing Mrs. Larkin. Miss Sadie changes the subject briefly and mentions spies without prompting from Abilene. Then Miss Sadie says the so-called curse, translated to “May your life be as long as the hair on your chin” (151).

As Miss Sadie criticizes Abilene’s digging, Abilene wonders what her father is doing and why he sent her away. She recalls that it was April 12 when he started “turning in on himself” in Shreveport, Louisiana (152). As they rode a train car that night, a tree scratched her leg as she let it dangle outside. The infection lasted three days. When her fever passed, her father was different. He said she was growing up.

Abilene imagines Jinx watching Ned’s train leave. When Miss Sadie says that great amounts of blame have always arrived in Manifest, Abilene thinks they are suddenly talking about Miss Sadie. She thinks the old woman needs to tell her story as much as Abilene needs to hear it. She asks what happened after Ned left, and Miss Sadie begins another story.

Ned has been gone for six months. Jinx works odd jobs, including welding a gate. He helped Velma with a chemistry experiment but blew out the windows of the classroom in the process. Shady tells him that the miners are organizing, hoping for better working conditions.

Sheriff Dean comes to Shady’s, and Shady notices Jinx’s instant discomfort. Dean is there to pick up his twice-monthly illegal liquor order from Shady. As he drinks, he mentions a story about a dead man at a Joplin revival. Someone thinks he saw the older of the pair of criminals near Manifest. Leonard Nagelman—the sheriff of Joplin and the brother of Sheriff Dean’s wife—is investigating. Dean finds an extra bottle of whiskey after a search. He takes it with him, as well as the fish that Jinx just caught.

Shady tries to reassure Jinx. He says he knows that Jinx isn’t a fish that bites. They talk about Shady’s dilemma with Dean as they smell the whisky cork he left behind after taking the bottle. Jinx asks Shady to meet him behind Velma’s house at midnight. They meet in an alley, and Jinx shows him several five-gallon jugs. He wants to siphon and borrow some of Velma’s elixir. It might smell enough like whiskey to appease Dean the next day because Dean is demanding more alcohol. Then they’ll replace it when he backs off.

The plan works, and a few nights later, they siphon the liquid back into the jugs. On the way back, Jinx thinks that Manifest is a refuge from his other troubles. Then they see men in white robes standing by a burning cross in front of the German Fraternal Hall.

In the July 20, 1918, News Auxiliary, Hattie Mae says meetings at the German Fraternal Hall are postponed in light of what she calls an unfortunate event that recently happened. It’s been a year since Americans went overseas. The American Defense Society is trying to outlaw and change German-named foods in America, like sauerkraut. She reports that Camp Funston soldiers are still ill from the outbreak. In Manifest, Widow Cane has died at age 93. An advertisement for “SIZER’S STOMACH TABLETS” follows (168).

Lettie and Ruthanne are out of town at their Great-Aunt Bert’s funeral. Abilene asks Hattie Mae why no one knows about her father. She says Abilene might be more interested in the mark the town left on her father than the other way around. On the way home, she sees the staring woman in the rocking chair. Ruthanne and Lettie say her name is Mrs. Evans. Mrs. Evans raises her hand, and Abilene thinks she’s waving.

Miss Sadie sends Abilene to the railroad tracks to find skeleton weed, spiderwort, toadflax, and prickly poppy. Abilene hears the train whistle as she rhymes to calm her nerves. She gets off the tracks before the train can hit her. Then it slows, daring her to jump on. She resists the urge to keep moving and lets the train pass.