When the Moon Was Ours

Sam and Miel grow up together. Sam hangs his glowing moons around their town, becoming known for them. One of Miel’s wrists grows roses from it, causing the townspeople to gossip and speculate about her. One day, a girl accidentally touches one of Miel’s roses and her boyfriend breaks up with her. The girl accosts Miel in the bathroom, but Sam comes to her defense. Miel usually destroys her roses when they bloom, but lately they bloom more readily when Sam is nearby.

Sam works on the Bonners’ pumpkin farm as a pollinator, and he shows Miel the paintbrush he uses to hand-pollinate the plants. He uses it to brush Miel’s arm and rose, and Miel imagines she can feel it through her petals. They kiss, and Miel believes it’s Sam’s magic that turns pumpkin flowers into pumpkins. They go to Sam’s room and have sex, although Sam is careful not to remove his shirt. His touch reminds Miel of Sam’s family’s trade in Kashmir, harvesting saffron from crocuses. In turn, the saffron reminds Miel of the Bonner sisters’ red hair, and the day she met them at the water tower. She remembers watching the moon sink behind them and believing they had taken away the moon. Now, the Bonners are young women, known as heartbreakers and witches. Recently the eldest, Chloe, left town, leaving Lian, Ivy, and Peyton Bonner behind. Miel feels self-conscious next to them, but she is grateful she and Sam see each other completely.

Sam and Miel explore each other’s bodies, finding them both familiar and unknown. Sam thinks about how he has revealed all his secrets to Miel, but Miel still has many she hasn’t told him.

Miel spends the morning with her guardian Aracely, a tall blonde woman whose arrival in the town along with thousands of golden butterflies became another story told amongst the townspeople. Aracely knows Miel very well, but sometimes it seems like she has unspoken questions she wants to ask her. Miel struggles to tell Aracely about her night with Sam. Aracely is known for her gift of curing lovesickness, and is emotionally perceptive. She offers Miel some honey and tells her that Chloe Bonner has come back to town. Miel thinks about her fear of the Bonners’ pumpkins, and the yearly tradition of setting carved pumpkins afloat on the river—a night that Miel always spends hidden in her room. Miel perceives the Bonner sisters as beautiful and popular but isolated—their only friends are each other. Later, Miel goes to the Bonners’ farm to spy on Chloe. Rumor has it, Chloe left town the previous year to hide a pregnancy, and her parents pulled her younger sisters out of school to study at home. Miel watches Sam work, worried the Bonner sisters will soon turn their attention to him. Miel believes now that Chloe has returned and the Bonner sisters are reunited, they will become a force of their own. Miel notices that a pink rose growing from her wrist is turning the red of the Bonners’ hair.

Miel prepares to destroy her rose. On her way to the river, she sees Ivy with a boy; she’s attempting to seduce him, but the boy is disinterested. At the riverside, Miel cuts off her rose and thinks about the stories people tell about her roses. It’s believed that her roses can make people fall in love, and that several people who were given roses became fortunate in love. However, Miel knows their fortune came from Aracely’s lovesickness cures and guidance, rather than her roses. Miel bleeds from her cut and gives the rose to the water, an offering to her mother’s memory. Miel’s father was a healer, but she doesn’t remember very much about him. In their family, people believed that children who grew roses from their bodies would grow up to harm their family members. Suddenly, Miel hears Ivy crying and goes to her, offering her sympathy. Ivy becomes defensive and Miel realizes she overstepped. Ivy inquires about Miel’s roses. Miel is uncomfortable discussing them, but offers Ivy her friendship before she leaves.

Sam’s mother confronts Sam about his night with Miel, making a joke about getting her pregnant. Sam considers his friendship with Miel; she’s the only person who knows the gender he was assigned at birth. She even helps him manage menstruation. Sam’s mother loves him, but subtly disapproves, believing that Sam’s gender identity is only a phase. Sam secretly hopes that she’s right. He thinks about a tradition he learned from his grandmother in Afghanistan called bacha posh, in which the daughters of families with no sons dress and live as boys temporarily to help manage the household. When they grow up, they revert to living as women. Sam believes that if he waits long enough, his need to be a boy will disappear.

Miel receives a telephone summons from Ivy. She goes to the Bonners’ house and finds all four sisters waiting for her, demanding she give them the roses she cuts away. They believe Miel’s roses will help them regain their power over the town—power they feel they lost when Chloe got pregnant. Miel refuses, but the girls bait her with rumors about her mother. Only Peyton seems slightly embarrassed by their behavior, which Miel knows is because Sam has been kind to Peyton. The sisters tell Miel that if she doesn’t give up her roses, they’ll tell everyone the truth about her mother. Ivy cuts away the rose that’s growing from Miel’s wrist, and Miel runs away. When she goes outside, she sees that the pumpkins in their yard are turning into glass.