Moon Over Manifest

In his home, Shady tells Jinx that Hadley’s meeting is about to begin. Shady hides the whiskey bottles they have been using under a hidden panel in the bar. The elixir has been especially popular now that they have mixed alcohol into it. He makes Jinx get inside the hollow with the bottles just before Chester Thornhill enters and orders a shot. Other members enter, including immigrants from several countries. The meeting—and Devlin’s treatment—are opportunities for people who do not usually mix to unite. Chester wasn’t invited, so he leaves. The Hungarian woman drinks at the bar as Eva plays with nesting dolls.

When Mrs. Larkin comes in, Hadley announces that the land will be a bargaining tool. Cane’s estate is in probate. Donal MacGregor calls it “No-man’s-Land” (187), which is also the term used to describe the open ground between trenches in the war. Hadley says the township can buy it for $1,000 within 90 days. Otherwise, it will go to public auction, which the mine would win. If the workers oppose the mine without leverage, they’ll lose their jobs. The Hungarian woman demands that they remember the sacrifices their families made to send them to America: “What is it to defy the Devlin mine to those who have risked everything?” (189). The people in the room realize that their immigrant history bonds them, despite their differences.

Donal says it’s time to resist. In his hiding place, Jinx stretches his legs and knocks over a bottle. Hadley finds him and has him come out. Mrs. Larkin blames Jinx for making her look drunk. She has been enjoying the elixir too much, and everyone has noticed. Shady says they should listen to Jinx’s idea because “drastic times call for drastic measures” (192). Unexpectedly, Eva gives the tiniest of the nesting dolls to Jinx. She says its name is Matryoshka. Jinx says that, in order to make his plan work, they need to keep Devlin, Burton, and Sheriff Dean out of town for a month. He tells them his idea, and they agree to his proposal.

A headline from the Manifest Herald announces the outbreak of Spanish Influenza. Dr. Alfred Gregory, of the Mine Medical Staff, downplays the severity of the illness and says that hard work is the best cure. An advertisement for Healing Spring Waters from Hot Springs, Arkansas, follows. It promises to relieve many symptoms of rheumatic and arthritic pain. Hattie Mae’s Auxiliary from July 21, 1918, says that she is feeling unwell and will not be writing this week.

In a letter dated June 28, 1918, Ned writes Jinx from an open field to ask about the spy hunt progress. In terms of the war and his regiment, he says they’re tired, hungry, and cold. They can hear explosions far away, but they’re always growing closer to the fighting. He and the other Manifest boys in the regiment will be runners delivering messages to other units since they were track stars. He writes that another runner named Eddie got shot and killed that night, less than a four-minute run away from their camp.

Abilene takes a break from reading when the influenza articles grow too grim. As she jumps rope with Ruthanne and Lettie, she thinks of Eva’s doll, which is with the other mementos. Once again, Abilene feels a growing companionship with Jinx. Now she only has to learn about the skeleton key—the only unmentioned memento.

She wonders if Jinx is her father. Abilene sees a photo of miners in the barber shop window. Mr. Cooper, the barber, watches her. He shoos her away. As she runs, a bulldog notices her. It chases Abilene onto the porch of the staring woman, Mrs. Evans. Abilene tells Mrs. Evans that Shady would like to have her at the service that Sunday and leaves. After she finds the girls at the post office, they watch Ivan DeVore behind the mail counter. He runs the telegraph and has outside connections, which makes them wonder if he might be the Rattler. They watch him put a letter in Velma’s mailbox. When she hears Ivan using the telegraph machines, she thinks he is spelling out the words “Dear, I miss you, Home soon” (209). She used to know a telegraph operator named Miss Leeds, who taught her how to recognize telegraph letters by the rhythm of the typing.

Miss Sadie gives Abilene chores that keep her away from the garden and shed. She could stop working since she has paid off her debt, but she must hear the story, and only Miss Sadie knows it all. Abilene also wants to know why Miss Sadie stays in Manifest, given her outcast status. Abilene baits Miss Sadie into talking by claiming that Shady would never have involved himself in something “shady” (212).

Miss Sadie describes the terrible symptoms of the influenza. Burton, Devlin, and Dean go elsewhere when the symptoms spread through Manifest. After an examination, a doctor quarantines Manifest. However, everyone is pretending to be sick as part of their plan. Jinx becomes a hero as the adults use the opportunity to make more elixir. As they work, the immigrants share their stories of Ellis Island.

Shady is nervous and drinks frequently as he supervises the distillers. Mrs. Larkin has been working Jinx hard as restitution for not telling her the elixir had alcohol in it. They were surprised Mrs. Larkin stayed for the quarantine. In need of a large space, they use a church’s baptistry to combine the elixir with the liquor. The town toasts and prays as they mix “something greater than the sum of its parts” (224). A headline on September 15, 1918, says the epidemic is moving west. Sixty-three men at Camp Devens near Boston died in one day.

Ned writes in a letter to Jinx, dated July 4, 1918, from a trench, saying that he hopes they are fighting for something in Europe. He jokes about Stucky Cybulskis, a classmate who wrote the “Ode to the Rattler” in class. He suggests Jinx try fishing at Echo Cove.

Ruthanne reads Ned’s letter aloud to Lettie and Abilene. They go to the school to look for the Ode to the Rattler. After sneaking in through a storage room window, they go to the right classroom. Abilene wonders if her father ever sat there. After searching for a while, they find a message written on the underside of a desktop: “Here I sit, my eyelids sagging, While teacher’s tongue just won’t quit wagging—Louver Thompson” (234). They check other desks, and most of them have other humorous rhymes written on them. Lettie finds the Ode to the Rattler, but they hear sudden noises in the hall. It’s the janitor, Mr. Foster. Lettie and Ruthanne sneak out the window. Abilene hides in the classroom because after the other two leave, she can’t reach high enough to escape.

Abilene opens a dictionary and looks up the definition for “manifest” as Mr. Foster cleans elsewhere: “Manifest—noun. A list of passengers on a ship” (237). Sister Redempta said it was a verb and a noun. The verb definition is “[t]o reveal, to make known” (237).

Abilene hears what she thinks is gunfire, followed by Mr. Foster’s shouts. She grabs another book without realizing it, runs into the hall, and realizes it was firecrackers. Outside, she realizes she has no idea where she’ll be on the first day of school. Abilene thinks Manifest is an inaccurate name for such a secretive town.

Mr. Cooper, the barber, asks Abilene if she’s been looking for a spy. He says his father was Herman Keufer, a German, but he wasn’t a spy. Abilene sees Herman in the photo of the miners on the barbershop window.

At Shady’s Sunday service, eight people including Velma Harkarader, Mrs. Dawkins, Ivan DeVore, Hattie Mae, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Koski from the diner, Shady, and Abilene attend. Then Mrs. Evans arrives unexpectedly.

Shady reads a Bible story about the man who didn’t recognize Jesus, which makes Abilene think Shady is more like a Quaker than a Baptist. She remembers going to a Quaker Friends meeting with her father. She feels like everyone in the room wants to share, but no one wants to go first. When Hattie Mae serves cake,  Abilene says it’s as good as a cake she had at a country fair. She asks if Manifest has a fair.

Hattie Mae says yes, long ago. As they talk about who was the best baker, it annoys Abilene that everyone has a story but no one mentions her father. It also bothers Abilene that she doesn’t have a story, only the middle of one. Mrs. Evans says her daughter, Margaret, was senior class president in 1918. She tied with Dennis Monahan, but they drew straws and she won. Hattie Mae holds Mrs. Evans’s hand as she talks. Abilene realizes that she’s not annoyed anymore.

Abilene and Shady agree that it was a nice service before she goes to the cemetery and finds the grave of John Evans. Margaret doesn’t have a grave there. Abilene thinks of the scar on her leg and the wound on Miss Sadie’s leg as she walks to the parlor, where Miss Sadie says that hope was a more dangerous game that they played in the past than bootlegging and arranging a false quarantine. She continues the story.

Word of the elixir’s effects and efficacy spread. Shady and Jinx receive people at the mine at night to sell bottles to them. Jinx hasn’t slept in days, and when he thinks he sees Finn briefly, he wonders if he’s hallucinating. Sheriff Dean stops them on the way back home from the mine. They give him evasive answers when he asks what they’re doing, and Dean says someone matching the description of the older Joplin killer has been camping nearby. He says he’ll be watching Jinx.

Lester Burton keeps calling to see if people have recovered enough to return to work in the mine. The first death of the quarantine happens days later. After Shady, Jinx, and Donal MacGregor carry the casket to the cemetery, they begin to dig as Burton appears from the trees. They tell him the dead man was named Mr. Gourini. When Burton asks to see the body, Donal opens the coffin. The putrid smell repels Burton, who backs up before looking at the coffin, which actually holds the body of a dead pig. Shady knows there’s a mole within their group. Someone is passing information to Devlin’s people. As they bury bottles, Jinx asks Shady if people can be cursed or if bad things follow someone like a shadow. As figures emerge from the woods, Jinx and Shady pass out bottles to the sick people.

Ned writes Jinx in a letter dated September 12, 1918, that a soldier named Shep got hit by a mortar and Hank Turner is shot in the leg. He asks Jinx to tell his father that he loves him.

When Lettie wonders if the Rattler might be dead, Abilene shows them the note that says, “Leave Well Enough Alone.” They wonder what Jinx would do. As she looks at the note again, Abilene notices the handwriting, which has a distinct style. She thinks they could match it to someone else’s script. Abilene says that Hattie Mae doesn’t know yet, but she’s going to hold a contest.

The News Auxiliary for August 9, 1936, announces that Hattie Mae is taking a sabbatical to help with Fred’s injury. She’s holding a contest called Remember When. Contestants will submit a favorite memory in writing. The winner will receive $5.