Summary

Pages 41 - 68 -- The mender waits outside of Central Coast Regional High School for a girl, but leaves when Didier questions her. She reflects on her own time at Central Coast, and her childhood. She was raised by her aunt Temple, who taught her natural magic and herbal remedies, and she dropped out of high school. The mender worries that she will draw attention to herself if she is not more careful, because people think she is "unhinged, a forest weirdo, a witch" (43). When the mender returns to her cabin, she treats a woman named Clementine for genital warts. Ro -- the biographer -- arrives the next day for fertility medicine, and the mender gives her an herbal tea and suggests she be checked for PCOS, or polycystic ovary syndrome. She sees that Ro is angry at her inability to conceive.

The perspective moves...