Summary

Mac and Fern continue south, and Fern continue to miss her children and to hope that Edgar misses her. Fern reflects on her family’s sordid history as plantation owners. Mac fantasizes about falling in love with Fern, but knows she will go home eventually. In a small town, they visit a fortune-teller, who tells Mac that in ten years he will find “a home you don’t want to leave” (230). He reads Fern’s palm, and tells her she will have three children, two boys and one girl. Fern faints, and Mac takes her back to the car. There, she reflects on being a teenager, and her fears for her children as they grow. She tells Mac that at a ninth grade party, she “did it” with a boy, but they were both so innocent that they simply lay on top of each...