Love, Ruby Lavender

Dove asks Ruby to come to tonight’s operetta performance. Dove has been interviewing Melba, who talks a lot about her dad. Melba recounts how he taught her about all the constellations. Ruby thinks of how Garnet took her stargazing and the firefly poem he taught her. Melba shows Dove where the accident happened, and Ruby confirms that she takes the long way to town to avoid that bridge. Dove offers to show Ruby exactly where the car went over. Initially, Ruby doesn’t want to know. Then she looks at the black-eyed Susans and thinks about how Eula asked her to mark the anniversary of Garnet’s death with a remembrance. She changes her mind. She picks some flowers and tells Dove she’s ready.

Dove points out where the car went over, and Ruby tells her the accident was Ruby’s fault. Garnet and Mr. Latham planned to stay at a hotel in Raleigh that night, but Ruby begged her grandfather to come home, and Melba heard her. Ruby thinks the accident would not have happened if she’d not asked Garnet to return, and Melba does too. Dove tells Ruby that Mattie said Garnet “never spent a night away from Miss Eula and he wasn’t about to start that night” (161).