Mama Day

George is furious to discover that the Willow Springs locals have used the boat he was working on as firewood, which means it will take even longer for him to get outside help for Cocoa—if he ever can. Abigail urges George to seek out Miranda’s help at the other place, but George opts to keep working on repairing the bridge. After working for hours, he talks with Dr. Buzzard, who also tries to convince George to work with Miranda. Still skeptical, he decides to go to the other place, where Miranda is holding John-Paul’s cane in one hand and Bascombe Wade’s ledger in the other.

Miranda instructs George to take the cane and ledger, go to her chicken coop, find an old red hen, search in her nest, and “come straight back here with whatever you find” (486). Dismissing this as “mumbo-jumbo” (486), George calls Miranda a crazy old woman and goes back to Cocoa. However, when her condition worsens and he even finds himself starting to feel the effects of the poison, he relents and returns to Miranda for the cane and ledger. In the chicken coop, he tries in vain to find something—anything—in the old red hen’s nest: “There was nothing there—except for my gouged and bleeding hands.