Midnight At The Blackbird Cafe

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Chapters 25-29

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 7-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary

The reporter interviews Summer about the pie. She mentions that she enjoys the pie, but that her father never partakes because he insists the past should remain in the past.

Natalie rushes home to the guest house behind her parents’ house. She is angry with her parents because they never told her about Anna Kate. As Natalie feeds, bathes, and puts Ollie to bed, she thinks of how different Ollie’s childhood is from her own. Seelie was cold and distant, often harsh in setting and enforcing rules when Natalie was young. It is clear Seelie wanted to keep Natalie safe after AJ’s death, but Natalie did not always see it that way. Natalie also thinks about her husband Matthew. She wonders, not for the first time, if his fatal boating accident was truly an accident. After Matthew’s death, Natalie discovered he was in heavy debt. She worries his fear of telling her the truth is what led to his death. Now she lives in her parents’ guest house because she doesn’t have a job and can’t pay her way.

Natalie finds a box from her mother with a letter attached. The box contains a child’s bathing suit, and the letter explains the daughter of a friend is going to give Ollie swimming lessons. This infuriates Natalie because she doesn’t want Ollie anywhere near water after Matthew’s drowning, and she is annoyed that her mother made the arrangement without discussing it with Natalie first. Natalie goes up to the main house to confront her mother and overhears her parents discussing Anna Kate. Doc insists that Anna Kate looks just like AJ but has Seelie’s eyes, but Seelie is adamant that she won’t believe it until there’s a DNA test. Seelie insists that Eden killed AJ based on the fact that there were no skid marks at the scene, but Doc refuses to place the blame on Eden.

Seelie steps outside and catches Natalie on the back porch. Natalie announces that she will not allow Ollie to take swimming lessons. Seelie is just as determined that Ollie will take the lessons and tells Natalie that as long as she lives in Seelie’s house, Natalie must follow her rules. Seelie also says it is better to be safe than sorry. Ollie wanders out of the guest house on her own and moves dangerously close to the pool, which illustrates Seelie’s point. Natalie’s first instinct is to move out, but she doesn’t have that option and knows she must give in to her mother’s demands.

Anna Kate takes over baking pies at the café but she knows she missed an ingredient. Zee baked pies for her each time she came to visit Anna Kate and Eden, but there was one ingredient she slipped into the pie. She told Anna Kate it was love, but Anna Kate heard her open a container of some kind. Anna Kate can’t find anything in the café that matches that secret ingredient but knows if she doesn’t find it, the customers will stop coming because the dreams will stop. When the blackbirds come, they don’t sing, and Anna Kate instinctively understands it is because she hasn’t found the secret ingredient yet. When the blackbirds leave that night, she finds two blackbirds on the windowsill. She sees their unusual eyes and remembers Zee’s story that a guardian becomes one of the blackbirds, the tree keepers, at her death and keeps the color of her eyes. Anna Kate believes these two birds are Zee and Eden. Anna Kate asks the birds what she’s doing wrong with the pies. They nod their heads and fly away.

Chapter 8 Summary

Natalie wakes to the sound of a woman’s voice that says her father is dying. Natalie cannot find the source of the voice even when she goes outside to search. Natalie runs into her father. They talk for a moment, and Natalie reflects on how she’s always been close to her father, even after she got married and her mother refused to come visit her. Not only did her father visit, but he helped when Matthew lost his job and they needed financial support. It was also Doc’s idea that Natalie and Ollie come live in the guest house while Natalie got back on her feet. Natalie thanks her father now for that help and he brushes it off, telling her the only thing he wants is for her to stay in Wicklow for a while, at least six months. He understands that Natalie finds it difficult to be around Seelie for long periods and that Anna Kate’s arrival in town complicates things. He wants time with his daughter and granddaughter. Before Doc leaves for the office, Natalie asks if he’s feeling well, and he assures her he is in good health.

When Anna Kate wakes in the morning, she finds a mulberry leaf on the windowsill where the birds had been. She understands it’s a clue to her question about the pies and believes the secret ingredient must have something to do with the mulberries, but she can’t imagine what. Unripe Mulberries are sour, and she has never tasted anything sour in Zee’s pies. She decides to make a syrup of them, hoping it’s close enough to the secret ingredient to make the pies work.

While Anna Kate makes a blackberry cobbler, Gideon stops by. They drink coffee and talk about Zee. As Gideon leaves, Otis arrives. He complains that the pie the day before didn’t bring him a dream. Anna Kate assures Otis the pies will be fixed the next day.

Chapter 9 Summary

The reporter talks to Zachariah Boyd, one of the birdwatchers. Zachariah expresses a desire to remain in Wicklow because of the pie.

Nervous about Ollie’s swimming lesson, Natalie leaves the house to distract herself from the potential danger. The situation reminds her of the day she had to identify Matthew’s body and induces a panic attack that forces her to hold on to a light post. River, Cam’s dog, spots her, and Cam comes quickly behind, offering her a sip of water to calm her. He also takes a picture of her because the extreme paleness of her face fascinates him. He helps her to a bench as she concentrates on her breathing. When she’s calm, Cam walks her to the café while she explains the magic of the pies.

The café is very busy, but Anna Kate’s waitress skills improve each day. Natalie arrives, setting off gossip about Matthew and her strained relationship with Seelie. Natalie requests a piece of pie and is disappointed Anna Kate isn’t selling pie that day. Anna Kate promises to save her a piece the following day, but announces pie is first come, first served for everyone else because she only saves pie for family, which confirms the gossip around town.

Natalie asks Anna Kate, Bow, and Jena if they know of any job openings. Jena suggests Anna Kate hire Natalie to help out at the café until the birdwatchers leave town. Anna Kate agrees and hires Natalie part-time. As Natalie gushes with gratitude, Anna Kate worries she might become too attached to the people in Wicklow. She moved around most of her life and learned to keep herself distant from potential friendships, but something about Wicklow makes that difficult. She reminds herself not to let her guard down.

Chapter 10 Summary

Anna Kate goes to the library to find newspaper articles about Eden and AJ’s car accident. She hopes they will provide more insight into what happened. When the librarian takes her to the microfiche room, she is surprised to see Natalie already looking at articles about the accident. Anna Kate joins Natalie and they talk for a moment. Natalie asks about Anna Kate’s plans and when she mentions she’s going to medical school, Natalie assumes she’ll become a family doctor like Doc. However, Anna Kate insists she would rather study homeopathy or osteopathy. Natalie warns her that her parents don’t approve of those fields of study.

Anna Kate turns her attention to the article Natalie found and studies its unfamiliar picture of AJ. Anna Kate asks why Natalie is looking up the articles, and Natalie explains that since she was only three when AJ died, her mother’s belief that Eden caused the accident dominated the narrative of her brother’s death. Now she wants to know the truth, but most of the articles have little information beyond the basics. Anna Kate says she believes there was more to the accident than anyone knows, and her next step is to try to get the police report.

Chapter 11 Summary

The reporter asks Natalie if she knows where he might get a room for the night, and she promises to ask around.

Natalie counts the tips she got while working her first shift at the café and stashes most of it away to save for an apartment of her own. As Natalie watches Ollie play, Doc arrives. Doc gives Natalie some alarms for the windows to help her feel safer. He also gives Ollie a toy tractor that was once his, and then AJ’s. Doc tells Natalie that the gossips in town informed Seelie of Natalie’s job at the café. Natalie knew her mother wouldn’t be happy about the job and that it would add tension to their already difficult relationship, but she is determined to earn her own money. As they discuss the job, Natalie reveals that she went to the café originally to get a piece of pie. This leads to a discussion about grief, and Doc asks Natalie to go see a grief counselor. Doc doesn’t want grief to change her. Natalie knows he means he doesn’t want it to change her like it changed Seelie, and she agrees with him.

Anna Kate sits alone in the café and waits for the blackbirds. She made 12 pies that day with the mulberry syrup and she believes she found the missing ingredient although she still isn’t sure she got it exactly right. However, on this night, the birds sing, so she knows she’s on the right track.

Chapter 12 Summary

Anna Kate works in the garden early on Sunday morning and notices the mulberry tree looks healthier. Summer arrives and they discuss the pies. Summer reveals that she helped Zee pick and process the mulberries for the past few years. When she realizes Anna Kate doesn’t know what she’s talking about, she takes her into the pantry and shows her the entrance to a hidden room where there are thousands of jars of mulberry syrup.

Bow and Jena arrive and ask Summer if her absence lately is because Natalie works at the café now. Anna Kate learns that Seelie wasn’t just judgmental of AJ’s relationship with Eden but of his friendship with Aubin as well. Bow and Jena urge Summer not to punish Natalie for her mother’s actions. Summer then reveals her plan to go to the University of Alabama and that she saves all the money she can for her college expenses. Before she goes, Summer gives Anna Kate a note from Aubin that contains his recipe for blackberry tea. Otis arrives and hugs Anna Kate. He announces that the pie worked, and his wife speaks to him in a dream.

Chapters 7-12 Analysis

The narrative often employs exposition to provide details about the setting and lives of the people of Wicklow. In these chapters, the plot focuses on Natalie’s past through her ruminations about Matthew’s death, her thoughts on her mother’s attitude toward her when she was a child, and the contrast between Seelie’s behavior toward her daughter as a child and Seelie’s behavior toward her granddaughters. These details illustrate the difficult relationship between Natalie and her mother and extend the comparison between Seelie’s grief over AJ’s death and Natalie’s angry grief regarding Matthew’s death. In these same chapters, Webber goes into more depth on the accident that killed AJ, showing that Anna Kate and Natalie share a desire to find more details about the accident. This recalls the previous chapters where Bow and Jena discussed the tension AJ and Zee both experienced with Eden in the months leading up to the accident. Each of these elements adds to the mystery of the accident and creates a situation wherein Seelie might be right about Eden’s actions that night, which casts Seelie as the innocent villain that is commonly seen in the Southern Gothic genre.

The narrative weaves the theme of Celtic Legends and Magic into these chapters as Anna Kate struggles to figure out the secret ingredient in Zee’s pie recipe. Anna Kate receives hints from the blackbirds that not only lead her to the right answer but allow her to ask the right questions of Summer to uncover Zee’s real secret. This moment also introduces a minor theme of secrets to the plot. It not only reveals the secret ingredient, but it also foreshadows more secrets whose revelation will change relationships and an understanding of the events 25 years prior. Another element of magic is introduced in these chapters when Natalie hears a voice warning her that Doc is dying. The source of this voice is never discovered, and the validity of it is not questioned. The failure of characters to dwell on the extraordinary is a key element of the magical realism genre.

The Grief and Guilt theme is explored again when Natalie confronts her mother over the swimming lessons for Ollie. In an ironic move, Seelie recognizes how Natalie’s grief is a potential challenge to Natalie and Ollie’s relationship. Although Seelie attempted, throughout Natalie’s childhood, to protect Natalie from AJ’s fate, Seelie intervenes when Natalie similarly tries to protect Ollie when she refuses to allow her near water, let alone learn to swim. This shows Seelie’s insight into her character and foreshadows a change in Seelie’s grief and attitude toward others. Following the same theme, Doc urges Natalie to seek grief counseling. Doc warns Natalie not to allow her grief to change her. He alludes to the changes they both saw in Seelie after AJ’s death. This, too, reveals insight into Doc’s relationship with Seelie, and his failure to help Seelie through her grief all those years ago. At the same time, Doc asks Natalie for time, a moment that on the surface appears to be a father’s desire for time with his child and grandchild. However, given Anna Kate’s observations about his poor health, and the voice Natalie heard warning her of her father’s impending death, this moment has more significance and foreshadows the fact that he won’t be around to watch his granddaughter grow up. His words take on the additional weight of a man who grieves in advance of his death because he knows what he must leave behind. Finally, the narrative examines grief on a smaller scale when Otis arrives at the café and thanks Anna Kate for fixing the pies. It is clear that Otis is still caught up in his grief for his wife, and the dreams he receives after eating the pies are a rare moment of connection that soothes his grief and helps him face life without his wife. However, Otis’s obsession with these pies foreshadows a moment when he will have to choose between dreams and living in the real world.