Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

The author introduces Luther Driggers, who is called “the Inventor” because his discoveries led to the invention of the flea collar. However, Driggers never earns any money from his invention because he made the discovery as a government worker, so the government owns his inventions: “The only way Driggers could have profited was by secretly selling the pertinent information to a private manufacturer. While he wrestled with the moral pros and cons of doing just that, one of his colleagues beat him to it” (63).

Driggers is odd, even by Savannah standards. At the local diner, people carefully observe his appetite. They worry about his mental stability, which they intuit by noting his appetite, because they believe he is in possession of a poison that, if released into the water supply, could kill everyone in town. Although police have searched his house, they never found poison.

Still, everyone knows that Driggers is knowledgeable about bugs and the poisons due to his government work: “Sometimes, to relieve the boredom [of work], Luther anesthetized ordinary house flies and glued lengths of thread to their backs” (67). He was able to walk the flies by using the threads as leashes. These strange quirks and his unstable moods make residents feel that he might be capable of fatally targeting them.

The author meets Driggers at the diner, and soon Driggers shares his latest idea, which is to make goldfish glow in the dark. He believes that soon every bar in America would have glowing fish for their drunk customers. But on the day of showing off the glowing fish at the Purple Tree bar, Driggers ends up feeding the fish too much fluorescent dye due to his showy companion, Serena Dawes. She insists at stopping at multiple bars before arriving at the Purple Tree, and as a result, the overfeeding of the fish results in their intestines glowing brighter than anything else, causing much disgust among the drunks. Disheartened, Driggers gets drunk. When Berendt drops him off at home, Driggers shows him the poison that everyone has speculated about.

“The Lady of Six Thousand Songs” is Emma Kelly, one of the visitors that Berendt meets at Odom’s home. She and Odom opened a piano bar called Emma’s, where she performs both as a piano player and singer. Emma offers Berendt the chance to join her on one of her typical Sundays, which involves performing at the First Baptist Church (where she also sings with the kids in Sunday School), singing at a wedding reception at the Serendipity Health and Racquet Club, and visiting her 90-year-old aunt, bringing her food from the country club and tucking her in bed.

During these travels, the author learns that Kelly began singing when her son attempted suicide by shooting himself, which did not kill him, but which did result in expensive medical bills. Kelly started working clubs at night to pay for the bills: “Even after she had paid the hospital bills, Emma continued her nightly appearances. It had become her life” (89).

Unfortunately, Emma’s does not make a lot of profits, despite drawing large crowds. Odom, with the help of his friend Darlene Poole, learns the why: The bartender, Moon Tompkins, has been stealing from the cash register. On the night that Odom attempts to catch Moon in the act of stealing, Moon ends up running off with the entire contents of the register.

Odom heads home and that night, a lighted cigarette in a trash can causes a fire that burns down his townhouse. Odom must leave and ends up moving next door to the Bells, a well-respected couple: “In view of his august new neighbors, Joe’s friends anticipated that life at his new home might perforce be a bit more modulated than it had been at 16 East Jones Street” (93). Odom’s acquaintances are happy to see that is not the case, and the open door at the Odom home continues to remain unlocked and in use as guests come in and out whenever they like.

The author introduces another colorful character of Savannah: “The Grand Empress of Savannah,” Chablis, or “The Lady Chablis.” Chablis is a beautiful drag queen who meets Berendt after she has hormone shots to maintain her feminine body. She sweet talks Berendt into giving her a ride home, and from then on, she introduces Berendt to others as her chauffeur. She is a beauty queen winner, having won Miss Gay Georgia, Miss Gay Dixieland, and Miss Gay World. She introduces Berendt to her boyfriend Jeff, explaining that Jeff didn’t know she was born male until they had been dating for a while. Chablis further explains that when she fools men into thinking she is biologically female, she can get into dangerous situations, such as when a man held a gun to her head when he discovered the truth.

However, after Jeff learned the truth about her, he soon realized that he couldn’t live without her. When Jeff introduced her to his family, they didn’t realize her biological sex, instead objecting to the fact that she is black. When they think Chablis is pregnant, they give Jeff $800 to pay for an abortion, which Chablis finds highly amusing and hypocritical, given that the father is a Baptist minister.

Berendt attends Chablis’s show and sees how spectacular she is in charming and teasing her audience. But when Chablis’s salary is docked for canceled shows, she quits and leaves the building, calling on everyone, including audience members, to carry out all her gowns. As they all walk out into the street, the author observes the odd scene: “The motorists were unaware, of course, that the spectacle they were witnessing was that of the Grand Empress of Savannah parading every wig, gown, and gaff in her imperial wardrobe” (123).