Women Talking

August and the women, minus Mariche and Autje, are back in the loft before dawn. The women are anxious. They have told the other women of the colony their plans to leave that evening and are concerned the “Do Nothing” women will betray them. They keep busy chatting and recounting dreams as they wait for Mariche and Autje to arrive, but the unspoken fear that Klaas has found out their plans hangs over the loft. The discussion begins to drift toward subjects from the day before—e.g., whether heaven is real.

Eventually Mariche and Autje arrive. As Autje helps her mother climb the ladder, it is clear they are both injured—Mariche more severely than Autje. Mariche assures the women that Klaas is gone—“Would I be here now if he wasn’t?” (150)—and they begin to enact their plans. Nothing is said about the injuries.

Agata takes control of the meeting by saying that while the day before was for talking, this day is for action, noting that the men will return the following day. The women reaffirm their decision to leave by outlining their wants: to ensure their children’s safety, to be steadfast in their faith, and to think. They discuss whether they are revolutionaries and whether they can trust the men’s interpretations of the Bible, especially when it directs women to obey and submit to their husbands. August privately wonders if this is the first time the women of the colony have interpreted the Bible for themselves. They acknowledge the need to reeducate the men and boys of the colony and to show love to all people.

The women determine that all boys under 15 years old must accompany the women. Greta says they cannot worry about the future: They have made a plan and will follow through with it. The women join hands, including August in the circle, and sing a hymn. August is moved to tears, and the women seem unsure how to handle a man crying. After the singing, they discuss the details of their plans. They talk of all the people they will be leaving behind until Agata reminds them of the need to finalize their plans. Agata has secured provisions, and Autje and Neitje admit they seduced the Koop brothers from a neighboring colony so they could hide the horses there from Klaas. Mariche tells them Klaas hit her and Autje when he found out the animals were gone.

The farmer who owns the barn, Earnest Thiessen, climbs the ladder to the loft and asks the women what they are doing. When he asks if they are going to burn down his barn, Agata replies that they are just women talking. After he leaves, the women resume their planning, deciding to leave that night to avoid being seen by neighboring colonies. They decide to take the animals after a debate about whether this would be stealing. Frustrated, Agata delivers an impassioned speech about the need to focus on their plans and then collapses. This quiets the women, and they wait for her to recover enough to speak again.

Once the meeting resumes, August says he has procured the safe where the colony keeps its money; he also has dynamite to blow it open. He has placed supplies and a map in the back of Greta’s buggy. Although the women know nothing about the world outside the colony, they plan according to what they have heard about distances, and they outline their needs for grazing land for the animals and water. Ona expresses her concern for August and what the men will do to him when they learn he was in the barn with the women.

The Koop brothers arrive and tell Mejal that there is a fire north of the colony. In the ensuing discussion, Autje and Neitje reveal that the brothers got them drunk and they let it slip to the boys that the women are planning to leave. The women conclude the fire is a fiction the brothers invented to drive the women toward the returning men. They decide they must leave right away, not waiting for dark.

Nettie/Melvin climbs the ladder and says the children are ready to go. Nettie/Melvin reveals that Salome’s son, Aaron, is missing and does not want to go with the women. Salome goes to find him, and the women worry she will not leave without him. Agata asks August to make lists of good things and memories to take with them, and she tells him his parents would be proud of him, bringing him to tears. Agata’s health is not good, and when Ona says the journey will be hard on her, Agata implies that she will be happy to be buried outside the colony. August watches the women leave and calls out to Ona that he loves her. She laughs, and Agata, still in the barn, tells August that Ona loves him too, adding, “She loves everyone” (197).

August wonders how to go on once the women leave. He vows to “teach the boys about Ona […] the soul of Molotschna” (198). Agata asks August to wait for Salome and tell her where they are gathered. Alone, he makes his lists and recalls a dream about houses made to be taken down and rebuilt elsewhere. Then he hears voices, and Autje and Neitje appear. They tell him to hide.