Love: A Novel

Christine reminisces over her past romances, beginning with a memory of living in Germany with her husband, Ernie. She returned early from hiking with another military wife to find him cheating on her with another woman. She remembers that she was more bewildered than offended and wondered “who Ernie Holder thought he was, other than a raggedy Pfc. who had offered devotion, a uniform, and escape to another country in exchange for her own gorgeous well-bred self” (161). After leaving Ernie, she felt unable to go home because of the situation with Heed, Cosey, and May. When she spoke to May on the phone, it was clear that she wasn’t welcome back. Instead, she got a job at a diner as a waitress and cook and spent several aimless years there. While working there she met Fruit and became his lover and partner for the next nine years. He was involved in the radical movement and Christine joined him, playing the part of the obedient, helpful wife who supported his politics. Over time, she became dissatisfied with her life. She had seven abortions and felt nothing each time. Ultimately, she was disillusioned when a young female member of their group was raped, and Fruit and the other men did nothing about it and allowed the rapist to come to meetings.

Christine also remembers her graduation and birthday party, when she and May humiliated Heed and Cosey publicly spanked her. In her memory, Heed ruined the evening with her behavior at dinner and by appearing at the hotel later, dancing provocatively with a man in a green zoot suit. Cosey was furious and left all three women alone at the hotel, going out to find other company. Reflecting on Heed’s vengeful nature, she realizes that Heed and Junior are plotting something. She goes to the hotel to find out what they are up to. When she arrives at the porch, she remembers standing in the same spot as a child, watching Heed drive away in the car for her honeymoon with Cosey.

At the hotel, Heed remembers her affair with Knox Sinclair, a guest whose brother drowned. He is the only man she has had a sexual or romantic relationship with besides Cosey, and during their brief affair he promised to come back for her in six weeks. However, he never returned and she did not see him again. She found out she was pregnant with his child and was overjoyed but eventually had a miscarriage. In the present, she and Junior wade through the disarray of the abandoned hotel. Heed is dismayed by the state of the place and the disorder of the attic. The floor is faulty in places and the menu box is nowhere to be seen. Eventually, Junior finds the menu and Heed dictates a new will leaving everything to herself and then, after her death, to her sister, Solitude Johnson.

Though Junior expected to feel Cosey’s presence at the hotel, she instead smells the odor of cinnamon bread. Heed tells her that it smells like L. While writing out the will, Junior secretly makes changes, including leaving out Solitude. Christine arrives to catch them in the act of faking the will, and during the confrontation between Heed and Christine, Junior moves the carpet covering a hole in the floor. Heed falls through with a crash and Christine rushes downstairs to help her. Junior steals the car and leaves. She is disappointed that she didn’t feel Cosey in the house but is pleased when Romen arrives. She persuades him to have sex with her in Heed’s room, telling him that the old women are visiting a relative.

Romen is uneasy about being in Heed’s room but still stays with Junior. He caresses her injured foot, signifying his acceptance of her as a whole person, even the less beautiful parts. He expects her to be pleased but is uneasy when he sees her lifeless and flat expression. She confesses that she has left the old women at the hotel and that one or both might be dead. Romen thinks about his grandfather’s advice and rushes away from Junior to the hotel to help the Cosey women.

In the hotel, Heed is badly hurt from her fall. Christine covers her with a blanket and finds some food and other supplies that May had squirreled away. Christine promises Heed that she will get her out of the hotel. Alone together, they talk over their shared past and finally reconcile. Heed tells Christine about how L. died at Marceo’s. Of Cosey, Heed says, “[h]e took all my childhood away from me, girl” (193). They realize that they both were vulnerable children and that the trauma they suffered was not their fault. Both express regret that they spent so long fighting over Cosey when they could have maintained their closeness.

During this interlude, they also share some secrets. Heed tells Christine that she was able to keep the hotel open during its decline because she had blackmail photos of the new sheriff from the parties on Cosey’s boat. They also remember their shared childhood language, Idagay, and a code phrase, “Hey Celestial,” which they used to express daring and truth telling. They heard the phrase for the first time when a man spotted Celestial walking on the beach in a red dress and called out to her. The girls were struck by her beauty and daring, and this was cemented when May called her a “sporting woman” and told them to stay away from her. Instead, they named their playhouse after her (Celestial Palace) and used her name in their code.

They also remember the initial moment of fracture in their relationship and the loss of childhood innocence. They were playing in the playhouse and Heed went into the hotel to run an errand. She saw Cosey there and he asked her what her name was and to whom she belonged. He also reached out and touched her breast through her swimsuit. She was aroused and deeply ashamed by this encounter. When she ran back to the playhouse, she saw that Christine had vomited on her swimsuit. She believed that Christine saw her with Cosey and that Christine knew that Heed was somehow dirty or at fault. Meanwhile, in Christine’s memory, she was sick because she saw Cosey masturbating through the window. Both girls blamed themselves for the feeling of shame and assumed that the other knew. This fracture was the “birth of sin” (191).

In the present, Romen finds them at the hotel. Heed is dead, and he helps Christine put her body in the car. Back at the house, Christine has Romen lock Junior in a room and drive Heed to the mortuary. Alone in her kitchen, Christine speaks to Heed’s ghost and asks her what they should do with Junior. They do not reach a consensus, but Heed suggests that Christine let Junior stay at the house and keep her company.

The ghost of L. closes the book by reflecting on the nature of love and the strength of childhood friendship. She blames Cosey, May, and the other adults for fracturing the love between the girls. She also confesses that she is the one who poisoned Cosey. She saw him write a real will that would have left everything to Celestial, putting Heed, May, and Christine on the street. She killed him and made the fake will to save the women and give them a reason to be together. However, she refuses to pass judgment on Cosey, reflecting that, like most people, he is good and bad. She remembers sitting in the graveyard by Cosey’s headstone, watching Celestial sing to Cosey’s grave.