Part Five, Chapter 53

The chapter moves through a single late-autumn afternoon in Salinas. During the school day, Abra tells Cal she plans to visit Lee; Cal, dressed in his drill uniform, asks her to save him some of Lee's strawberry tarts and to wait for him if he is late. At home, Lee tends to a declining Adam, who woke late and insists he had a dream in which his father was a thief who stole from the G.A.R. Lee dismisses the claim, though he privately turns it over in his mind alongside other ironies: Cal burning the bean money, Aron living on whorehouse profits, Sam Hamilton's richness of spirit alongside his material poverty. Adam heads out to visit the draft board; Abra arrives, rosy-faced from the cold, and she and Lee share a rare moment of mutual tenderness. Lee tells her he wishes she were his daughter; she answers that she wishes he were her father and that she loves him. He gives her his mother's only ornament—a small carved jade button with a human hand on its surface—and she kisses his cheek, the first time anyone has ever done so. Over tea they discuss Abra burning Aron's letters, her relief at no longer needing to be perfect, the subject of the boys' mother, and Cal's invitation to see the wild azaleas at the Alisal. Lee mischievously suggests that Abra's parents might grow warmer toward her visits if word reached them that Aron has inherited over a hundred thousand dollars. Cal arrives on the porch just as Abra leaves; they walk home together, and after he drops her off he wanders alone down a deserted Main Street. He exchanges brief words with the constable Tom Meek, who has heard about the bean money; Cal tells him he burned it, and Tom walks away disbelieving. Cal thinks about where Kate is buried and wonders about bringing flowers, then mocks his own sentiment, recalling that in Spanish carnations are called Nails of Love and marigolds the Nails of Death.