A Tangle of Knots

Mrs. Asher and Marigold drive around looking for Will after the post office informs them that the suitcase fell off the mail truck. Mrs. Asher criticizes Marigold’s uncharacteristic irresponsibility in mailing her brother, and Marigold says, “No one in this family understands anything about me” (121). Mrs. Asher reminds Marigold that she found her Talent when she was 27. Marigold asks her mother if she’s happier now, but she is too distracted with her worries for Will and her feelings that she’s failed as a mother to answer. Marigold assures her that they’ll find Will and suggests they look somewhere someone would go if they wanted to get lost.

Zane feels that his hope of evading boarding school depends on finding something he can pawn that will pay for all of the repairs to the apartment. He looks through Toby’s things for something to steal because “the quietest ones, in Zane’s experience, always had the best secrets” (124). He doesn’t notice that Toby’s room contains a framed illustration of his mother’s hairpin. After the chapter, there’s a recipe for The Owner’s Peanut Butter Cake With Peanut Butter Frosting.

Cady brings the Owner a slice of peanut butter cake. When he tastes it, he demands to know where she got the peanut butter she used. She hands him the wrinkled recipe she found in the suitcase. The happiness on the Owner’s face makes Cady feel “lit up on the inside” (129).

Will pretends that he is a knight and that his mother’s hairpin is a sword. An enormously tall man in a gray suit steps off a bus and asks if he can help Will. The delighted boy thinks the man is a giant and explains that he is on an adventure. The man grins at Will and tells him, “I just so happen to know where there are quite a lot of monsters” (131). Will takes his hand.

The Owner examines the recipe, which is written in his mother’s handwriting. He thinks, “Let’s see who’s the failure now, Dad” (133).

Zane goes into the Owner’s room and finds his collection of more than 200 seemingly empty jars. He finds himself strangely drawn to the objects and feels that they have value.

The man in the gray suit leaves Will at the Poughkeepsie Museum of Natural Sciences, which he says is full of monsters: “Bony ones, old ones, ones with jaws of massive teeth, some with fins or fangs or scales” (136).

The Owner’s attempts to follow his mother’s recipe yield putrid results. He reaches the dismal conclusion that his mother had a Talent for making peanut butter and no one had known. He suspects that Cady has a similar Talent. After the chapter, there’s a recipe for Mrs. Asher’s Honey Cake, which is surprisingly spicy.

Mrs. Asher and Marigold find Will’s shoe and Mrs. Asher’s hairpin at the museum. An astonished Marigold directs her mother’s attention to a sign that reads “FIFTY YEARS AND COUNTING: THE SEARCH FOR THE MISSING PIECE” (143), accompanied by an illustration of the hairpin.

The Owner demands Cady’s location from Toby. He plans to steal her Talent and use it to restore the Darlington Peanut Butter Factory to its former glory. Toby seizes his employer by the collar and tells him, “Her Talent isn’t yours to take, you hear me?” (145). The Owner laughs coldly and says that Toby can’t protect everyone. Toby knows this to be true because of what happened in Africa, but he is determined to keep Cady safe. He walks off to pack their things so they can leave at once. The Owner calls after him, “You’ve never been able to admit who you really are” (146).

Mrs. Asher confesses to Marigold that the bone she uses as a hairpin is worth millions but insists that she didn’t steal it because she is the only one who knows it exists. According to a book that Marigold bought at the museum, the bone belongs to the extinct Jupiter bird. The bone would prove that the bird could fly, a “discovery [that] would change the face of paleontology—of science—forever” (149). Mrs. Asher explains that she participated in a dig in Madagascar 11 years ago. She was pregnant with Zane at the time and had to leave the dig early. One of her fellow volunteers lost his wife to pneumonia, and Mrs. Asher missed her going-away party to help him. The night before she left, she went to the dig site by herself and discovered the toe bone. She never told anyone what she found because she wanted to hold onto the feeling that she was special and knew something no one else did. Marigold wants to believe that actions have consequences, so she tells her mother that she has to give the bone to the museum. She also reveals that she read the principal’s letter. Mrs. Asher has read the letter, too, and she and her husband are unsure that boarding school is the right solution. Marigold needs some time to herself to think, so they split up and continue their search for Will. Sally climbs onto Mrs. Asher’s car.

Marigold returns to her bedroom, where V is playing the oboe. Toby asks Marigold something. When he sees the book from the museum, he is so surprised that his features shift slightly, revealing that he has a chameleon’s Talent. Toby loads two powder blue suitcases in his truck and calls for Cady. Paging through the book, V sees “one particular fist-size photo in the bottom left corner” (158) that stops her cold. She tears out the photo and hurries downstairs.