Take My Hand

Present-day Civil arrives at the sisters’ house in Rockford, Alabama. She remembers how they improved once they moved to that new apartment, how they “lost the telltale signs of kids in deep poverty” (311). She remembers that Erica loved music and dancing, and India loved dogs and dolls. She calls the sisters two of the greatest loves of her life and two of her greatest heartbreaks. They were the reason she never had children, and they gave her the confidence to adopt and care for Anne.

Erica has been missing for three days, and the Williamses’ lives are upended while they search. India is inconsolable. She was making progress in socializing but regresses to being almost catatonic. She stays a few nights with Civil, and the only life she exhibits is when she watches television.

Civil prays Erica is not experiencing the awful things she imagines. The school Erica attends is in a remote area, and she had no money for food. Civil second-guesses all her choices, and the only thing that gets her out of bed is India’s need for breakfast and a ride to school.

On the third day, when Civil arrives at the Williamses’ apartment, a police officer is questioning Mrs. Williams, who appears exhausted. The officer asks if Erica has a boyfriend. Civil had been waiting for that question, and she had secretly wondered about it too. He asks if they have been taken on any special trips, and she tells him about going to the beach.

Civil helps Mrs. Williams around the apartment after the officer leaves. Mrs. Williams asks Civil to leave, but she does not. She believes her connection to the girls is rare, and she wants to share the burden with Mrs. Williams. Mrs. Williams asks about her mother and says she understands depression. They sit together, “lost on [their] own islands of sadness” (317).

Civil’s mother and Aunt Ros arrive the next morning and take over the situation. Civil notices a lightness about her mother that was not there before, and she and her father are surprised when her mother laughs. Civil asks her mother about Memphis, and she says she joined a women’s group at Ros’s house, where they meditated and chanted.

Ty calls to say they found Erica, unharmed and living in the family’s previous home. Civil and her mother go to the police station where they are holding Erica, but when they arrive, Erica has already left with Mace. The apartment is full of people when they arrive. Lou and Ty are sitting together. Mace is embracing Mrs. Williams. Civil rushes to Erica, insisting she needs to clean her up, asserting her authority.

After the apartment empties, Mace tells Civil Erica was at the shack the whole time. Civil asks Erica why she ran away, and she says she just wanted to get out of Montgomery and that she doesn’t want to live there anymore. She says she is sick of people talking about her, the news, and the case. She says she will never have a husband, a life, or babies. She says she will never be happy.

The outside of Erica and India’s house is plain, and Civil realizes they are still poor. She regrets that she never made peace with Mace and Mrs. Williams, who are both long dead. Civil visited the old apartment building in Montgomery the day before, which was partly lived in but run down and scheduled for demolition.

When Erica opens the door, Civil is surprised by Erica’s age and composure, noticing she looks like Mrs. Williams. Erica is happy to see Civil, and Civil regrets not visiting earlier. Inside, she notices the house is decorated nicely with pictures of the family. She learns that Mace died of heart disease, and Mrs. Williams married a man who died a few years before she did.

Erica goes to get India, and when they enter the room, Civil notes that India looks older than Erica. India puts her head on Civil’s shoulder, and when Civil asks if she remembers her, India smiles.

Civil’s mother bakes a cake to celebrate the verdict and Erica’s return. She sings for the first time in a long time. Civil notes all the changes in her mother—she does not spend time in her studio, and she meditates with Ros, whose energy lights up the house.

Civil’s parents host Thanksgiving dinner for the Ralseys, the Williamses, Alicia, Lou, and his very pregnant wife. Civil and Mace’s relationship has become more distant. She asks Mace if he has been avoiding her, but Ty interrupts them before he can answer. Civil’s relationship with Mace is not the only change: When she thinks about giving Erica her record player, she realizes she cannot buy the family’s salvation.

At dinner, Mrs. Williams thanks everyone, especially Lou and Civil, for all they have done. She says that, after talking with Erica, they have decided to leave Montgomery. Civil protests, but Mrs. Williams says Civil knows it is time. Civil struggles through dinner. She protests, pointing out how hard she worked on the Williamses’ behalf. Mrs. Williams tells her she needs to move on with her life. Civil argues that they are family, but Mrs. Williams tells her she needs to work some things out in her heart.

Civil thinks of the pain she felt after the Williams family left Montgomery, but she’s happy that now she is reunited with them. India’s treatments are progressing, according to Erica. Civil is interested, but she does not want to play the doctor with them; she knows she is not there to save them.

When Erica asks about Civil’s family, Civil tells her she took care of her mother and raised a daughter on her own. When Civil went through menopause, she realized she did not have to remain childless for the Williams sisters. She tells Erica that at 48, she decided to adopt Anne and shows them a picture.

Erica brings out cake, and Civil realizes she has gotten far more from the Williamses than she ever gave them. They reminisce, and she realizes the girls remember everything. Erica then asks Civil why she is visiting now—she is happy to see her, but she wonders if anything is wrong. Civil says nothing is wrong and then apologizes that it has been so long, but Erica stops her apology. She invites Civil to take her shoes off and settle in with the family. Civil relaxes, knowing they are her family, and she is theirs.

After Thanksgiving, Ros leaves, and Civil’s mother is more alive than she has been in a long time. Despite the Townsends’ renewed closeness, Civil is lonely.

Civil visits Lou and he talks about prospective cases, including a sexual discrimination case. He asks what Civil is going to do now that the trial has ended. They do not have a lot to say to each other, so she leaves even though she does not want to.

Civil feels empty since the trial has ended. While she is standing outside Lou’s building, Mrs. Seager walks by. Civil wants to tell her she understands that her intentions were good, but she lets her pass without saying anything.

Civil goes to work for her father as 1974 begins. Working at his practice, she realizes how connected they all are and is surprised that his patients open up to her so much. She learns a lot from her father about taking care of people.

Ty shows up one day and tells her Mace is moving the next day. Mace stayed in Montgomery after the family moved to Rockford until he had a new job there, and he has found one. Ty drives Civil to see Mace the next morning as he is finishing loading up the truck. Mace hugs her and tells her that Ty has loved her all her life. He tells her that she has given him his family back. He asks if he gave her anything. She does not answer him, but, looking back, wishes she had. Instead, she asks why they are leaving.

The narrative voice switches to present-day Civil looking back over the years, when she remembers Alicia telling her about Mace’s funeral. The perspective shifts back to 1974, and Mace tells Civil she is free, and to use her freedom to save as many people as she can.

Civil is leaving Montgomery and going back to see Ty. On the way, she stops to buy lipstick and earrings. She calls to tell him she is on her way to Birmingham, and he understands she is coming to see him. She thinks about Ty as a young man, and she realizes he loved the Williams sisters as much as she had.

Civil tells Anne why she took this the trip: “Now I know why I came on this trip. I needed to make my peace” (352).

As she drives away from Montgomery, she knows it will always be a part of her. Anne shares the history of Montgomery as much as Civil does, and those girls and their family are as much a part of Anne as they are of Civil. She hopes Anne will benefit from the wisdom of their mistakes, and if she does, it will make everyone stronger—if they let it.

This novel is inspired by Relf v. Weinberger, a lawsuit filed on behalf of Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf, 12 and 14 years old, who were sterilized without their consent in Montgomery, Alabama in 1973. The sisters’ social worker, Jessie Bly, reported what happened to a local attorney, and the case went to federal court in Washington, DC, much like the Williamses’ trial.

The case is considered “a pivotal moment in the history of reproductive injustice” (353). Dolen Perkins-Valdez was shocked hearing about the case, as it came just a year after the Associated Press broke the news of the Tuskegee experiment.

Perkins-Valdez traveled to Montgomery to meet with Joseph Levin, the attorney on the case, and Jessie Bly. She created the character of Civil Townsend out of her curiosity about how the nurses who worked in the clinics where the sterilizations were occurring must have felt.

The ethical questions Perkins-Valdez explores in the novel are still relevant, as there continue to be instances of women—poor and mostly of color—being forcibly sterilized, from prisoners to women detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The author notes that reproductive justice is still elusive for African American women, and Black women suffer many more health complications and conditions than white women. She hopes the novel will open discussions about culpability in a society that “still deems poor, Black, and disabled as categories unfit for motherhood” (355).