The Bean Trees

Lou Ann’s mother, Ivy, and her grandmother, Granny Logan, have both come to visit and meet the new baby, Dwayne Ray. Lou Ann’s mother takes control of her kitchen, while Granny Logan closes all the curtains because she feels that the hot climate is unhealthy. As her mother and grandmother prepare to leave to catch the Greyhound bus back to Kentucky, Lou Ann tells them that she wishes they had time to stay longer and enjoy some of the tourist sites in Tucson. However, the other women say they can see the desert from the windows of the bus.

Angel has temporarily moved back in, and they’re pretending to still be married to avoid a fight with Lou Ann’s mother. He’s still at work when Ivy and Granny Logan leave to catch the bus. Before she goes, Granny Logan gives Lou Ann a coke bottle full of Tug Creek water so that Dwayne Ray can be baptized in the same water that the rest of the family was back in Kentucky.

After they leave, Lou Anne purchases tomatoes from Bobby Bingo, who sells vegetables from the back of an old truck. She likes his tomatoes better than the ones from the grocery store because they taste more like the ones she remembers from growing up in Kentucky.