The Night Gardener

Hester is coughing blood, and Kip pulls over. Molly blames herself for Hester’s injuries, but Hester says that curiosity caused them. She knew the house was dangerous, but she had to see it for herself. As a storyteller, she hopes for the impossible, and now she can die happy because, as she says, “[F]or one perfect moment, I saw something impossible” (279). Hester means to set out on her own to compose her final story. Before she goes, she gives Molly a package to unwrap later. Then she walks into the woods. Molly and Kip watch her until she is out of sight.

Kip and Molly speculate about the Night Man’s inability to go past a certain point and his pained reaction to the breaking of the tree branch. They decide that he is attached to the tree somehow and that the tree’s gifts are another form of attachment: giving people what they want so they’ll stay but not giving them what they really need. Kip shows Molly the healing balm he got from the tree but never used because he didn’t want to become beholden to it. He also reveals that he knows the truth about their parents’ letters, for the tree offered him the gift of healing balm to heal his leg and allow him to walk normally.