Midnight At The Blackbird Cafe

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Chapters 25-29

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 19-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 19 Summary

The reporter speaks to Pebbles who confuses him with her random conversation about Otis and pies. Pebbles is ill and disgusted with Otis so she leaves to rest.

Otis is upset because he didn’t have a dream of his wife the night before. Pebbles is annoyed when Otis won’t consider the idea that his wife no longer has anything to say to him. Seelie comes in and orders the special. Zachariah questions the power of the pie, and Faylene corrects him. A woman asks Anna Kate if she sells t-shirts, which gives her another idea for how to raise money for Summer.

Natalie rushes home to get ready for her next grief counseling appointment and finds a package on her front steps. It is the photograph of the waterfall Cam took with a note from him. She is touched by the gift. Seelie calls Natalie about some fabric a friend wants to give her. Natalie reflects that in the past, she would not have paused to take Seelie’s call in her hurry to get to her appointment. Seelie’s enthusiasm cheers Natalie. As they talk, Seelie mentions seeing Cam drop something at the house, but in an unusual show of restraint, she doesn’t criticize Cam or Natalie’s relationship with him.

Chapter 20 Summary

Anna Kate notices that Gideon hasn’t been coming for coffee in the mornings and worries about why he wants to avoid her. Jena suggests Gideon has a secret. To change the subject, Anna Kate asks Jena and Bow what they will do when she closes the café. They say they’re “gypsies” at heart and will move on, but this makes Anna Kate question why they settled in Wicklow for over 20 years. Bow says they’ve been trying to right a wrong. Anna Kate suggests they stay at the café and run it for her while she’s at medical school, and she can bake the pies and ship them to the café each night. Customers begin to arrive, and Otis complains again about the pie, only this time it works but his wife’s message was her calling him a blind fool.

Natalie’s worries about her father disrupt her sleep. She notices more signs of pain, fatigue, and appetite loss. She also worries about Ollie’s swimming lessons and struggles with her grief counseling sessions. While getting sugar packets from the kitchen, Natalie overhears Jena and Bow discussing something about extreme measures, but she doesn’t understand. Aubin stops by the café and shows Anna Kate a few t-shirts he made up with his grandmother’s old screen-printer. They hope to sell the shirts at the upcoming Fourth of July celebration.

Seelie arrives at the café with Ollie and some family photo albums to share with Anna Kate. This annoys Natalie as she watches how easy the conversation is between Seelie and Anna Kate. Josh arrives to speak to Anna Kate. Anna Kate reveals that she’d asked Josh, a local cop, to find a copy of the police report on Eden and AJ’s accident, but he couldn’t. Seelie tells Anna Kate she has a copy of the report and promises to give it to her.

Chapter 21 Summary

The reporter speaks to Aubin, asking about Aubin’s family. Aubin tells him that his wife died in a car accident that feels like karma.

Natalie puts Ollie to bed and contemplates going to bed herself when Seelie comes to her door. They talk about Doc, and Seelie insists he’s fine even though Natalie suspects her mother sees some of the same things she does. Seelie and Natalie drink wine together, and Seelie talks about how meeting Anna Kate has changed her outlook on life. Seelie shows Natalie some original designs she created early in her sewing days and points out a dress she made before having children that she had hoped her daughter would wear home from the hospital. She and Doc struggled to have children and continued to struggle after AJ was born. Seelie tells Natalie what a joy it was to finally conceive and deliver Natalie. Seelie explains that she was so wrapped up in AJ his whole life because she thought he would be her only child, and when he died, she lost her identity. She promises, however, that she is trying to let go of the pain and be a better mother.

Chapter 22 Summary

Anna Kate attends Sunday dinner with the Lindens again. Anna Kate notices Doc’s unhealthy appearance immediately and wonders why neither Natalie nor Seelie seems aware of it. Ollie is sleepy from her nap and requests her blanket. When Natalie pulls it out, Anna Kate is stunned to see it is very similar to a blanket she’s had all her life. She mentions it to Seelie, and Seelie is shocked because she made a similar quilt for AJ that he had with him the day he died, but it was missing from the car after the accident. She does not believe Eden took it, because it was not among her things at the hospital. It was never found. Natalie appears upset by the turn in the conversation, so Anna Kate pivots and brings up the t-shirts she and Aubin plan to sell to help pay for Summer’s tuition.

Seelie asks Anna Kate if she’s sure she wants to leave the café. Doc becomes agitated and insists that Anna Kate get her medical degree so she can take over his practice when he’s ready to retire. Anna Kate becomes annoyed because she never said she would do any such thing. Natalie suggests she and Anna Kate leave. Doc stands up, ready to continue the fight about his practice, but then collapses into Anna Kate’s arms.

At the hospital, Natalie is angry that Doc hid his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, and angrier when Anna Kate admits she knew there was something wrong, but she promised Doc she wouldn’t say anything.

Chapter 23 Summary

The reporter speaks to Doc Linden about the blackbirds. Doc says he’s never had anything to do with them, but they were there long before him and will be there after he’s gone.

Anna Kate is sleeping when a voice asks where Otis is. She wakes and struggles to get back to sleep because she’s upset that Natalie is angry with her and that Doc is ill. Anna Kate also regrets her promise to her mom to go to medical school. She acknowledges her wish to stay in Wicklow instead. After the café opens, Anna Kate goes to Otis’s and tells him that Pebbles has been ill. He decides to go check on her.

Anna Kate goes to the Lindens to visit Doc. When she enters his bedroom, Natalie quickly excuses herself. Doc explains that Natalie is angry, something Anna Kate already knows. Doc then complains that Seelie and Natalie are treating him like he’s sick, and he wants to live his life until he can’t. Anna Kate gently tells him that to live, he needs to eat, convincing him to eat the rice and beans that Natalie failed to get him to eat earlier. Anna Kate tells him she’ll take over his practice if that’s what he wants, but he says he no longer wants that. He just wants time with his family.

Seelie follows Natalie out of the house and chastises her for taking her anger at Doc out on Anna Kate. Natalie continues to the guest house where she finds Cam waiting for her. She asks Cam to take her and Ollie to the waterfall.

Chapter 24 Summary

Anna Kate is making tea for Doc when Summer stops by. She tells Anna Kate that between the boarders and t-shirts, as well as the money from the blackberry tea, she has enough money for the first payment on her tuition. She also got a job at the university library. Anna Kate wonders if Zee’s stipulation in the will that Anna Kate run the café for two months was part of a bigger scheme for Anna Kate to help the people of Wicklow.

Natalie and Cam talk beside the waterfall about Doc’s diagnosis. Cam suggests Natalie put herself in her father’s shoes and understand why he kept the diagnosis to himself. Cam compares Natalie’s situation with her father and Matthew to his wife’s decision to leave him while he was deployed. He tells her that forgiveness is a choice. At that moment, Ollie falls into the water. Natalie panics, but Ollie shows that she knows how to flip onto her back to float. Natalie understands now that her mother didn’t want her to live in fear because of Matthew’s death. She allows Ollie to play in the water.

Chapters 19-24 Analysis

The snippets of interviews between the unnamed reporter and various characters foreshadow the end of the novel. When the reporter speaks to Pebbles, the conversation and her illness foreshadow the change that will finally bring her and Otis together. When the reporter speaks to Aubin, he hints at a sense of karma related to the car accident that killed his wife. This can only point back to AJ’s car accident, foreshadowing the moment when Aubin reveals his connection to that event. This foreshadowing could be seen in the previous set of chapters as well, when Gideon revealed that everyone keeps secrets and Seelie expresses a desire to rewrite her life story. Seelie’s comments seem to align with Doc’s statement which reveals his understanding of the brevity of life. Both see how their actions impact those around them and how little things can profoundly change relationships, while at the same time, they appreciate how brief a period each person’s life is.

Webber uses character motivation in these chapters in a variety of ways. Doc’s demand that Anna Kate take over his practice reveals fear on his part that he won’t leave behind the legacy he wants, and it exposes that Anna Kate’s desire to become a doctor isn’t her choice, but her mother’s. This goes along with Seelie’s attempts to control AJ’s future when she demands he give up Eden or pay for college on his own. The parents in this novel all have a desire to protect their children, but their actions only cause more problems. Each parent believes they are doing what’s right by guiding their children, but in reality, they are taking their choices away. In Anna Kate’s case, this leads to a slowly awakened understanding of The Meaning of Roots as she struggles to find a place—and career—where she belongs.

Jena and Bow reveal themselves to be part of some mystery in these chapters. Throughout the novel, they have clandestine conversations and make cryptic comments that don’t often make sense to those who overhear them. However, as the reader begins to put these conversations together with the advice Jena and Bow hand out to Anna Kate, Summer, and Natalie throughout the novel, it appears they have a connection to the events surrounding AJ’s death. Bow’s declaration that he and Jena remained in Wicklow to right a wrong is a character motivation that is hidden in the mystery surrounding the two characters. However, Webber offers small hints as to Jena and Bow’s true nature that foreshadow the truth about the reasons they stayed in Wicklow for 25 years despite their assertion that they are “gypsies” at heart. The truth lies in the fantastical elements of the novel, and the mystery that surrounds it is a characteristic of the Southern Gothic genre.

Grief and Guilt enter the plot once again when Doc’s diagnosis is finally revealed to his family as well as the town, all of whom love him and grieve for him and their loss. As has been common for both Natalie and Seelie, Natalie responds first with anger. This recalls Natalie’s grief pattern for Matthew. In both that case and her father’s, she feels betrayed by the lies both men used to protect her and themselves. Seelie’s pain at Doc’s revelation is profound, but the anger she felt due to AJ’s death does not accompany her pain here. This suggests that Seelie has grown enough as a character to understand that anger isn’t productive. However, due to Seelie’s insight, she can help Natalie see the perils of grief and anger. Seelie began this with her desire to teach Ollie to swim to assuage Natalie’s fear of allowing Ollie near water. Seelie continues this by chastising Natalie for taking her anger out on Anna Kate. However, it is Natalie’s relationship with Cam and their shared loss of love that helps Natalie see her grief for what it is.

While the novel has an overall light tone, there is heaviness in the subjects tackled through the theme of Grief and Guilt. However, this tone begins to change as Summer announces they raised enough money for her first tuition payment. This event is also important to the overall plot because it illustrates the impact Anna Kate has on the people of Wicklow, and it heralds the beginning of a change for the town of Wicklow that is reflected in the increased business and influx of money that has changed the future of the small town. Webber contrasts the dying town at the beginning of the novel with this now flourishing town, highlighting how one bad thing—AJ’s death—brought despair to Wicklow, but a good thing—Anna Kate’s arrival—is turning that impact around.