A Fall of Marigolds

“It was the most in-between of places, the trio of islands that was my world after the fire. For the immigrants who arrived ill from wherever they came from, the Earth stopped its careful spinning while they waited to be made well. They were not back home where their previous life had ended; nor were they embracing the wide horizon of a reinvented life. They were poised between two worlds.” 

Clara describes Ellis Island and projects what she feels onto those who arrive there. What she leaves out is that no one wanted to be on Ellis Island; those who had to stay there only did so temporarily, to get well enough to go on the rest of their journey and settle in America, or they died. Those were the only options. This foreshadows what is true for Clara as well: She must move on, or she will die.

“[L]uck was finding something you thought was lost for good, or winning a porcelain doll at the county fair, or getting a new hat, or having every dance on your dance card. Good luck made you feel kissed by heaven and smiled on by the Fates.” 

Clara’s thoughts in response to those who told her she was lucky to have escaped the fire reveal the true depths of her depression. She never says she wished she would have died in a fire, but these silent admissions are troubling.

“The scarf billowed up between us, soft and eager to fly. I caught a whiff of fragrance in its threads, delicate and sweet. In the sunlight it looked less like fire and more like a burst of monarch butterflies. I could see a cascading fall of marigolds splashed across the fabric.”

Clara describes the scarf and its beauty and attributes intentionality to it, saying it is “eager to fly.” This anthropomorphic description foreshadows the way the reader will eventually come to understand the scarf, as symbolic of both change and love.