The postcard showed the big pool at the King’s Bath dotted with the tiny figures of white men wading and swimming. They took turns looking and laughing at the picture before Indigo read the message.
Hattie sent her love to Indigo and the girls and, of course, the little grandfather. The weather was too cloudy and cool for anything more than pussy willows, snowdrops, and pink ladies.
Next week they would take the train to Scotland to visit the old stones. In September they’d cross the channel and go by train to spend the autumn with Laura in Lucca.
Indigo broke into a big smile. What a relief it was to know Hattie was all right. She unfolded the money and the girls passed it around. They’d never touched a $50 bill before. The stamps Indigo would use right away. She would write Hattie and send the reply back with the twins.
Now for the news from Road’s End, Sister teased the twins. Were they at least pregnant or engaged yet? They all laughed and shook their heads. It sure was good to see one another again. Yes, the news was they’d managed to save up enough money so they didn’t have to live in a wallow of green beer anymore. Rumors had it they were about to be arrested for bootlegging anyway.
They used the money to buy two milk goats, six turkeys, and two dozen chickens. With egg and milk money they bought peach and apricot seedlings out of a California mail-order catalogue. Only thing was, now when they wanted to be gone more than a day, they had to hire a neighbor to sleep at their house to care for all their livestock.
Remember all those gladiolus spuds Indigo planted in their garden and everyone scolded her for planting useless flowers? Guess what? Big spikes of buds appeared in the first warm days after Christmas, and in no time white, lavender, red, and yellow flowers opened. People passing by on the road stopped to stare—the flowers were quite a sight.
When no one was around, the twins took an old bucket full of freshly cut flowers to the brush-covered shelter the flooded Christians used as a church. At first the twins weren’t sure if their peace offering would be accepted by their neighbors. But the next week, they found the old bucket at their gate, so they refilled it with flowers. Their neighbors received all sorts of food donations from other churches each month; but no one up or down the river had such tall amazing flowers for their church. So those flowers turned out to be quite valuable after all.
Indigo scooped up some stew with a piece of tortilla.
“Look,” she said to the twins. “Do you recognize this?”
“Some kind of potato, isn’t it?” Vedna fished one out of her stew and popped it into her mouth.
“Ummmm!”
Maytha stirred her stew with a piece of tortilla and examined the vegetable—it was a gladiolus spud! She laughed out loud.
“You can eat them!” she exclaimed. Those gladiolus weren’t only beautiful; they were tasty!
After the twins finished lunch, they all walked up the path to see the gardens and the spring. Now Rainbow flew along above them until he saw a hawk and returned to Indigo’s shoulder. Linnaeus walked ahead of the little grandfather to scout for any danger, Sister liked to say. Their parrot and monkey warned them if strangers approached even a mile away.
The twins especially like the “speckled corn” effect of the color combinations Indigo made with the gladiolus she planted in rows to resemble corn kernels. Maytha agreed with Indigo; their favorite was the lavender, purple, white, and black planting, but Sister and Vedna preferred the dark red, black, purple, pink, and white planting. They were closed now, but in the morning sky blue morning glories wreathed the edges of the terraces like necklaces.
Down the shoulder of the dune to the hollow between the dunes, silver white gladiolus with pale blues and pale lavenders glowed among the great dark jade datura leaves. Just wait until sundown—the fragrance of the big datura blossoms with the gladiolus flowers would make them swoon, Indigo promised.
When the girls first returned to the old gardens the winter before, Grandma Fleet’s dugout house was in good condition but terrible things had been done at the spring. Fortunately Grandma Fleet had warned Sister Salt during her visit the third night of the dance, so the girls were prepared for the shock. Strangers had come to the old gardens; at the spring, for no reason, they slaughtered the big old rattlesnake who lived there; then they chopped down the small apricot trees above Grandma Fleet’s grave.
That day they returned, the twins helped Sister Salt and Indigo gather up hundreds of delicate rib bones to give old Grandfather Snake a proper burial next to Grandma Fleet. They all wept as they picked up his bones, but Indigo wept harder when she looked at the dried remains of the little apricots trees hacked to death with the snake.
Today Indigo and Linnaeus ran ahead of the others with the parrot flying ahead of her. At the top of the sandy slope she stopped and knelt in the sand by the stumps of the apricot trees, and growing out of the base of one stump were green leafy shoots. Who knew such a thing was possible last winter when they cried their eyes sore over the trees?
They took turns drinking the cold water from the crevice in the cave wall and sat on the cool sand on the cave’s floor to listen to the splashing water for a while.
They sat so quietly the twins and the little grandfather dozed off; something terrible struck there, but whatever or whoever, it was gone now; Sister Salt could feel the change. Early the other morning when she came alone to wash at the spring, a big rattlesnake was drinking at the pool. The snake dipped her mouth daintily into the water, and her throat moved with such delicacy as she swallowed. She stopped drinking briefly to look at Sister, then turned back to the water; then she gracefully turned from the pool across the white sand to a nook of bright shade. Old Snake’s beautiful daughter moved back home.
SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS
READING GROUP GUIDE
GARDENS IN THE DUNES
DISCUSSION POINTS
1. Do you consider this a feminist novel, or simply a novel that features strong female characters? Is there a difference between the two?
2. Motherhood is a strong theme throughout the novel. What does this book suggest about the importance of mothers and mothering? Could the book be viewed as an argument for a matriarchal society?
3. Many of the male characters in the book disappoint or deceive their mates. Both Edward and Candy eventually drop out of the narrative, and even the Messiah himself fails to reappear. The novel’s final pages depict the women characters taking care of themselves and one another. What is the significance of this? How do you feel about Silko’s portrayal of men? Are men expendable in the world she creates?
4. What is Edward’s ultimate failing? Is he naive? Is he a poor businessman? Does he simply encounter bad luck? Could one argue that he is punished because he sullies his passions for botany and archaeology with dubious financial schemes? What does the book say about the dangers of materialism and the consequences of putting a price on natural treasures?
5. Compare Indigo’s spiritual, survivalist relationship to nature with Edward’s scientific, capitalist approach. Does the book suggest that one is more ethical than the other? Do the events of the book support the idea that we have a moral responsibility toward the natural world?
6. How do the diverse gardens featured throughout the novel reflect both the differences among cultures and the universal human instinct to shape and control nature?
7. Contrast the Indians’ yearly Ghost Dance with the annual Masque of the Blue Garden hosted by Hattie’s sister-in-law, Susan. How are the preparations for each similar? Different? What do these gatherings reveal about the values, beliefs, and lifestyles of their participants?
8. Compare and contrast the book’s depictions of the affluence of high society and the abundant riches of nature. Do you find the moment when Indigo trades her fancy new dresses for food at the end of the novel happy or sad?
9. Indigo is not formally educated, but she is very bright. How would you characterize her intelligence? Discuss Indigo’s personification of the natura
l world and the close relationships she develops with her pets. Why are these behaviors perceived as alarming by many of the white people she meets throughout the book? How do the challenges Indigo faces among the Sand Lizards differ from those she encounters during her travels with Hattie and Edward?
10. Discuss the role of the supernatural in the narrative and in the lives of the characters. Recall Indigo’s sighting of the Messiah during the first Ghost Dance, Aunt Bronwyn’s belief in the sacred stones, the mysterious white light Hattie sees in her aunt’s garden, and the gypsy Delena’s ability to read the future with cards. How does the book explore the interplay of religion, mysticism, and spirituality?
11. By the end of the book, Hattie abandons her thesis about the early church—and even some of her Christian beliefs. Which experiences and characters most transform Hattie’s views of religion and spirituality?
12. Are you surprised that Hattie does not adopt Indigo at the end of the book? Did you hope that she would? In the end, what do Hattie and Indigo gain from one another? Which of them has been more profoundly changed by the end of their journey and the book?
AUTHOR’S NOTE ON Gardens in the Dunes
When I was a child, all the households at Laguna Pueblo had vegetable gardens. I used to help my great-grandma water her hollyhocks and cosmos every evening, and I remember the lovely, big blue morning glories she loved. Seed catalogs and garden books are favorites of mine, and some years ago I began to read about orchids and the history of their cultivation in Europe.
Many years before, I’d had an idea for a short story about a young Indian student who is sent away to Indian boarding school where she learns to cultivate and even hybridize gladiolus. The short story was going to focus on the conflict she encountered when she returned home and tried to plant gladiolus; farm land and water in the desert are too precious to waste on flowers, her elders would have scolded. I never got around to writing this short story, but when I wanted to write about two sisters and their relationship, I decided to incorporate this earlier idea into my novel.
Nearly all human cultures plant gardens, and the garden itself has ancient religious connections. For a long time, I’ve been interested in pre-Christian European beliefs, and the pagan devotions to sacred groves of trees and sacred springs. My German translator gave me a fascinating book on the archeology of Old Europe, and in it I discovered ancient artifacts that showed that the Old European cultures once revered snakes, just as we Pueblo Indian people still do. So I decided to take all these elements—orchids, gladiolus, ancient gardens, Victorian gardens, Native American gardens, Old European figures of Snake-bird Goddesses—and write a novel about two young sisters at the turn of the century.
BY LESLIE MARMON SILKO
Gardens in the Dunes (novel)
Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit (essays)
Sacred Water (autobiography)
Almanac of the Dead (novel)
Storyteller (short stories)
Ceremony (novel)
Laguna Woman (verse)
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SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1999 by Leslie Marmon Silko
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
First Simon & Schuster paperback edition 2005
SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
DESIGNED BY JEANETTE OLENDER
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Silko, Leslie, date.
Gardens in the dunes : a novel / Leslie Marmon Silko.
p. cm.
1. Indians of North America—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.I44G37 1999
813'.54—dc21 98-51987
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-81154-3
ISBN-10: 0-684-81154-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-86332-0 (Pbk)
ISBN-10: 0-684-86332-4 (Pbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-2789-6 (eBook)
Leslie Marmon Silko, Gardens in the Dunes
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