Trampoline

Dawn decides she wants to continue dating Willett, but only if they take things slow. Hubert catches up with Dawn and tells them that someone has evidence of Hubert’s illegal alcohol operation. He apologizes for getting her involved, and leading her into the accident with Keith. He tells her when it resolves that she should go live with June.

Dawn rides with Agnes and her husband, Felix, to Frankfort, where they meet with the governor. The lawyers from both sides argue in front of the governor. During a break from the conversation, the governor tells Dawn he intends to protect the land and asks if she will stand with him on Christmas day when he makes the announcement, as long as she wears something more presentable. When the meeting continues, the governor says he intends to make Blue Bear Mountain a nature preserve, which would ban all mining from occurring on the land. As they leave the meeting, Agnes asks their lawyer if that was good news, and he tells her, “It’s the best we could do. Better than I thought we could” (282). 

Dawn tells Willett the good news, but when he tries to move things forward in their relationship, Dawn backs away again. Mamaw and Dawn celebrate the victory with the governor. Mamaw tells Dawn that, since Keith’s death, Momma has cleaned up her act a bit and has started going to church again. They talk about the trial for Keith, and she tells Dawn that Hubert will likely go to jail. Dawn cries. The governor’s assistant calls Mamaw’s house and explains that they found someone else to stand with the governor when he makes the announcement, likely because they found out about Dawn’s involvement in Keith’s death. Dawn leaves Mamaw’s, telling her she is going to Papaw Houston’s, but instead, she walks to Hubert’s to join the Christmas Eve party.

Dawn walks over to Hubert’s, where she finds a strange woman she has never seen before is sitting on his couch. Hubert is making chili for Christmas dinner. Dawn decides to make a pie. There are ingredients for pies in the house because Dawn’s mother used to love to bake. Hubert and Dawn drink vodka until they both pass out with the pies baking in the oven. Dawn wakes up and sees a vision of her father, telling her he is disappointed in her for getting so close to Hubert. Dawn protests that he had also told her she needed to give him a chance. Dawn’s mother comes back to the house and pulls the burned pies from the oven.

Dawn wakes up at Houston’s unsure of how she got there. She recalls a memory of her mother and Hubert planting flowers together, supposedly the beginning of their affair, and Dawn is filled with anger. She vows to kill Hubert to end it all. On her way to search for him, she finds her five-year-old cousin on the porch playing with a knife. She tries to pry it away from him, but the child’s mother finds them and starts to beat him. Dawn eventually leaves and picks up the knife, intending to use it to kill Hubert.

When she finds Hubert, he is standing on the trampoline about to slip a noose over his neck. He slips it over his neck before jumping off the edge of the trampoline. Dawn runs toward him and cuts the rope, causing Hubert to fall onto the trampoline. He confesses to feeling like a failure because he was not able to take care of Dawn and her family in the wake of his brother’s death.

Soon, Denny and Fred catch up with them bearing news about Keith’s death. Test results came back indicating that Keith was high on Oxycodone when he died. Dawn notes that she had never heard the word before at the time, even though she’s been around the drug for a long time.

Dawn joins her family for Christmas dinner. When she arrives, they are watching the Governor announce protections for Blue Bear Mountain on television. Meanwhile, Hubert turns himself in at the sheriff’s department. At dinner, June pulls Dawn aside and tells her that Aunt Ohio died overnight in a car accident. Dawn takes Willett to the ledge where she and Aunt Ohio sat a few weeks ago, where Ohio told Dawn to look for magic. Willett shows Dawn a magic pop can that refills itself, then he tells her the secret behind the trick.

Willett and Dawn see June looking out over the ledge at them. They talk with June for a few minutes, and she invites Dawn to attend Momma’s baptism. At the baptism, Dawn is overcome with a sense of peace and forgiveness for her mother. Hubert surprises the churchgoers when he arrives, seemingly released from jail, seeking to be baptized as well. Later, Hubert returns to prison serve his sentence.

Aunt Ohio left Mamaw hundreds of thousands of dollars, which Mamaw uses to take journalists on helicopter tours of the mining sites, hoping that will influence them to spread their fight. On the day of the first flight, the journalist they invited fails to show up, so Dawn rides in the helicopter instead. She admires the land and notes the landmarks and places that hold meaning for her. She takes a few pictures, but when she develops them, they don’t really reveal anything about the land except for one thing: a picture of a tiny yellow dot, like the magic pop can, she notes, except its Willett, and he’s standing next to an arrow with a message that says “YOU ARE HERE” (312) and for the first time, she feels she is exactly where she is supposed to be.