McKenzie Cooke

Accel. English 12

A block

Bean trees have no place in England

(The Bean Trees, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time)

            The brisk air and frost-covered ground foreshadow that change is near. It is the end of fall in Tucson, Arizona, and winter is sharply creeping in through the hard ground. This change in weather brings a negativity that overcomes most people, especially Taylor. Even little Turtle seems depressed because all of the crops are frozen, and she can no longer watch the beans grow out in Mattie’s garden. Taylor decides that she, herself, needs change as well. Taylor knows that she makes very little money, but thinks she has saved enough to allow her and Turtle to go away for the remainder of the winter and surround themselves with new, positive experiences. She is aware that there are many Indian reservations where they can stay due to her Cherokee head rights, but instead, Taylor wants to go somewhere completely different from anywhere she has ever been. She and Turtle pack up their belongings and head to England.

            Taylor and Turtle arrive in London, England and it feels like an entirely different world. There is such busyness at the train station that Turtle holds tight to her mother’s hand. Among the craziness of rush hour at the station, the two accidentally board the wrong train. Rather than heading toward their hotel, they are headed to a small town called Swindon. Also on the bus from London to Swindon is Christopher Boone. He is headed from his mother’s house to his father’s for a short visit, and startles Taylor when she sees him crawling on the floor down the train car aisle. He is making moaning sounds as if he is in pain, and he is getting closer, so Taylor decides to confront him. Taylor has grown to be very tolerant of other people and their differences, so she approaches Christopher quietly and respectfully. “Excuse me, sir,” Taylor says. It looks as if she is talking to the floor because that is where Christopher is, now practically under her feet. His only response is more groaning. Taylor starts to repeat herself, assuming the boy did not hear her, but is interrupted by Turtle, who is shrieking and pointing under the seat across from them. “Mouse, mom! A mouse!” she screams excitedly. Christopher stands up and runs to the critter, scooping it up and putting it into his pocket.

            “What is going on?” Taylor demands. Christopher is threatened by her tone, but decides that he will answer because even though the lady is a stranger, strangers who are women and have kids are generally safe to speak with.

“I had to find Toby,” he replies. The train begins to slow down.

“Is Toby that mouse?” Taylor asks him.

“No. Toby is a rat. He is my pet.”

“That is very interesting,” Taylor says slowly. “I am Taylor Greer, and this is my daughter, Turtle.”

Christopher does not know whether to believe Taylor or not because this name seems ridiculous and he knows humans tell lies.

“Her name is Turtle?” he questions.

“Her name is April, but I call her Turtle because she used to have a grip as strong as a Turtle’s back when she was a baby. Turtle is her nickname, but it has a deep meaning.”

Christopher is confused by this comparison because humans are not like turtles at all.

            “What’s your name? Are you lost?” Taylor asked again.

Christopher hesitated from answering this time because he remembered almost being caught by a policeman on this same train car. Number three, the first real prime number greater than zero. He looks away from Taylor’s eyes and answers, “I am Christopher. I am not lost. I am headed to visit Father in Swindon.”

            Taylor panics immediately at the name of this town she has never heard of, and she stares straight up at the blinking sign telling the trains’ passengers that they have now reached their destination. Taylor and Turtle exit the train, hand in hand, after Christopher at the Swindon rail station. When Taylor catches her first glimpse of Christopher’s father, Ed Boone, who is waiting there for his son, her heart drops. She has never been the type of girl to have love at all for a man, never mind at first sight. The feelings seem mutual as their eyes meet. Christopher’s father ends up inviting Taylor and Turtle back to his home to help them get everything worked out. Taylor is both grateful and anxious, and rents a taxi to follow Ed and Christopher home because Christopher did his groaning and would not let her or Turtle into his father’s car. At the Boone residence, Taylor and Ed talk for what seems like hours on end, sipping coffee at the table while Turtle slept on the parlor couch and Christopher read his spacecraft book. Instead of making phone calls home and working out a way back to their London hotel as planned, Taylor stays. She spends the night, and the night turned into three more weeks. Taylor loves how easy it is for her to talk to Ed, and he enjoys the way the two understand each other completely. In just a month or so, they had formed a bond so strong that their time spent together made them begin to feel like a small family; a thing that Ed and Taylor had both missed very much.

            Taylor Greer finds herself so in love with Christopher’s father that she cannot imagine leaving him. Although Taylor is closer to Christopher’s age than his father’s, she is not bothered by it. She even finds herself starting to see Christopher as another one of her children, and is extremely pleased that he has begun to trust her. Christopher doesn’t mind having Taylor and Turtle around as long as they do not touch his special food box, touch him, or wear yellow and brown. He even lets Turtle help him feed Toby, and watched Taylor plant new flowers in the garden in the backyard, which he likes very much. Taylor was debating permanently moving to Swindon when she saw a black bird picking at the new garden plants, ripping them directly out of the ground. She knows that, like these newly sprouted plants, her roots do not belong in England. She is nostalgic for her past, her house in Tucson, and she misses all of her friends. It is time for Taylor to return home and end this chapter in her life. She packs her things and calls a taxi once again, leaving Ed with only a good-bye kiss.