Midnight Robber

The main narrative resumes with Tan-Tan experiencing morning sickness. Abitefa asks her about her sickness, and Tan-Tan explains that it is Antonio’s baby, which she calls a “monster” and Abitefa calls “a gift from daddy tree” (233). Abitefa reveals that she has a type of sonar that allows her to see the baby, stun small frogs, and know when the interdimensional shifts occur.

Tan-Tan seeks an abortion and asks Abitefa to come to the nearest human village with her. Abitefa can only walk with her to the edge of the bush. Tan-Tan plans to use the wedding ring Antonio gave her to pay for abortion drugs, and she stops to vomit again before reaching the village called Chigger Bite.

The village is poor, even poorer than Junjuh, and Tan-Tan finds a man named Al who will talk to her. She asks him to take her to the doctor, and he agrees to give her the tour of “the nastiest, meanest of all the exile settlements on New Half-Way Tree” (241). Al flirts with her until his mother catches up with them and beats him with a switch.

Tan-Tan steals the switch and hits Al’s Mamee with it, as if possessed by avenging spirit.