The Beet Queen

Nine years after Mary arrives in Argus—she is now 20—the wonder of the miracle she supposedly engendered has worn off. Mary has realized that she will never become a great beauty, nor will she ever be tall enough to look over the counter at her customers at the meat market. She has been working at the shop, “[her] perfect home” (67), for years now. Aunt Fritzie and Uncle Pete will eventually hand it over to her before moving to a drier climate for the sake of Fritzie’s lungs. Mary and Celestine will run the shop for the rest of their lives, alone for the most part, though Sita sometimes reluctantly helps.

Mary has one brief, unsatisfying brush with romance when she finds herself inextricably attracted to Celestine’s half-brother, Russell Kashpaw, who has come home from war yet again from the war in Korea after having previously served in World War II, with scars marring his face and body. Mary finds him even more attractive with his scars, but Russell is deliberately antisocial. When Celestine talks him into going to a dinner at Mary’s, he barely speaks. Mary decides to liven the party up by telling fortunes with her cards. After deliberately upsetting Sita by predicting a future of poverty for her, Mary tells Russell’s fortune: He will find a woman.