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Summary

• The sisters Nell, Emily, and Maisie act childishly together and discuss their futures, with Nell joking about their mother going to California to become a movie star while they remain on the farm.
• Maisie owns a dog named Hazel, which she rescued from an animal shelter. Hazel was considered unadoptable due to her behavior and physical issues, but Maisie ignored the risk and adopted her out of compassion.
• Emily, who lives on the orchard, plans to walk home with a manual on branch grafting that puts her to sleep. The narrator offers to walk Emily home, and they share a meaningful goodnight kiss.
• Their father works hard on the farm and is already asleep by the time the narrator goes to bed, contemplating the heavy burden he carries, managing the farm and its various challenges.
• The narrator reflects on her past with a man named Jimmy-George Haywood, who was a math teacher and actor. He was in a relationship with the narrator's friend Veronica, and later became intimate with the narrator as well, leading to a strained friendship.
• The narrator regrets not understanding the impact of her choices at a young age and wonders if sharing this story with her daughters would've been beneficial, though it might be too late.
• In the morning, Maisie and Nell are still asleep. The narrator reminisces about their childhood and how cold the house used to be.
• The narrator ponders telling her daughters more about her past, particularly about her brief romantic connection with a man named Peter Duke before he became a movie star.
• Emily previously went through a phase where she believed that Duke was her biological father, which caused turmoil in the family. She expressed her desire to leave the farm and live with Duke in Malibu.
• This mistaken belief about Duke persisted over time, causing the daughters to become fascinated with Duke's celebrity and the narrator's past association with him. The father had inadvertently revealed this connection while watching one of Duke's movies with the family.
• Years after revealing her past with Duke, the narrator still finds the girls obsessed with Duke's life and works, even as her own thoughts of him remain minimal and detached.