During a visit from Taylor, Cynthia realizes that Taylor has made the decision to keep Turtle and gives Taylor the name of a man to contact in Oklahoma after she locates Turtle's relatives. Note that Taylor asks Cynthia about the cameo brooch that Cynthia often wears, wondering if Cynthia has to shop at the Salvation Army because she doesn't have a lot of money or if she likes "rummaging through other people's family heirlooms." Taylor's comment is a metaphor for Cynthia's job as a social worker.
Taylor decides that she and Turtle will go to Oklahoma to find Turtle's relatives so that Taylor can adopt her. Taylor will also take Estevan and Esperanza to a safe house in Oklahoma. Kingsolver creates suspense as Mattie discusses the penalties involved in transporting illegal immigrants, including jail and stiff fines. Esperanza and Estevan will be deported and killed. And Turtle will be taken away from Taylor. However, to her credit, Taylor is not swayed from her decision.
Kingsolver balances the ugliness of the world that Taylor has to endure with the beauty of nature. The night before Taylor, Turtle, Estevan, and Esperanza are to leave for Oklahoma, Virgie Mae comes to Taylor and Lou Ann's door saying that she wants to show them something. Taylor and Lou Ann wake the children and take them to Edna and Virgie's front porch, where they see the most beautiful night-blooming cereus, a plant that blooms only one night each year. The sight portends a positive outcome to Taylor's trip to Oklahoma, according to Lou Ann. "Something good" will happen.
Note that Mattie gives Taylor an envelope full of money before Taylor sets out for Oklahoma. Here, Mattie acknowledges that different people play different roles in life: Some people take risks, succeed, and are called heroes; others work behind the scene but are as important as the more public heroes. To Mattie, what Taylor is doing is heroic.
