The Rules of Magic

Back in New York City, on Halloween, Jet suggests they test their magical powers by aiming to make a wish come true. When Frances wishes for a bird, a crow approaches her, and she hears a voice saying, “I will never leave unless you send me away” (76). Meanwhile, Vincent, who is not yet ready to face up to who he is, drinks to forget and aims to cast the forgetting spell he has read about in The Magus.

Jet has wished for her true love and finds Levi Willard standing on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum. The next morning, she has gone missing, and Susanna intuits that the sign of melting butter in a dish means that someone is in love. Jet reappears, gushing with love for Levi, and Susanna responds by slapping her in the face. Susanna explains that she has escaped the family curse by not being in love with their father, even though she loves him. She forbids Jet from ever seeing Levi again.

April pays a surprise visit to her New York cousins. Susanna, alarmed to see her niece, threatens to send her away the next day. April retorts that the two of them are “two peas in a pod” (86), as both escaped Boston and were sent to two different boarding schools.