Flight Behavior

A stranger in a Volkswagen Beetle shows up at the Turnbow home one morning asking to see the farm. Dellarobia introduces herself and takes the measure of the very tall African American man with a Caribbean accent. He is Ovid Byron, and she tries to impress him with what little knowledge she has of the famous writers for whom he is named. In turn, he tells her that her name is the name of a renowned Italian Renaissance artist. Dellarobia is taken aback, as she always thought her name came from her mother’s misguided attempt to name her after a wreath full of “nature junk.” Byron encourages her to look into the meaning, and this affords Dellarobia a new way of looking at her name and herself: “A person could be reborn from the strength of that” (144).

Before he heads up the trail to see the butterflies, Byron is invited to have dinner with Dellarobia and her family. She calls Dovey to tell her about the stranger and then works hard to clean up her house. She doesn’t tell Cub about the guest until later that evening and chastises him for not being Christian enough to want to feed a stranger on a cold night.

Although Byron’s arrival is awkward, Cub and Preston soon warm up to him. He insists they call him Ovid, and he reveals himself to be a biologist from New Mexico who studies butterflies and their movements. Dellarobia feels embarrassed at having discussed the basics of butterflies with someone who is an expert, but Byron brushes aside her concerns. His ultimate goal is to answer a troubling question: “Why a major portion of the monarch population that has overwintered in Mexico since God set it loose […] would instead aggregate […] for the first time in recorded history, on the farm of the family Turnbow” (166).

December arrives with another deluge of rain, dashing hopes for a white Christmas and turning the farm into a giant lake. The butterflies have taken center stage on the Turnbow property—especially when Ovid and three of his assistants set up a camper next to the Turnbows’ old barn, which still has electric access. Dellarobia is somewhat surprised that Cub allowed this experiment, as he normally needs his parents’ approval for anything he does, but he is also impressed by Ovid’s knowledge. “Educated people had powers” (171), Dellarobia reflects.

Hester shows up unannounced at the Turnbow home, which puts Dellarobia on edge. She knows that Hester wouldn’t be there if there weren’t some bad news to share. She assumes it’s about the arguments that have risen between family members concerning the tours and the church’s attitude toward Dellarobia’s “miracle.” The small talk between the women is tense and forced, with Hester talking about the ewes that she needs to move out from a flooded field and Dellarobia offering to hold them on their drier property. Instead of expressing gratitude for the offer, Hester tells Dellarobia she would have to know what Dellarobia was doing to care for the ewes. She is also critical of the professor living on the land but quiets down when Dellarobia informs her that Byron pays rent each month. Their exchange turns acerbic.

Suddenly, Hester becomes emotional, and Dellarobia is surprised to see tears in her eyes. Hester confesses that Bear and Peanut Norwood have signed the contract with the loggers. In turmoil, Dellarobia thinks of “[t]he valley of lights, the boughs of orange flame” completely gutted and destroyed by the loggers (182). Hester suggests that Cub would stand up to his father on the matter if Dellarobia supported him. In this way, Hester is admitting that she needed her daughter-in-law’s help for all of them to do the right thing. In a sign of solidarity, Dellarobia offers Hester a cigarette.

When the rain stops, Dellarobia goes up the trail to see the scientists. As she does, she reflects on what she learned by looking up the town in Mexico where Preston’s friend lived. The main reason the flood did so much damage was that the area had been logged before the storms. The clear-cutting of the trees “caused the mudslides and floods when a hard rain came” (189). She thinks back to the second time she hosted Josefina’s family in her home and listened to them talk about the butterflies.

Bonnie, one of Ovid’s assistants, asks Dellarobia if she can help them with their records. She teaches Dellarobia how to tell the sex of each butterfly and then has Dellarobia begin to note and record them. While they are all working, Dellarobia notices how closely the assistants work together. She wonders what it would be like “to be with men without being with them” (195). When she finds a butterfly that has a sticker on it, the scientists are overjoyed. Dellarobia isn’t sure why it’s worth anything to them, as the butterfly is dead. They explain that the tagged butterfly might help explain why the insects came to the Turnbow farm instead of their normal breeding and feeding grounds.

Ovid goes out of his way to patiently explain the process of butterfly migration to Dellarobia. She tries to grasp the concept that butterflies live for six weeks—some longer if they are in colder climates due to diapause, or hibernation. Diapause puts a hold on all aspects of life, and Dellarobia compares this to “life in an uninsulated house […] Maybe like marriage in general” (200). Although she tries hard to follow the conversation among the scientists, she feels frustrated and finds herself nearly in tears thinking about butterflies, which spend their lives producing offspring who know how to get to a place they’ve never been.

Ovid points out that various things may be responsible for the change in the butterflies’ normal flight behaviors, such as climate change, farm chemicals, and fire ants. When Dellarobia tries to defend the butterflies’ relocation to the farm, saying, “We don’t get a lot of bonuses around here, let me tell you” (203), Ovid says that even wonders such as this can presage a terrible event. Dellarobia suppresses her annoyance that these scientists, with their “[e]ducation, good looks, [and] boots whose price tag [equal] her husband’s last paycheck” (205), claim her butterflies too.

On the way down the trail with the group, Dellarobia offers to fix the broken zipper on Mako’s coat. The young scientists are amazed that Dellarobia would not only fix the zipper but have the means to do so: a sewing machine. She tells them her mother was a seamstress and that’s how she learned to sew and repair clothing. The assistants are amazed that Dellarobia has this talent, and their wonder causes her to look at them as more than just spoiled, educated young adults. She finds herself wanting to do something for them before they leave for the holidays, such as throw a party, but she feels too embarrassed to let them into her home.