When she returned, he asked Myrlie to take Van inside, so he could spend time on his own admiring the plum tree he’d planted there. Myrlie felt that something had shifted in Medgar. He was settled, and no longer afraid, but also palpably despondent. “Myrlie, I think we’re going to have our best year ever for plums,”39 he said, with a kind of empty optimism that made her feel more sad than hopeful.
