Jasmine

For the next two years, Jasmine lives with Taylor and Wylie Hayes, and their daughter. They are very welcoming to Jasmine, telling her no references other than her connections to the Gordon family are necessary. They explain Jasmine’s schedule and seem overly insistent on making sure they are respectful of Jasmine’s ethnic and cultural background. Wylie says, “You just let us know when we upset you, all right?” (168). Jasmine fits perfectly into a newly created niche in the household: “Duff was my child; Taylor and Wylie were my parents, my teachers, my family” (165).

Wylie and Taylor share with Jasmine that Duff was adopted due to Taylor’s low sperm count. They plan on telling Duff when she is older. To Jasmine, adopting a non-genetic child is “a monstrous idea” (170), comparable to the ridiculousness of a widow getting remarried.

During her first day at the Hayeses home, Jasmine realizes that she has fallen in love with their world and lifestyle. It is aspirational in the best ways: “I wanted to become the person they thought they saw: humorous, intelligent, refined, affectionate. Not illegal, not murderer, not widowed, raped, destitute, fearful” (171). Jasmine is overwhelmed and confused by the openness the Hayeses show her, and their overly eager willingness to have her comfortable in their home. But instead of taking a room for her own, Jasmine prefers to move a cot into Duff’s room and stay with the little girl.

For Jasmine, living with the Hayeses is a revelation. They treat her as a member of the family, not a servant, a status to which Jasmine has been accustomed for so long. She feels good when she overhears Wylie refer to her as a “caregiver” (174) on the phone. Jasmine senses that they respect her as both a family member and as a professional worker.

Taylor gives Jasmine yet another name, “Jase,” and she finds herself caught up in his personality, his “goofiness and clowning” (175). Jasmine likes everything about him but refuses to acknowledge that she is falling in love with him.

When Duff refers to Jasmine as her “day mummy” (176), Wylie is so upset she says she must speak with Jasmine after dinner that night. But Wylie has to stay late at work, and Jasmine, taking on Wylie’s role, puts Duff to bed that evening. The next day, Jasmine hugs Wylie, who bursts into tears, admitting her jealousy towards Jasmine’s role as Duff’s caregiver.

After meeting the other au pairs who reside in the building, Jasmine is thankful that the Hayeses treat her as well as they do. During her second year with them, Taylor helps her get a part-time job in the Columbia mathematics department, which eventually leads to a job as a tutor in the graduate linguistics program where she makes 40 dollars an hour and is quickly able to repay Professorji for the green card he bought her.

Shortly afterward, Wylie tells Jasmine that she has fallen in love with another man and is leaving Taylor and Duff. Her defense is that the new relationship is her “chance at real happiness” (181) and that she has no choice but to grab it. Jasmine is confused because Wylie had always seemed happy with Taylor, and she breaks down in tears. Wylie hugs her, telling her that they love her and will not fire her, and declares outright that Taylor is in love with Jasmine.

After Wylie leaves, Jasmine’s presence comforts Taylor, who slowly begins to court her. Jasmine, for her part, looks back on these moments and asks herself, “Could I really not have known that I was head over heels in love with Taylor Hayes?” (186). While at the park on a picnic, Taylor confesses his love for Jasmine. Duff interrupts their conversation to tell them that the hot-dog vendor, who had sold a hot dog to Duff, asked if Jasmine is her mother.

Jasmine looks over at the vendor, recognizes him, and has a panic attack. Taylor leads her over to a nearby bench where she tells him the vendor is the man who killed Prakash: “He knows…he knows me. He knows I’m here” (188). Jasmine tells him everything about Prakash and the bombing, and that she is in grave danger. She feels “filthy, having been observed, tracked, by Sukhwinder” (189). Taylor wants to call the police, but Jasmine’s illegal status makes that an impossible option. She decides the only way to escape and keep Duff and Taylor safe is to flee as far away as possible. Jasmine decides she will go to Iowa.

In Iowa, Jasmine recalls the day Harlan Kroener shot Bud, a couple of days before Christmas two years previously. It was Du’s first Christmas with them, and Jasmine had been placing presents underneath the Christmas tree, daydreaming about the Christmases spent with the Hayeses. She heard footsteps at the door and opened it to see Kroener with his rifle in hand, a scene not out of place in rural Iowa.

Later, when the police interview her, Jasmine said that she did see the gun but had not thought anything more of it. Bud had not been forthcoming with her about some of the troubles at the bank and Kroener’s name had not been associated with any of those troubles. There had been suicides in their county, but no murder attempts. She told the police that she had not seen anything about Kroener that indicated his intent, although she realizes afterward that his “inexpressive voice comes from a demented man. Flat affect is the sign of murderous rage” (192).

Jasmine called Bud to the door, thereby faulting herself: “I delivered him to his crippler” (192). Bud recognized the danger that Kroener represented right away, and offered him hospitality while asking Jasmine to call up the sheriff, a subtle request that Jasmine missed as she was too busy with the presents under the tree. When Kroener made a veiled threat against Bud’s beautiful home and new, young wife, Bud agreed to get into Kroener’s car and go for a ride.

As he kissed Jasmine, he whispered in her ear something that she did not catch: “He’s going to shoot me” (193). Du was in his room watching television, but Jasmine believes that had he been in the living room to see the exchange, he would have known what to do.

In the present, a visitor comes to the house and asks if Bud is home. When Jasmine, now far warier, says he will be home any minute, the stranger says he will return when the whole family is home for his message. After the man has departed, Du emerges from his room and tells Jasmine the same man stopped by earlier that week and talked to him. Worried, Jasmine calls Darrel, who reassures her that “Harlan’s dead. That business is over for good” (195). But the stranger never stopped to talk to Darrel, prompting Du to pick up the phone and put forth conspiracy theories. Darrel yells at him to stop scaring Jasmine, or he will beat him. The stranger never returns to the property.

Jasmine considers her relationship with Bud’s ex-wife, Karen, who once referred to Jasmine as a “gold digger” (195). Karen runs counseling sessions for despondent farmers in the area out of the church’s basement. Jasmine feels that Karen would have known what to do when Harlan had shown up at the door. Feeling guilty, Jasmine blames herself for being too caught up in Bud, Du, and fighting Karen to have realized the trouble brewing between Kroener and Bud.

Jasmine remembers Bud’s mother, Mother Ripplemeyer, helping her get a job at the bank shortly after she arrived in Iowa. She thinks back to New York, how she decided to run away to Elsa County because that is where Duff had been born. Taylor had begged her to stay, and they had slept together before Jasmine left. She chides herself for thinking of the past when Bud needs her in the present.

Kroener shot Bud twice in the back as Bud was opening the car door, then turned the gun on himself. Du heard the gunshots, while Jasmine did not. Bud’s scream prompted Du to call the police.

Jasmine remembers Bud sharing with her his thoughts when he saw her walk into the bank for the first time: “You were glamour, something unattainable” (198). He claims that Jasmine has brought him back from the dead, from a deep mid-life crisis. She believes that her exotic looks and mannerisms are responsible: “I rejuvenate him simply by being who I am” (198). She can remember only one time Bud ever stooped to punch a man when they were leaving a bar, and a drunk commented on their age differences. He referred to Jasmine as a whore, and Bud knocked the man out with his fist.

Karen shadows Jasmine the week after Bud leaves her, begging Jasmine to teach her not to hate, to be a good Christian. She breaks down in tears, telling Jasmine, “I have no way of competing with you!” (204) But despite her desire to move elsewhere and start over, Karen stays in Baden, manning the county’s Suicide Hot Line and counseling men in crisis. Again, Jasmine thinks Karen would have known how to handle Kroener when he showed up on the doorstep. She would have prevented Bud’s shooting, unlike Jasmine, who feels responsible for both Prakash’s death and Bud’s maiming.

The relationship with Karen is strained further when she finds out about Jasmine’s pregnancy. She asks Jasmine how she could put more pressure and responsibility on Bud, who already has two decent, grown sons?

Jasmine unexpectedly receives a postcard in the mail from Taylor. He tells her that he and Duff are headed to see her in Iowa. He tells her, “WYLIE DOESN’T CONSIDER MY TRIP INSANE. STAY PUT. DON’T DARE RUN AWAY AGAIN” (208). She cannot read the word before Taylor’s signature, but she thinks it may be the word “love.”

When Du confronts her about the card, he tells her that it is fine to do “whatever you’re planning” (208). They both acknowledge that Bud has given them a good home, but they also realize that is not enough for either of them. Looking at the woman on the front of the postcard, Du notes that she was a revolutionary’s wife who lived amongst strangers, drawing a direct parallel to Jasmine.

Jasmine admits the excitement of seeing Taylor again but notes that it clashes with her sense of “duty and prudence” (211) to Bud.