Summary

In “Balm in Gilead,” Maggie summoned Essie, Sarah, Puah and Be Auntie to help her heal Samuel and Isaiah after their punishment. She instructed Puah to collect the necessary plants, which involved following a specific course around the plantation. Near the overseers’ shacks, two children (Beatrice and Michael) tried to stop Puah from picking flowers, but they relented when she said that she was following Paul’s orders. In the barn, the women formed a circle around Samuel and Isaiah and called on the ancestors, then Maggie killed a rooster as a sacrifice, and they cleaned the men’s wounds with the healing paste that Maggie had prepared.

“Romans” takes the form of another message from the ancestors. In “II Kings,” King Akusa called a council meeting, concluding that they should be cautious but courteous to their strange visitors. In...