Witchcraft for Wayward Girls Chapter 31: The Adoption Decision
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Fern regains consciousness in the hospital after childbirth and immediately panics about her baby. A nurse confirms the child is alive. Despite intense physical pain, Fern demands to see her baby. Diane arrives and strongly discourages the visit, warning that seeing the child will make surrender impossible, but Fern begs and Diane relents.
The baby is brought in, and Fern learns she has a daughter. She names the baby Charlie Brown, keeping the name she had chosen for a son. Holding her daughter creates an overwhelming emotional bond. Fern begins questioning the adoption, but Diane explains the consequences: two thousand dollars in fees, loss of family support, and a destroyed future. Fern cannot afford the cost.
That night, Miss Parcae visits. She reveals that Mags was broken when the witch line was forcibly transferred and offers an alternative: give up the baby to be raised as the next vessel. Fern refuses. Miss Parcae coughs blood, showing signs of a fatal illness, and threatens to take the child by force before vanishing when a nurse enters.
Fern finds her protective pouch on the floor and puts it back on. In the morning, she tells Diane she will not see the baby again. She signs the birth certificate as "N. Craven" instead of Jane Doe. Diane takes her to a taxi, and Fern leaves the hospital with nothing, resolving to forget everything but knowing she will spend the rest of her life punishing herself for choosing herself over her child.
Key Events
- Fern wakes in the hospital and learns her baby is alive
- She demands to see the baby despite severe afterpains
- Diane tries to prevent the visit but ultimately agrees
- Fern discovers she has a daughter and names her Charlie Brown
- She bonds with the baby and considers keeping her
- Diane presents the financial and social costs: two thousand dollars in fees
- Fern realizes she cannot afford to keep her daughter
- Miss Parcae visits and threatens Fern
- Miss Parcae reveals Mags was broken by the forced transfer of the witch line
- Miss Parcae offers to take the baby as the next vessel
- Fern refuses and threatens to scream
- Miss Parcae coughs blood, revealing her own fatal illness
- Miss Parcae vanishes when a nurse enters the room
- Fern finds her protective pouch on the floor and wears it again
- In the morning, Fern declines to see the baby a final time
- She signs the birth certificate as "N. Craven" instead of the suggested Jane Doe
- Diane escorts Fern to a taxi and she leaves the hospital alone
- Fern resolves to suppress her memories but feels she has failed
Character Development
Fern crosses a definitive threshold in this chapter. She enters the hospital as a pregnant girl under others' control and leaves as a woman who has made an impossible choice. Her refusal to see the baby a final time shows her hardening herself against unbearable grief. Signing "N. Craven" instead of the anonymous "Jane Doe" is a small act of claiming her identity when everything else is being taken from her.
Diane reveals a more complex side. She is not merely the Home's enforcer—she speaks to Fern as an equal when describing the impossibility of the choice. Yet she also uses financial pressure to steer Fern toward the adoption, showing her role as a pragmatist within the system.
Miss Parcae appears more desperate and physically broken than before. Her cough yields blood, her complexion is yellowed, and she admits the witch line will die without a new vessel. Her offer to take the baby rather than force Fern reveals that preserving the lineage is her only remaining priority.
Charlie Brown remains an infant throughout, but her presence transforms Fern's emotional landscape. Every detail Fern notices—the fingerprints, the toenails, the grip—deepens the cost of the decision Fern ultimately makes.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
The adoption choice dominates the chapter. Fern must decide between keeping her daughter (impossible financially and socially) or giving her up (emotionally devastating). Diane frames it as "a decision between bad and worse," a motif echoed in Miss Parcae's parallel offer.
The pouch reappears when Fern finds it under her bed. Putting it back on cuts off a distant roaring she had not noticed, reinforcing its function as protection against supernatural influence. She decides to wear it forever to prevent Miss Parcae from turning her into another Mags.
The birth certificate serves as a symbol of identity and erasure. Fern is asked to sign as Jane Doe, a generic placeholder, but she signs her own name, "N. Craven." This small act reclaims her individuality even as she surrenders her child.
Afterpains and physical recovery mirror Fern's emotional trauma. The pain between her legs, the aching breasts, and the wrong weight of her body externalize her internal grief. Her body remembers the baby even as her mind tries to let go.
Normal life versus transcendence appears in Miss Parcae's final argument: she offers escape from "the ordinary humdrum grind" of marriage, motherhood, and menial work. Fern rejects this, choosing mundane survival over supernatural power.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is the emotional climax of Fern's entire arc. Every experience at the Home—the witch lessons, the friendships, the birth itself—funnels into this single decision. Fern must definitively reject Miss Parcae's offer of transcendence, choosing ordinary life with all its limitations over a supernatural lineage that would consume her identity. She must also surrender her daughter, a loss that will shape the rest of her life.
The chapter also resolves the witch plotline: Miss Parcae fails to secure either Fern or the baby as the next vessel. Her coughing blood and mention of "no time left" suggest the line may finally be broken. Fern's act of signing her real name on the certificate closes the door on both the adoption system's anonymity and the witch coven's control.
Study Questions
1. Why does Fern sign "N. Craven" instead of the suggested "Jane Doe"?
Fern wants her daughter to have some trace of her real mother if she ever sees the birth certificate. When she asks if the child will see it, Diane says it goes to the adoptive parents and the choice is theirs. Fern signs her own name so that if her daughter ever searches, there will be a record of a real person, not a generic placeholder.
2. What does Miss Parcae's offer to take the baby reveal about the witch line?
Miss Parcae explains that a child can accept the line if taken young enough, though a willing adult vessel is preferable. This reveals that the preservation of the four-thousand-year lineage matters more to her than consent. Her willingness to take an infant shows the coven's ruthlessness—and their desperation, since Miss Parcae admits she has no time left.
3. How does Diane's presentation of the costs influence Fern's decision?
Diane lays out the financial reality: two thousand dollars in hospital fees, clinic fees, and Home charges—as much as a station wagon. Fern has no money, no diploma, no job, and no family support. Diane also warns that keeping the baby would destroy Fern's future and the child's prospects. This practical pressure, combined with Fern's own doubt, makes adoption feel like the only viable path.