Midnight Crossroad

This Page May Contain Spoilers. If You Wish To Avoid Them, Turn Back Now. If Not, Then Welcome To Midnight!

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Midnight Crossroad

**Midnight Crossroad** is the first novel in the three book "Midnight Texas Trilogy" by author Charlaine Harris, which was first published on May 6th, 2014 by Ace Books.

## Official Synopsis

Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town.

There’s a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There’s a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there’s new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he’s found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own).

Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth...

## Plot

In which he learned everything about being a psychic from his grandmother. A few days later at Midnight Pawn, Fiji explains to Bobo that she'd seen the newcomer Manfred, before, from a newspaper, from Peoples magazine, she said, he was supposedly a psychic, and a real one at that. Some time later, Manfred visits Fiji at her shop, there he discovers all sorts of supernatural items, mythology books, ghost stories, tarot cards, and Ouija boards, which he viewed as nothing more than junk, she then openly admits to being a witch, but Manfred does not catch on. At Home Cookin is where Manfred gets his first glimpse of Lemuel, Bobo's basement tenant, who was as white as snow with a large presence that was much bigger than himself, Manfred quickly discovers something isn't right when an icy chill runs up his
arm as he shakes Lemuel's hand. The entirety of Manfred's time in the diner, he noticed two men in the far corner, silent, the longer they stayed the more suspicious he became, eventually coming to the conclusion that the two men are watching someone there, waiting for something to happen, Lemuel quietly agrees.
Manfred discovers that the two men are watching Bobo, but they’re interested in Lemuel and Olivia because they're his tenants. It soon becomes apparent that Olivia is aware of the strangers watching her from the corner as Lemuel alerts Manfred that she's armed. As they sit their unnecessarily tired, Manfred suddenly realizes what's so different about Lemuel, he's a vampire, your leeching he says, then asking Lemuel why he doesn't just drink blood, to which Lemuel responds "energy is just as good".
As Fiji prepared to return home, Olivia steps outside the diner to watch her until she gets to her house, however, her true purpose for getting up was to further examine the two strangers at the door more closely. After Madonna announces that the diner is closing, the two stranger pay up, and quietly slip out the door as Olivia, Lemuel, and Manfred carefully watch, soon after, the three of them depart, separately.
Two days later, Fiji sits on her back porch, more relaxed than she had been in a while, enjoying the peacefulness of it all, suddenly Bobo arrives, she she attempts to hide her true feelings for him, the two engage in brief chit-chat, which leads to the idea of a city-wide picnic, open to all residence of Midnight. After Bobo leaves, Fiji can help but think of Aubrey, Bobo's missing girlfriend, who she essentially hated, she had sent so much bad energy Aubrey's way, hoping that she'd just disappear, and now she has.

## Characters

### Main

**Manfred Bernardo** - *"New in town, phone and internet psychic Manfred Bernardo is a man with secrets. Looking for a place to carry on his work in private, Midnight seems like the perfect respite from the modern world. After all, this is a town where no one inquires after your past. [His] right arm was decorated with a large ankh, and his left with a lightning bolt, his newest embellishment."*

**Fiji Cavanaugh** - (The Inquiring Mind; Classes for the Curious) *"Loveable Fiji runs the new age magic store and is just a bit hopeless. Her hair is impossible to tame, her clothes never seem to create quite the outfit she meant to wear and her love life is so quiet you can hear the crickets chirping. But Fiji has a secret of her own. One that can literally freeze people in place. And just wait until you meet her cat, Mr Snuggly."*

**Bobo Winthrop** - (Owner and Worker of Midnight Pawn Shop) *"Landlord extraordinaire, Bobo runs Midnight Pawn, an unlikely hang out for the residents of Midnight. By day customers come in to pawn a TV, necklace or gun. But at night, another type of customer visits the pawn shop... [He] was lucky enough to have a pleasing color palette; his hair was golden blond, his eyes were bright blue, his skin was a golden dusky tan. And he was tall, robust."*

**Joe Strong** - (Antique Gallery and Nail Salon). *"Muscular in the extreme, and tan, though thinning brown hair and the lines around his eyes hint that Joe is older than his body suggests."*

**Madonna Reed** - (Owner and Worker at Home Cookin Restaurant). *"A plus-size woman with an intimidating Afro. Perhaps her ancestors were from Somalia, because she is tall, there is a reddish cast to her brown skin, and her nose is thin and high-bridged. She is very pretty."*

**Chuy Villegas** - (Antique Gallery and Nail Salon). *"A short Hispanic man walks in, wearing a crisp striped sport shirt and immaculate khakis with a gleaming brown leather belt and loafers. He’s probably forty[...] Chuy’s eyes are marked by crow’s feet, his hair does not show a trace of gray. His voice is soft and has a very slight accent, maybe more a careful choice of words, that indicates he was not originally from the United States. He seems to be as muscular as his partner."*

**Reverend Emilio Sheehan** - (Runs the Wedding Chapel and Pet Cemetery) *"A man in his sixties [...] Like Chuy, he’s of Hispanic origin, but otherwise the two men are nothing alike. The newcomer is cadaverous, and his skin tone is much darker than Chuy’s caramel. There are deep creases in the older man’s cheeks. He’s maybe five feet five inches in his cowboy boots, and he’s wearing a white shirt and an ancient black suit with a black Stetson. His only adornment is a string tie with a hunk of turquoise acting as a clasp."*

**Olivia Charity** - *"No one is quite sure what Olivia does, exactly. And that's probably for the best. She’s a showstopper. She’s easily five foot nine, she’s wearing jeans that show she is slim without being gaunt, and her orange sweater clings to square shoulders and thin, muscular arms. Though Manfred vaguely feels she should be wearing four-inch heels, she’s not. She’s wearing battered boots. She’s got on a bit of makeup, and she’s decorated with silver earrings and a silver chain."*

**Xylda** - (Manfred's Grandmother) *"She enjoyed every minute of the publicity. Most grandsons would have found the old lady a source of acute embarrassment: her bright dyed hair, her flamboyant clothes and makeup, her histrionics. But Manfred had found Xylda a fountain of information and instruction, and they’d adored each other."*

**Teacher** - (Madonna’s man, father of her child, Grady). *"Yes, I’m a handy guy to have around. I help Madonna out here, and every now and then I work for Shawn Lovell over at the gas station, when he just has to have a night off. And I fill in for Bobo, too. Call me if you need me."*

**Creek Lovell** - (Shawn's Daughter; Works at both Home Cookin and the Gas N Go). *"I feel bad for Creek; she didn’t go to college, her puppy got killed, and her dad watches every move those kids make. A girl as young and smart as Creek doesn’t need to be hanging around Midnight. [...] Her black hair was just down past her jawline, all one length, and it swung forward and backward with every step she took. Her skin was apparently poreless and clear, her eyebrows smooth dark strokes, her eyes light blue. She was not really thin. She was not really curvy. She was just right."*

**Shawn Lovell** - (Owner of Gas N Go and Creek's father). *"Don’t let Shawn see you looking at his baby girl that way. He takes his job as her dad pretty seriously."*

**Connor Lovell** (Shawn's son and Creek's younger brother). *"He had dark hair like his sister's and a smooth oval face like hers. He was already as tall as Creek..."*

**Lemuel Bridger** - *"Bleached and dried and shrunken. Instead of blond, his hair was platinum: the same shade as Manfred’s, but the newcomer’s hair was natural. His eyes were a pale, pale gray. His skin was... white as snow. [He] was not any taller than Manfred, and even more slightly built, but his presence was bigger than his body."*

### Mentioned

* **Mildred Loeffler** (Fiji's Great-Aunt)
* **Rain** (Manfred's Mother)
* **Sheriff Arthur Smith**
* **Aubrey Hamilton** (Also, Aubrey Hamilton Lowry)
* **Chad Lowry** (Aubrey's Husband)
* **Price Eggleston**
* **Officer Gomez**

## Notable Quotes

* *"Sure, some help would be great. I had no idea how I was going to get the couch out. You can take the time from the store?"* - Manfred

* *"You would have been up the creek without another pair of hands."*

* *"I’m Manfred Bernardo."*

* *I’ll be out of touch for a few days. It’s time for me to retreat and meditate, to tune my psyche for the jobs ahead. When I’m back in touch with you, I’ll have some amazing news."* - Manfred

* *"But I did pick symbols I liked, ones that had a personal meaning. No point in getting tattooed with dolphins and rainbows."* - Manfred

* *"You leeching?"* - Manfred

* *"I can’t tolerate the synthetics. They come up as fast as they go down. I can drink the real stuff in any method of delivery. Energy is just as good."* - Lemuel

* *"Okay, it’s a silly name, but I inherited the name along with the cat."* - Fiji

* *"Guys and gals, I love being a social center for this little town, but I need to get Grady and Teacher home, and I need to watch me some television. So you all clear out and let us close up."* - Madonna

* *"There's no light out there at all. Even if we went on a full-moon night, it would be too dark to hike out there. Picnics are a daytime thing."*

## Trivia

* The Midnight, Texas Trilogy was the basis for the first season of NBC's television adaptation, Midnight, Texas. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Monica Owusu-Breen states that she drew inspiration from the first and third books, incorporating the show with specific scenes, relationships, and villains. She goes on to elaborate that with the finale of the first season, the second season has been cued up with stories using the second book as a guide.

## References

1. ↑ *Midnight, Texas* team talks *True Blood* differences at ATX premiere
2. ↑ 'Midnight Texas' Finale: Boss Talks Switching Up That Sexy Ending and Cueing the Danger Up for Season 2