Sevens is not a lucky number for 17 year old Novalee Nation. She is 17
years old and 7 months pregnant. She has nobody in the world except her selfish
self centered boyfriend Willie Jack. At the beginning of the novel Novalee and
Willie Jack are traveling to California.
Novalee announces that she has they have to stop due to the fact that she needs
to use the bathroom and buy a pair of slippers since she dropped hers. Willie
Jack, annoyed stops at a local Wal-mart and gives Novalee 10 dollars to buy
slippers. Novalee goes into Wal-mart and purchases her slippers and receives the
change of 7.77. She immediately realizes something wrong and rushes outside to
find Willy Jack gone and her belongings left on the cement parking lot of
Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma. While Novalee is standing in the parking lot
she meets a boy named Benny Good luck who gives her a buckeye tree, Sister
Husband who mistakes her for a girl named Ruth and Moses Whitecotton who we
advises Novalee to give her baby a strong name.
With no food or money Novalee manages to find shelter in Wal-mart. She
also befriends a young man named Forney Hull who works at library while she was
looking for books on Buckeye trees. Forney curious about Novalee follows her
around and discovers she lives in Wal-mart but doesn’t say anything. After
living in Wal-Mart for 2 month Novalee gives birth to her baby with the help of
Forney in Wal-mart. After she gives birth Novalee gives her daughter the name Americus, what she
believes is a strong name. She is rushed to the hospital for treatment and she
meets and befriends her nurse Lexie is a nurse who has 4 kids from 3 different
fathers and there all named after sweets. Novalee receives many donations and “coincidently”
her mother shows up after years and takes all of Novalee donation money. During
her hospital stay Novalee is offered a job at the Wal-mart she gave birth too
by the owner Sam Walton which she graciously accepts. After she is released
from the hospital she goes to live with Sister Husband.
Mean while after Willie Jack has been arrested due to the fact that he
was framed for a burglary at a 7-11 store and he sent to jail. Willie Jack
faces some traumatic experiences in jail and writes his first song. When he is
released from jail, he tries to make it as a country singer and is hired by a
manager named Ruth Meyers
Five years have passed and Novalee is developing a career in photography
with Moses Whitecotton as her mentor. One day a tornado blows through while
Sister Husband is running an errand. Novalee and Americus make it safely to shelter while
Sister Husband is killed. At the funeral Novalee is informed that Sister
Husband left her with 41 000 dollars and with that money Novalee builds a new
home for her and Americus
One day, Novalee receives a call from Brownie, Lexie's oldest child. Novalee
cannot hear what he is saying, and eventually perceives that something bad has
happened so she drives to Lexie's house. She finds Lexie in the bedroom with Brownie
and Praline, covered in blood and bruised. Novalee permits Lexie and her now
five children to live with her and Americus
in their new house. Lexie tells Novalee that her new boyfriend had gone to her
house and tried to molest her two oldest children, Brownie and Praline, before
Praline had thrown up on him and Lexie returned home from work early and caught
him before he got to Brownie. She attacked him, hitting him twice before he
knocked her out. Lexie is at first devastated, but as time passes she and her
children begin to heal, and she eventually marries the ordinary but reliable
"Ernie the Exterminator" and has another child.
When Forney’s sister passes away due to alcoholism and
he does not appear to be at the funeral, Novalee finds him in a hotel and
comforts him. Novalee and Forney end up sleeping together, after which he tells
her that he loves her and she doesn't respond. Forney goes to Maine to bury his
sister, When Forney comes back, he talks about visiting Bowdoin and Novalee suggest
that he can now complete his education but Forney says he loves her and wants
to get a factory job and stay with her, but Novalee ignores her feelings and
tells him that she doesn’t love him like that and he leaves.
On Americus’s
Novalee is worried about her party because of the unlucky 7. Later, Novalee
picks up a newspaper and reads a story about a double amputee had his wheel
chair stolen. The man they describe in the paper fits the description of Willy
Jack to Novalee Willy lost his legs when he was drunk because he was sued of copyrighting
his hit song. While he was drunk, he kept hearing Novalee's voice talking about
Americus, and
then he tripped on train tracks and an oncoming train.
She visits Willy in the hospital and tells him
about what happened to her. He admits that he lied to her when he told her that
he didn't feel the baby's heart beat the day he left her behind. Willy explains
people lie because they're "scared, crazy, or just mean". Novalee
realizes that she made a similar mistake lying to Forney. She drives Willy Jack
home to Tennessee and then continues to Maine to find Forney at
college. Novalee admits to him that she lied and that she really loves him and
they go back to Oklahoma
and are wed in a Wal-Mart.
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