Today Will Be Different

In an extended flashback, a third-person narrator describes how Ivy met her husband. In 2003, Eleanor, working on Looper Wash, hears about Barnaby “Bucky” Fanning, a sugar and cotton heir from New Orleans who is friends with her coworker Lester. Eleanor and the others at Looper Wash find him fascinating, and Bucky, upon learning that Eleanor is a direct descendant of former US president John Tyler, goes to New York for a party that Lester is throwing. There, he meets Eleanor’s sister, Ivy, who has grown into a tall, beautiful woman. She started modeling in high school before attempting to transition to acting and accidentally joining a cult, from which Eleanor and Joe had to rescue her. She has been in a Dior campaign, lost money in a Ponzi scheme, been in a relationship with a shaman, and been treated for bulimia. At the time she meets Bucky, she is working at the Looper Wash offices. She soon moves in with him, and they get married a year later.

Before the wedding, Eleanor and Joe visit the couple in New Orleans for their engagement party. Eleanor feels confident that Bucky will make Ivy happy and finally feels relaxed, knowing that her sister will be okay. She wishes their mother could be there, but Ivy, who was much younger when their mother died, doesn’t have the same regrets. Bucky’s cousin Lorraine explains to Eleanor and Ivy that he will irritate them, but he just needs to “know where he stands” (124). The following morning, however, Ivy calls Eleanor to tell her that Bucky is upset about a gaffe Eleanor made the night before when she was trying to help with the party. Eleanor says that she will apologize to him. Ivy says that she can write an apology letter to him, and she does.

Eleanor describes the presidency of John Tyler, who was the vice president for William Henry Harrison until he died of pneumonia a month after his inauguration. John Tyler’s presidency was unremarkable, and he did not seek reelection, instead returning to his plantation in Sherwood Forest. He had 15 children, the most of any president. Because he was in the Confederate Congress, he was the only president for whom the Capitol did not fly the flag at half-mast upon his death. Sherwood Forest later became public property and a tourist attraction. Bucky wanted to have his and Ivy’s wedding at Sherwood Forest, but the Tylers refused until he went there and appealed to them in person.

When Ivy and Bucky get married, Eleanor gives Ivy two presents: a scrapbook and The Flood Girls.

A year later, Eleanor and Joe attend the christening of Ivy and Bucky’s son, John-Tyler. During the ceremony, Joe waits outside and Eleanor sits next to Bucky, where she mocks his son’s namesake. Afterward, Ivy makes an excuse to go home early with Bucky and John-Tyler. While Joe goes in search of jazz music, Eleanor sees Bucky’s family going into a restaurant. She follows them inside and finds Ivy and Bucky presiding over a large dinner. Eleanor confronts Ivy, who says that they decided the dinner should be family only. Later, Eleanor asks Ivy about the wedding gifts she gave her. Ivy says that she and Bucky were insulted by The Flood Girls. She chastises Eleanor for mocking her son’s namesake and speaking negatively of her husband. Eleanor disowns Ivy and finds Joe at Preservation Hall, asking him to promise to never fight again.

Some time later, Lester calls Eleanor and drunkenly tells her that Bucky intended to turn Ivy against her. Eleanor then calls Ivy, who says that she started medication that has helped regulate her emotions.

Eleanor’s father, Matthew “Matty” Flood, dies of liver failure after 10 years in recovery, and Eleanor, Joe, Ivy, and Matty’s friends spread his ashes over the Aspen Highlands. After the memorial, when Matty’s friends are telling stories, Ivy says that Matty was a bad father who did not take care of them and blames him for allowing her to marry a controlling man. She reveals that Bucky is jealous and believes that she was too friendly with Joe on the day of the wedding; he makes her dress more modestly now. She has an emotional breakdown, and Joe tries to calm her down. This appears to work, but Ivy steals his Jeep and disappears. Joe decides that he cannot deal with her anymore. He and Eleanor then find out that Ivy left the Jeep at the airport.

Eleanor went off her birth control shortly before her father’s death and finds out that she is pregnant after the trip. During this time, Ivy calls her and tells her that she is leaving Bucky, and they arrange a plan to get her and John-Tyler to Seattle. Though Eleanor dreads the possible arguments between Ivy and Joe, she is optimistic and happy when she sees Ivy dressed like her usual self at the airport. However, she then sees John-Tyler with Bucky, and Bucky reveals that Ivy is cutting her out of her life for good. He then gives Eleanor The Flood Girls. Enraged, Eleanor acts out and gets arrested. She finally decides to cut Ivy out of her life and focus on Joe and the pregnancy, removing everything that reminds her of Ivy.

During a trip to Lummi Island, she reads the obituaries in The New York Times and learns that Armanito Trumbo Charbonneau has died, leaving her fortune to her grandson, Bucky, and his children, John-Tyler and Delphine.