A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

Della and Tuesday become increasingly worried about Ricki’s aloofness and stage an intervention. Ricki tells them everything. While Tuesday is surprisingly receptive to the truth, Della is distraught. She believes Ezra is lying about knowing her mother, Felice. Ricki fears their relationship will be permanently strained.

Ricki attends a book reading by Eva Mercy—a hoodoo and voodoo expert with Louisiana Creole heritage similar to that of Felice—where she asks questions about Ezra’s curse. Eva suspects that Felice summoned Met Kalfu, the loa of black magic; her death by suicide was the sacrifice needed to enact a powerful curse. Eva believes another sacrifice must be made to reverse the curse. Ricki becomes devastated after witnessing the loving relationship Eva has with her husband, Shane Hall, and realizing it’s something she’ll never experience. Ezra finds Ricki crying on the street in Washington Heights and comforts her while telling her he loves her for the first time.

Rather than waste time bemoaning their fate, Ricki and Ezra throw themselves into the brief time they have left together. They partake in as many experiences as possible, including mixology classes, blindfolded dining, comedy shows, and bumper cars. Ezra moves in with Ricki and they place her bouquets at Old Harlem hot spots together. Ezra even convinces Ricki to schedule an interview with New York magazine’s style imprint The Cut about Wilde Things and the importance of diversity in floristry. The article, titled “Where the Wilde Things Are,” goes viral and reaches Ricki’s family in Atlanta. They book tickets to visit.

On a day Ezra is helping Ricki out at the flower shop, Tuesday stops by to apologize for her treatment of Ezra. Her conversation with him is enlightening; he convinces her to stop writing the memoir she hates in favor of opening the medi-spa she’s always dreamed of. After the workday, Ricki’s sisters, Rashidaginarae, arrive at Ricki’s doorstep. Ezra offers to make the sisters dinner while they see Wilde Things. The dinner conversation consists of her sisters’ shallow and passive aggressive remarks. When they insults Ricki’s character, Ezra steps in to defend her. His support gives Ricki the courage to stand up to her sisters and kick them out of her home.

Della has lunch with Ricki and Ezra. She now believes Ezra’s story. Ezra presents Della with the nude photograph of Felice that he bought from the dancers who were bullying her in the 1920s. The photograph and Ezra’s memories of Felice give Della closure with the mother she never knew. In burying the grudge she’s held against her mother for a long time, Ms. Della completes her bucket list.

On February 28, Ricki attempts saying her final goodbyes to Tuesday and Della, but neither will have it. Ricki and Ezra decide it’s best to sleep through her impending death, so they intoxicate themselves with white wine, a sleeping aid, and weed brownies. Before sleep overtakes them, Ezra names Ricki’s song “A Love Song for Ricki Wilde” (287). When Ezra wakes the next morning, he’s surprised to discover Ricki is still alive and his immortality is gone. They rush to tell Della the good news only to learn that she died after ingesting half a bottle of morphine. The note she leaves clarifies that she died by suicide as a voodoo sacrifice to save them; her legacy will live on in their love for each other.

Della’s spirit looks on as Wilde Things grows and eventually takes over the entire brownstone. Tuesday opens a facial spa; Ezra earns degrees in music theory and composition and teaches at Juilliard; and Ezra and Ricki buy their own brownstone. Ricki and Ezra get married and have four children, whom they name Hazel, Minnie, Lo, and Della.