Abilene has an interesting life. Although her journey begins in the church, that is merely a portal into another kind of plot full of pagan sorcerers and circus folks. The underworld is being depicted in that community, because they explain through their long, complicated stories that they are wily and sneaky folks who just want a place to call their own, but they are constantly at odds with any community. They are a community of rejects, in some ways.
Then, when Abilene learns that her father played an important role in that community, she must own her own waywardness. She understands that like her father, she also doesn't fit cleanly into communities, and although she doesn't really understand the dynamic drama of these stories, she does have the box of secret letters to help her piece together what might have really happened all those years ago.
She learns an important symbolic secret in the story, when she figures out what the Rattler is. The creepy thought is this: Imagine a nun standing in the dark woods at night, rattling a Catholic rosary. That creepy image is what is haunting to the community. From this, alongside the stories, she learns that the undertaker was in on the conspiracy too, all along. The complex roles of church and death are symbolized here.
