Plainsong

When Victoria leaves the café, she feels “something unaccountable pending in the air” (33). She arrives home to find the door locked. Victoria rattles the doorknob and pleads with her mother to let her in. After a despondent moment sitting alone on the porch, Victoria decides to leave. Wandering through the town, she arrives at Maggie’s house and knocks at the door. Maggie invites Victoria into the house so they can talk.

Victoria tells Maggie about her boyfriend and the time they spent together “parked out on a dirt road five miles north of town” (35). She is reluctant to reveal the boy’s name as “he’s not the fathering kind” (35). They met at a dance the previous summer; he was nice to her in a way few other people were. They saw one another at nights during the summer until “something happened” (36), and he stopped calling. Maggie understands, and they discuss Victoria’s options. Victoria wants to keep the baby.

As they hug in the kitchen, Maggie mentions her father, a senile old man who lives with her. Victoria sleeps on Maggie’s couch. She wakes up in the night when she hears Maggie’s father moving around but eventually falls back to sleep. 

On Saturdays, Ike and Bobby make their collections. They begin with the businesses, taking the money owed for their newspaper deliveries. The barber, Harvey, asks awkward questions about their mother but eventually pays. They arrive at Mrs. Stearns’ house, a woman whose “voice sounded as if she hadn’t spoken in days” (42). Her home is filled with clutter, and she insists that they chat. They reluctantly discuss the weather and school before Mrs. Stearns has a coughing fit. She tells the boys not to smoke. The boys ask about her family, who she says are “all gone […] or they’re all dead” (45).

After a moment of silence, Bobby admits to Mrs. Stearns that their mother moved out of the house. The old woman is sorry for the boys and invites them to visit her if they are lonely. The boys nod in agreement and then fetch her pocketbook to pay the paper bill. 

Victoria reflects on how her pregnancy is changing her body. Though she is certain, Maggie recommends that she take a test, as “you want to be sure” (47). When Victoria is reluctant, Maggie says that she has to “wake up” (47). Victoria takes the test, which confirms what she already knew. Maggie tells Victoria that they should book a doctor’s appointment. 

At midnight, Ike watches through the window of the room he shares with Bobby. He sees a light flickering in a neighboring house and wakes his brother. They watch as a silhouette passes by a light in an old house. The brothers decide to investigate and sneak out of their home. They creep through the cold night toward the house.

Passing a parked car with beer cans on the back seat, they arrive at the house. They hear talking from inside. Peeking through a broken window, they see a high school girl lying naked on the floor and watch her with “something akin to religious astoundment and awe” (51). There is a boy lying next to her, and the two are talking. The boy, Russell, is trying to convince the girl, Sharlene, to have sex with one of his friends, as “I told him he could” (51). Eventually, she agrees. Russell leaves, and the girl smokes until another boy arrives. Bobby and Ike watch as the girl and the boy have sex and, when the boy finishes, Sharlene shouts at him to leave.

As Sharlene gets dressed, Bobby and Ike hide. They watch the high schoolers return to the abandoned car and drive away. Ike and Bobby agree that Russell is a “son of a bitch” (54), as is “that other one too” (54). They return home.