Take My Hand

The novel switches time and location to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1973 as Civil begins telling her story, using first-person past tense. Civil is 23 years old and has just landed her first nursing job at a family planning clinic where she works with seven other nurses. Their supervisor, Mrs. Seager, is strict and sees everything. She is white, the nurses are all Black, and the clinic primarily serves poor Black women.

The nurses only have one week of training, but they feel ready. Civil meets and talks with Alicia, who becomes her best friend and confidante. She and Alicia compare cases: Civil is to give birth control shots to 11- and 13-year-old sisters, India and Erica Williams. She wonders why girls this young would need birth control. Aware of the class difference between herself and the other nurses, she hides her new car—a graduation gift from her parents—and that evening, she trades it for her mother’s older one.

Before Civil leaves the clinic, Mrs. Seager calls her into her office and warns her to keep her head down and not cause trouble. Civil understands why Mrs. Seager singling her out; her father being a doctor sets her apart from the other nurses. She sees it as her mission to help these women, who are less fortunate than she.

Back in 2016, Civil tells Anne she had an abortion when she was in nursing school because she wanted to be more than a wife and a mother. The father was Tyrell Ralsey, the son of family friends and her best friend since childhood.

The narrative returns to the past. At the clinic, Civil suggests a patient treatment and is stared down by Mrs. Seager. On the way to see her first off-site patients, Civil stops to see her father at his medical practice. In the waiting room, she takes a baby photo of herself off the wall and hides it under the couch; it reminds her of the abortion she had the year before.

Her father warns her to be careful visiting her patients in their home. When she assumes he is prejudiced against people in poverty, he reminds her she doesn’t know them and should not let her self-righteous attitude overcome her.

In 2016, Civil recounts her family lineage. She says everyone from Alabama is connected, but there are divides between the educated and non-educated people in her family.

Civil had a privileged upbringing and did not visit the poorer side of her family. So, in 1973, when she first visits the Williamses’ house, the poor condition of their house surprises her. The one-room house has a dirt floor and rotted boards. It smells of urine, and the family’s clothes and belongings are piled everywhere. Mrs. Williams, as Civil refers to the grandmother, cooks over a hole in the floor. Erica and India live with their 33-year-old father, Mace Williams, and their 62-year-old grandmother, Patricia Williams. Their mother, Constance, died a few years previously from breast cancer.

The girls are dirty with matted hair, and Civil learns they don’t go to school. The younger sister, India, is nonspeaking. Civil gives them the birth control shots, but as she gives them a supply of sanitary pads, she is surprised to learn that India has not begun menstruating yet and Erica menstruates constantly.

Civil is visiting Montgomery for first time since her father died; her mother moved to Memphis 10 years before. Civil has remained single, and her mother believes it is out of guilt and that Civil’s guilt is affecting Anne. Civil, however, remains steadfast in her decision to remain single and believes the right to choice is women’s greatest freedom.

Civil’s first stop on her trip is Jackson, Mississippi, where she visits Alicia. She has had only sporadic contact with Alicia over the years and acknowledges that is her own fault. She hopes Alicia can help her find peace.

Civil invites Alicia to breakfast to talk about the Williams girls, but they each end up talking about themselves and why they chose nursing and working at the health clinic.

Alicia tells Civil her mother was caught having an affair with the pastor. She was forced to keep her mother’s affair secret, and she left home because the guilt was too much to bear. At the clinic, Alicia hopes to make a difference, just as Civil does. When Civil tells Alicia she is giving the Williams girls birth control, Alicia suggests that they are sexually active. Civil believes Alicia is biased against the girls because they are poor.

Tyrell (Ty) arrives and introduces himself to Alicia. Civil has not seen him for a few months, and they both act like nothing happened with the abortion. Ty asks about their work at the clinic, and Alicia spouts statistics about the high percentage of Black unmarried mothers; they give the women shots of Depo-Provera, so they don’t have to remember to take birth control pills. Ty makes light of birth control, pregnancy, and pre-marital sex, which makes Civil angry. (He offered to marry her when she found out she was pregnant, but she refused him.) Ty invites them to dinner at his parents’ house, but Civil refuses. Alicia accepts, and as they exchange numbers, Civil leaves.

Civil visits the Montgomery Planning Agency to get housing for the Williamses. When the agent asks about the family, Civil lies and takes the paperwork to fill out herself. She feels powerful and believes by helping the family get housing assistance, she can make up for giving India birth control. She wants to help people, “proving God was real” (39).

She asks Val, an older nurse at the clinic, if she knows how to find the Williams girls’ social worker. After Val gives her a few ideas, Civil asks her why Mrs. Seager only hires Black nurses. Val, who is grateful for her job, thinks Civil should not ask such questions.

When Civil tells Val about the terrible conditions in which the Williams family lives, Val asks whether Civil knew that people live like that. Civil lies and says yes, and she realizes how sheltered and privileged her life has been. Val also asks if Civil has considered what Mace, who works for the white man who owns the property, would do if he moves out. Val then points out that giving birth control ensures fewer children are born into that situation; she shows Civil their file of single mothers with children of all ages. Civil reconsiders her desire to help the family, thinking, “My job was to give the shot and that was all” (42).

Civil cannot shake the need to help the Williamses, so she returns to their house without an appointment a few days later. She meets Mace, who asks if she is the new social worker. She ignores the question and asks if she can take the girls to get some necessities. He invites her to sit down and finds a dirty glass, wipes it with a T-shirt, and fills it with water for her from an outside spigot. She doesn’t want to drink the water, but she does. Mace shows her a lump on his leg, and she says he should have it looked at, a suggestion that makes him laugh.

She tells him she’s trying to find the family somewhere new to live when he says his boss/landlord has replaced him. When she gives him the paperwork to sign, she realizes he’s illiterate. She also offers to find him a job. As she’s making these promises, she realizes she is stepping outside of her role: “I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. I was the nurse. The giver of shots. Not the fairy godmother” (46). She leaves with the girls, vowing to let the grandmother and father take care of themselves.

Civil takes the girls shopping. On the way to Kmart, the girls ask where Civil is taking them and why. They have never heard of Kmart, and they tell her they already have clothes. When they get to Kmart, Erica heads to the food counter and India goes to the mechanical horse ride. Civil puts quarters in and India squeals with delight. Civil continues to plug the ride, and India continues to squeal, delighting her sister.

Civil buys them bras and toothbrushes and other necessities. When they finish shopping, she takes the girls to her house where she lives with her parents. She knows she is overstepping her role and that Mrs. Seager would not be happy with her. The girls are amazed at the house, and Civil realizes the girls do not know anything about her. She gives the girls her photo album to look at while she prepares the bath, and she decides to get them into school, find a place for the family to live, and do everything she can to help them. She realizes she would be fired if Mrs. Seager or others found out what she was doing and decides to tell no one.

She bathes the sisters together, and she cuts their hair, removing the mats and tangles. Erica tells her that their grandmother will go crazy, and again Civil realizes she is crossing boundaries, but she continues to care for the girls, braiding their hair and deciding to get anti-fungal cream for their heads. She shows them her record player and plays music for them. Erica opens up and tells her about their mother and how things have changed since she died.

Civil says Mace does not like her, and Erica points out he just does not like government people. Then she asks if Civil will be staying in the job or leaving, and Civil assures her she is staying, at least for a while. She fixes them leftovers, which the girls devour. As Civil and the girls are preparing to leave, Civil’s mother walks through the kitchen and says hello, “as if she hadn’t even noticed there were two girls sitting at her kitchen table” (54). As they are leaving, India, who is nonverbal, pats Civil’s arm, but neither Civil nor Erica knows what she means by the gesture. Civil assures her she will bring her back another day, and they leave to go to the Williamses’ house.

Civil joins her mother in the studio the day after she had brought the girls home: Civil’s mother had post-partum depression after Civil’s birth, and the art studio was her refuge. Her mother asks if Civil started her job that day although it has been three weeks since she began work at the clinic. Her mother asks her if the job is her dream job, and Civil says she likes it.

Civil asks if her mother can help find housing for the Williamses, and her mother says she might know someone who can help. Civil watches her work and wants to spend just a few more minutes with her. She thinks about her mother’s magnetism: “Even distracted, Mama had a presence. Being around her was like standing in the glow of a candle” (60). Civil’s mother was not affectionate with Civil after she was born, and their relationship has always been distant.

Civil goes to Ty’s house for dinner, and although she has recently refused all his invitations, she is uncomfortable that Alicia has been to Sunday dinner at the Ralseys’ house twice already.

Ty lives with his parents, and Civil explains it is the norm: Most Black children in Montgomery live with parents until they marry, graduate, or get a job.

The Ralseys’ house is filled with plants and Ty’s mother is always tending to them. Ty’s parents are attorneys: His mother is the only woman to establish a law firm in town and her husband works with her. Longtime friends, Civil and Ty became romantically involved in college. They had a good relationship until Civil got pregnant.

When they are alone, Ty brings up the abortion, but Civil quickly changes the subject. She is unreasonably jealous of Alicia and does not want to talk about it. Civil thinks of what her baby might have looked like. She feels the urge to reach for Ty, but restrains herself and instead acts condescendingly toward him. He points out he is not a child anymore, but Civil is not convinced and feigns ambivalence when she finds out he was the graduation speaker for his class at college.

Ty brings up Civil and Alicia’s work at the clinic and tells them that Depo-Provera is not FDA approved. Civil defends the use of the drug and later asks Mrs. Ralsey if she knows about it. When Mrs. Ralsey replies that they wouldn’t be using it if it were not safe, Ty says they use it because the patients are “poor and Black” (67) and reminds them of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. They discuss the drug and whether the women are warned of the risks. Alicia says the risk of getting pregnant is a greater concern, but Mr. Ralsey draws parallels to the Tuskegee experiment, in which Black men were given dangerous treatments without their consent. Civil decides to talk to Mrs. Seager about the shots.