The Darkest Child

Mushy sends Martha Jean a letter saying she’ll be visiting for New Year's Eve. Tangy tells Rozelle about the letter, and Rozelle beats Tangy in the head repeatedly with a belt. She also hits Velman. Rozelle asks when Martha Jean’s baby is due, but Velman doesn’t know what she’s talking about. After her beating, Tangy is sick.

By New Year’s Eve, Harvey moves back in with Carol Sue, and Wallace moves in with Zadie. Rozelle is mostly in bed, upset that Sam is in jail. Hambone tells her that someone beat Sam up in jail, so she finally leaves her room to go see Sam, but he has been moved to a different jail. Rozelle gets angry and is arrested. The following day, Sheriff Betts brings her home. Betts no longer thinks Sam killed Junior, but he doesn’t have any other suspects.

At school, Mr. Pace shows Tangy some college brochures and says she can get a scholarship to attend. Tangy didn’t expect to even finish high school, though she desperately wants to. She’s touched by his belief in her. Mr. Pace says that in the fall, the first phase of school integration will occur, but they’ll only be sending a few high-achieving Black students to the white school. He wants Tangy to be one of them, though he warns her that she’ll probably be harassed and physically harmed. Tangy doesn’t think Rozelle will allow this, but Mr. Pace wants to try.

Wallace returns home. Tarabelle gets another abortion from Pearl, but there are complications; she bleeds profusely, and Rozelle worries she’s going to die. Rozelle takes Tarabelle to the hospital. Wallace tells Tangy that Rozelle discovered he was staying at Zadie’s and came to fetch him. Zadie scared Rozelle by filling a bowl with tap water, telling Rozelle that it was holy water, and sprinkling it near her. Zadie claims that demons are inside of Rozelle, and she warns Wallace against getting close to her.

Rozelle returns home with Tarabelle and announces that Tangy has to take Tarabelle’s place working at the Munfords until Tarabelle heals.

Tangy turns 15, but nobody remembers her birthday. Pearl brings Tarabelle home from the hospital. Rozelle says Tangy must take Tarabelle’s place that night.

Rozelle brings Tangy to a farmhouse outside of town. She tells Tangy that a lawyer named Ruggles is going to help get Sam out of jail if Tangy is nice to him and does whatever he says. Tangy is scared because she knows Tarabelle almost died from the activities in the farmhouse. Rozelle threatens to kill Tangy if she doesn’t allow herself to be sold into sex work; if Tangy doesn’t do this, she’s useless to Rozelle.

Inside the farmhouse, Rozelle greets a woman named Frances, who runs the place with her husband, Bo. Rozelle takes Tangy upstairs to one of the bedrooms and introduces Tangy to Mr. Ruggles. Ruggles tells Tangy to take her clothes off, which she doesn’t do until he threatens to get Rozelle. He tries to rape her; she claws at him, scrambles under the bed, kicks him, and tries to get away, but she also doesn’t want to be killed. He forces her to perform oral sex on him, then she vomits. Ruggles calls Rozelle back into the room and says Tangy failed to satisfy him, so she’ll have to return another night if he’s going to help Sam. Rozelle takes Tangy home and beats her.

Tangy asks Tarabelle if she can get pregnant from oral sex, and Tarabelle says she thinks she can. Tangy says Rozelle is going to make her go back, but she doesn’t want to. Tarabelle says Tangy wouldn’t have to return if their mother were dead.

Rozelle continues taking Tangy to the farmhouse, where she’s forced to be with various men who aren’t lawyers, including Chadlow. Sam finally gets out of jail and apologizes to Tangy, feeling she had to suffer on his behalf. He leaves to go see his friends.

Tangy visits Martha Jean and Velman, who live with Velman’s uncle Skeeter. Martha Jean is now visibly pregnant, and Tangy is even more envious of her relationship with Velman. She shares that Rozelle forced her into sex work to get Sam freed from jail, and Velman punches a wall out of anger.

In the middle of the night, a smoke smell wakes Tangy’s family up, but they can’t see what’s burning. The next morning, Pearl tells them that someone burned some buildings in the white center of town, and Black people aren’t allowed to pass through the area. Sam never came home the previous night, and Sheriff Betts and Chadlow come to look for him because he’s a suspect in the arson. Chadlow’s cafe burned, along with the Griggs’s family furniture store. Nobody can find Sam. Harvey assumes this means he’s guilty. Martha Jean gives birth to a baby girl.

White people burn part of the Black section of town in retaliation, including the new school that was being built. Tangy goes to work at the Whitmans’, but Veatrice fires her amidst the racial tension. Tangy visits Martha Jean, Velman, and the baby, Mary Ann.

Tangy and Rozelle go to a meeting at her school. Tangy waits outside with the other kids who are being asked to integrate, while their parents speak to teachers. Rozelle says Tangy isn’t going to the white school or returning to school next year. Tangy is determined to return to school.

Wallace starts splitting his time between Rozelle and Zadie’s houses. Rozelle doesn’t protest because Wallace brings her money. Rozelle calls Tarabelle an anti-gay slur, implying that she’s in a romantic relationship with Mattie. Tarabelle plans to leave the house once she turns 18 so that Rozelle can’t send police to find her like she did when Mushy ran away as a minor. Tangy doesn’t plan to run away because she doesn’t want to leave Edna and Laura alone with Rozelle.

Over the summer, Tangy often visits Martha Jean and her family. Mr. Pace told Rozelle that the school would pay Tangy to integrate. Rozelle instead says he can visit her at the farmhouse. This mortifies Tangy, who tries to get out of going to the farmhouse that night by claiming to have her period. Rozelle threatens to send Laura instead, so Tangy goes.

Zadie dies, and Wallace tells the other siblings she was their grandmother. Rozelle claims she isn’t upset by Zadie’s death. Tarabelle turns 18 and opens Rozelle’s forbidden box, finding hair inside it. She’s so mad that she attacks Rozelle. Wallace leaves and says he’s never coming back. Tarabelle also leaves.

Rozelle tells Pearl that Zadie claimed people’s hair could be used to hold them in a certain place. Rozelle used to believe this, which is why she put her kids’ hair in the box. She doubts that it works because several of her kids have left. However, Zadie once put Rozelle’s hair in a box and claimed this would prevent her from leaving Georgia, and since then, whenever Rozelle tries to leave Georgia, something stops her. She thinks maybe she did the spell wrong. Rozelle cries, and Tangy thinks perhaps she’s grieving Zadie, because Tangy loves her mom even though she also hates her. Rozelle swats away so many invisible bugs that Tangy starts to think she can see them, too.

Rozelle refuses to let Tangy attend the partially integrated school despite the stipend. However, Tangy is allowed to start 11th grade at the Black school. She’s still required to work at the farmhouse, and she does most of the cooking and cleaning at home.

Tangy visits Martha Jean, and Mushy is there; she doesn’t plan on visiting their mother. Tangy impulsively kisses Velman when she thinks Martha Jean is out of the room, though she sees it and is mad. Velman gently pushes her away. Mushy sends Velman to get Wallace and Tarabelle.