The Darkest Child

Tangy spends the night with Martha Jean. In the morning, Mushy scolds Rozelle for cutting Laura and Edna’s hair off, then announces she’s coming to stay with Rozelle.

Sometimes, Mushy and Rozelle fight, but other times, they get along. Mushy is again seeing Richard Mackey, who’s still married. Rozelle disapproves of this, and Mushy calls her a hypocrite.

On New Year’s Eve, the Quinns visit Pearl and Frank’s house. Mushy reveals that Rozelle tried to get Frank to rape her when she was a child, but he wouldn’t do it. Frank was seeing Rozelle as a sex worker and buying her lots of presents. Pearl says she doesn’t want to be Rozelle’s friend anymore, and she wants Rozelle to give her any presents she received from Frank. Rozelle shoves Edna toward Pearl because she’s Frank’s daughter. Rozelle and the other kids leave.

Rozelle has no plans to get Edna back because she’s “useless” and “just another mouth to feed” (326). With Rozelle’s encouragement, Laura starts stealing from stores in town. Rozelle continues to threaten to take Laura to the farmhouse in Tangy’s place, so Tangy goes.

Martha Jean has another baby, Valerie. Tangy begins 12th grade. Mushy moves in with Richard. Tarabelle is staying with an older woman, Miss Shirley, who is friends with Skeeter.

One night at the farmhouse, Chadlow whips Tangy ruthlessly. As Chadlow is leading Tangy out, they run into Crow, but he doesn’t recognize Tangy at first.

Crow shows up at Tangy’s house. Tangy asks to be taken to Velman, who will take care of her back. Crow is angry because he assumes Tangy has been working at the farmhouse of her own accord. However, he gradually realizes that Rozelle forced Tangy to work there.

Crow takes Tangy to Martha Jean and Velman. They give her aspirin and tend her wounds. Crow blames Velman for Tangy’s injuries, but Velman points out that he’s doing a better job of protecting his own daughters than Crow is protecting Tangy. Crow hasn’t been around for two years, while Rozelle sold her to grown men. Crow pulls a knife on Velman, but Martha Jean intervenes. Crow takes Tangy home and says he’s going to kill Chadlow.

After introducing five Black students to the primarily white school the previous year, this year, two dozen students go, and chaos ensues. The local education board votes to resegregate the schools, even though the Supreme Court ruled public school segregation unconstitutional. Many people are disappointed, but they don’t protest because many Black people are being held in jail, and it’s implied that they’ll be treated unfairly or even killed if there is any resistance to resegregation.

Crow stays in town for a while. He’s appalled by Rozelle’s actions, but he sleeps with her. Crow gives Tangy money and the address and phone number of his mother, who knows his whereabouts. He leaves town but promises to be back.

Tangy keeps the money Crow gave her at Martha Jean’s house so Rozelle won’t take it. Tangy tells Rozelle that she hates being forced into sex work and that as soon as she’s of age, she’s going to move out.

Rozelle goes to the farmhouse one night while Tangy stays home to look after Laura. Later, Rozelle returns, panicked and wearing a bloody bedsheet. She runs inside, and Tangy puts her in a bath. Rozelle won’t speak.

The next morning, Laura fetches Pearl, who comes over despite not having spoken to Rozelle in over a year. Rozelle says that Junior’s ghost came through the farmhouse window and killed Chadlow to get revenge for killing him. Rozelle witnessed Chadlow killing Junior and was afraid to stop him. Pearl advises Rozelle not to repeat this story to anyone. Sheriff Betts arrives, but Rozelle won’t speak. Frances and her husband told Betts that Rozelle and Chadlow were the only people at the farmhouse. Betts takes Rozelle to the hospital.

With Rozelle in the hospital, Tangy tells Laura fairy tales about a magical paradise. Crow visits Tangy and admits he killed Chadlow. Now, he has to leave town. Tangy says she wishes Crow didn’t kill anyone, but Crow says she’ll forgive him one day; if he’d done nothing, she wouldn’t forgive him. Tangy is touched that Crow was trying to protect her. Tangy says she’ll be leaving town soon, but she’ll let Crow’s mother know where she goes.

Rozelle doesn’t speak for a week and doesn’t seem to recognize her children, so she is sent to a mental healthcare facility. Tangy and Laura stay with Mushy. Tarabelle dumps Rozelle’s box of hair out and destroys items in her bedroom. Tarabelle complains about Rozelle to Pearl, and, while Pearl concedes that Rozelle made mistakes, she also argues that she didn’t know any better because she was kicked out by Zadie at age 13. Pearl points out that most of the kids’ fathers have done nothing for them, but they blame Rozelle more than they blame them.

Richard works at the same carpet mill as Frank and makes sure Tangy and Laura have what they need. Laura keeps stealing anyway. Tangy tells her it’s wrong, but she’s confused because Rozelle encouraged it. Sometimes, Richard’s wife stands outside the house and yells at him. Mushy asks him to get rid of her. He leaves with her, then returns a few hours later. Tangy thinks most men in Bakersfield are pathetic.

Laura gets caught stealing; the police give her a warning, and Mushy punches her. The police inform Mushy that Rozelle is being released from the mental healthcare facility, and they’ll be bringing her to Mushy and Richard’s house. Mushy isn’t okay with this and tries to get one of her siblings to take Rozelle instead, but they won’t.

Rozelle moves into Mushy’s house. She’s talking, but she doesn’t seem to know what’s going on most of the time. Sheriff Betts again questions her about Chadlow’s death, but she doesn’t say anything useful.

One day, Rozelle wanders off alone, and the police bring her home, saying they found her at the train station. She wanders to the train station again the next day. During Tangy’s upcoming graduation, Tarabelle will take Rozelle on a picnic. Tangy hopes to leave town with Laura shortly after her graduation.

Tarabelle comes to pick up Rozelle. Laura snoops in Tarabelle’s picnic basket, and Tarabelle scolds her. Tangy is the valedictorian. Mushy says Tangy is selfish for leaving her responsible for taking care of Rozelle. Laura asks why Tarabelle didn’t have any food in her picnic basket, and instead had lamps, kerosene, and matches. Mushy realizes that Tarabelle plans to burn Rozelle’s old house down. They all leave the graduation and head to Penyon Road.

When the group arrives, the house is already burning. Rozelle is outside and still alive, but Tarabelle is inside and dead. The fire department doesn’t work in the area where the house is, but they hose down a nearby area that’s within their jurisdiction.

Mushy tells Tangy that Rozelle killed Tarabelle. She noticed that Tarabelle was pouring gasoline throughout the house, so while Tarabelle was upstairs, she lit a match to start the fire while Tarabelle was still inside. Tangy asks Rozelle how it will feel when Tarabelle comes for her the way Junior came for Chadlow.

Tangy takes Laura on a bus out of Georgia, telling her fairy tales about the paradise where they were born again, but not revealing her actual plans for the future.