Because of Winn-Dixie

Opal talks about her daily routine—leaving the trailer early to listen to Otis play music with Sweetie Pie, sweeping the shop to save up for Winn-Dixie’s collar, visiting Franny Block at the library to hear a story, and finally spending time in Gloria Dump’s beautiful garden. The Dewberry boys mock Opal, saying she should not spend all her time with a witch. Opal is disgusted by their ignorance: “It made me mad, the way they wouldn’t listen to me and kept believing whatever they wanted to believe about Gloria Dump” (89). Opal tells Gloria about the boys, and Gloria is more forgiving. She suggests Opal befriend the boys, but Opal will not have it.

Opal tells Gloria stories because she cannot read anymore. After one story, Opal decides to ask Gloria about Otis. She tells Gloria that Otis is a criminal, and she wonders if she should be afraid of him because he has done bad things. Gloria walks Opal to her backyard, where there is a tree full of swinging glass bottles—wine and beer and whiskey bottles, mostly. Gloria explains the bottles are meant “to keep the ghosts away […]. the ghosts of all the things I done wrong” (95).