Good Dirt

Content Warning: This section includes discussion of child death, graphic violence, racism, pregnancy loss, animal cruelty, and sexual content.

Back in 2019, Ebby sees Robert again and enjoys being with him. He invites her out the next night.

Henry wants to talk to Ebby. He is worried his father’s friend knows something about the crime done to her family. He begs for Ebby to hear him out and explains that he was uncomfortable that this man knew that the jar was broken when Baz was killed. Ebby has always suspected that the robbers were there specifically for the jar.

Ebby describes to Henry what she saw the day of Baz’s death: two robbers in ski masks asking Baz where “it” was. She is sure they meant the jar. She never mentioned this detail to the police or to their parents because she feared that the robbers might come back. Now, Ebby is angry that her identity has “continued to be shaped by what had been taken from her family. Her brother. Her first home. Her family’s privacy. Their heritage” (208). Henry knows that his father’s friend Harris is in the insurance industry and that people steal art. Henry hates confrontation, so he avoided mentioning the issue, but in running away from Ebby, Henry realizes that he “has taken himself down a notch as a man” (210).