Good Dirt

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, racism, and child death.

Ebby’s brother, Baz, brings their parents into the study of their home on the Sound to show them how he has dressed up the family heirloom, an old jar they treat “like a member of the family” (4). They take a family photo.

It is the year 2000. The next-door neighbors, who are in their garden, run to the Freeman home when they hear gunshots. They see the children’s bicycles in the yard and enter the house to hear Ebby crying. It is a “sound that could shatter a person’s heart” (8).

It is the year 2018. Ed and Soh Freeman are hopeful and touched as they wait for their daughter Ebby’s wedding to begin. They know that potential social challenges may await their daughter because she has chosen to marry Henry Pepper, a white man, but Ed hopes that, with Ebby’s family history, background, education, and other advantages, she will be well-equipped for success. Soh savors the details of the moment. She knows that Ebby plans to walk down the aisle while holding a picture of her brother, Baz, who would now be 33 if he had lived.