Jubilee

By June, Vyry still isn’t ready to build a new house. She goes to town to sell her goods on Saturdays. While approaching a house with a picket fence, a young man, not much more than a teenager, emerges in a fright and asks Vyry to help him with his wife, who is having a baby. When Vyry sees the young woman in bed, she’s thrashing around. Vyry calms her, warning her that she could kill her baby before it’s born. Thirty minutes later, the baby is born. Vyry cleans the baby, a boy, and dresses him. The young white couple, the Fletchers, are grateful for Vyry’s service, but they admit that they probably can’t pay her what she’s worth. Vyry doesn’t charge them anything and offers to stay until the young woman, whose name is Betty-Alice, has her mother come by to look after her. The young parents name the baby Henry Fletcher, Jr.

One day, while looking after Betty-Alice, Vyry compliments Betty-Alice on her home, which Betty-Alice says Henry fixed up. She admires her husband greatly, crediting him with knowing plenty of things and being courageous. Betty-Alice isn’t afraid of much either, except for “big old black ears and other wild animals and niggers” (478).