Necessary Lies

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of forced sterilization, racism, violence, suicide, and sexual trauma.

Jane’s stepdaughter Brenna visits a house in Raleigh owned by a woman named Jennifer. Jennifer allows Brenna to look inside of the closet in her daughter’s bedroom where the words “Ivy and Mary was here” are carved into the woodwork (3).

Fifteen-year-old Ivy Hart ends a day of work on Davison Gardiner’s tobacco field and heads home to her grandmother, Nonnie, and her nephew, William. Two-year-old William is fussy, and Nonnie asks where his mother, 17-year-old Mary Ella, has gone off to. As dusk sets in after supper, Ivy goes in search of Mary Ella, insinuating that she may be off with a boy. Just as it is growing dark, Ivy spots her carrying a basket of goods from Mr. Gardiner. Mary Ella rushes home ahead of Ivy but will not reveal where she has been.

Jane undergoes a gynecological exam by Dr. Carson, a colleague of her fiancé, Robert. She asks him to prescribe birth control pills, but Dr. Carson will only do so with Robert’s permission once they are married.

Humiliated, Jane drives to a job interview for a social work position.