Show Me a Sign

By the time Mary awakens on Sunday morning, Nancy is already gone. Because Mary’s mother hasn’t gone to service since George’s death, she will have to go to church alone with her father. In the carriage, Mary’s father signs that he can’t understand why Mary would dress up as a ghost. She can’t tell him the truth without revealing her sense of guilt over George’s death. Her father says that the town council will fine Thomas for fighting with Skiffe, who is a white man. Gossip will follow, but Mary’s father will defend Thomas as best he can.

In church, Reverend Lee gives a sermon about the need for neighbors to get along together: “It was man’s inability to repent that brought on the Flood and God’s wrath. […] [This story] echoes the inability to sympathize with one another that we see around us today” (89).

Lee’s sermon is prompted by the fact that Skiffe is still demanding the land that belongs to the Wampanoag and that the state supreme court has given to the Indigenous people. During the discussion of this issue in church, Andrew observes everyone with a look of contempt. Afterward, he goes to Ezra’s cottage accompanied by Reverend Lee and Mary to talk about possible causes for Chilmark’s deafness.