The Mighty Miss Malone

Deza is so focused on trying to walk and read The Quest of the Silver Fleece that she passes the post office. She returns to find Mrs. James excitedly waving a letter. Deza assumes it is from Jimmie because it is addressed to only “Mrs. Margaret Malone and Mistress Deza Malone” (241), but she is overjoyed to find a typed, brief message from Father instead. He says he is traveling the country finding carpentry work. A friend typed the letter because Father has an injured hand and cannot hold a pen. There are two five-dollar bills in the envelope. Mrs. James is amazed and happy for Deza, and they hug. Deza goes home and waits with great anticipation for Mother to come home; she cries from pent-up emotion. Mother is not as excited or happy as Deza thinks she should be, and Deza wonders if “maybe you can hold on to something bad for so long that when you put it down you don’t trust the feeling” (244).

Mr. Saw-Bone Zee sees Deza on the sidewalk and stops her. He shares the news that Jimmie is a singer in a nightclub in Detroit called the New Turned Leaf. A manager named Maxwell to whom Mr.