Whistling Past the Graveyard

Eula and Starla tell Cyrena the truth about James and Wallace, and Cyrena refers to Eula as an “abused woman” and a victim of sexism. Cyrena helps Eula share her pain, and Eula explains that she had a baby when she was 14. She was in love with a 16-year-old white teen. Eula’s mom worked for his family, and the teen boy treated Eula like a person. Eula managed to keep the baby a secret. She wanted to tell the boy, but his parents sent him to a military school before she could.

One day, Charles heard the baby crying. Charles and her dad beat her. As the baby was “so white,” Charles gave him to a family moving North, where a multiracial baby might experience less prejudice. Charles and her father got “meaner” until Wallace intervened. Starla asks about Wallace, but Eula needs time before she can share additional pain.

Cyrena thinks that the police will come to the Bottom to look for Starla, so they must get to Nashville. Cyrena dyes Starla’s hair black. Cyrena doesn’t think the cops will investigate Wallace’s murder if or when they discover his body because cops tend to “look the other way” when a Black man dies (305).