How It All Goes Down
- Skeeter narrates Chapter 19. She's at home, burning up from the July heat. Her parents refuse to get air conditioning.
- Skeeter goes out to the Cadillac and sits in the air conditioning with her dress up and her eyes closed.
- Soon, she hears the passenger door open, and there's Stuart.
- He invites her to go with him to Biloxi where they'd share a hotel room. She wants to, but she says she can't. Stuart kisses her and puts his hand on her thigh to try to convince her.
- She says she'd have to lie to her mother. Stuart doesn't want this; he doesn't like lies.
- He invites her and her parents to come over for dinner and meet his parents in three weeks.
- Three nights later, Stuart comes by and Skeeter learns that Stuart's mother was very close with Stuart's ex, Patricia. Stuart won't tell Skeeter why they broke up.
- Next morning, Pascagoula (the Phelans' maid, now that Constantine is gone) tells Skeeter that Hilly's maid, Yule May, has agreed to tell her story.
- The next day, Pascagoula gives Skeeter a letter from Yule May.
- The letter explains that Yule May and her husband have been saving money to send their twin boys to Tougaloo College, but only had enough to send one of them.
- Yule May confesses she stole a ruby ring from Hilly to get the rest of the money. Now she's in the Mississippi State Penitentiary and the college savings are going toward the court fine.
- Skeeter is disgusted. She knows the ring – it's a garnet, worth nothing. Hilly hates it, even.
- When Skeeter gets to Aibileen's that night, the church folks are there praying for Yule May.
- Skeeter learns that Hilly used her influence to make sure Yule May is sentenced to four years. Yule May was "arrested on Monday, sent to the pen on Tuesday. […] the whole trial took fifteen minutes" (19.161). The church has gathered the money to send both boys to college.
- One by one, women come up to Skeeter and say they want to tell their stories. When Skeeter looks at Minny, she can see that Minny is the one who convinced them.
- About thirteen women are on board now, and Skeeter goes to Aibileen's almost every night to get their stories. All the women donate the forty dollars Skeeter offers them to the fund to send Yule May's sons to college.