- At Gloria Dump's house, Opal presents her with a lozenge. It tastes sweet but reminds Gloria of "people leaving" (18.8).
- Opal surprises her with Gone with the Wind and reads Chapter One. It's awesome. Gloria can't wait for Chapter Two.
- That night, Opal gives the preacher a lozenge. He gets it right away, and says the candy tastes "melancholy" (18.29). If you don't know what that means, no worries. Neither does Opal.
- Her dad explains that "melancholy" means sad. He tells her he thinks of her mother when he tastes it and figures it must be "a bad batch," but Opal explains the history behind the candy (18.33).
- Then the preacher gets down to Parent Business: Mrs. Dewberry told him what Opal called her annoying sons. Even though Opal tells him everything they said to her, he still thinks she should apologize. So not fair.
- The preacher says the boys probably just want to be her friend. If you ask us, that sounds ridiculous, but Opal still agrees to apologize. Then she changes the subject and asks the preacher about Carson Wilkinson. Turns out, he's Amanda's five-year-old brother who drowned the year before. Though the preacher doesn't get why this info is so important to Opal, it is a huge deal to her. Now she knows why Amanda is such a prissypants.
- After the preacher kisses her goodnight, Opal thinks sweet and sad things get all jumbled up, making life confusing.
- She calls the preacher back and asks him the word he said: melancholy. She likes the word and thinks about it and her mother and Amanda and Carson as she sucks another Littmus Lozenge. We hope she brushed her teeth again afterwards.