How It All Goes Down
Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell take care of "important business"(2) every morning over breakfast. Mrs. Hopewell gets up at 7:00 AM and lights the heaters—hers and her daughter Joy's—and then she gets to gossiping in the kitchen with Mrs. Freeman. Joy, who is thirty-two years old and extremely educated, takes her time coming in.
Mrs. Freeman has two teenage daughters, one married and pregnant, and one not; the girls are a big topic of morning conversation. Mrs. Hopewell employs the Freemans, a tenant farming family—she's done so for the past four years—and they've worked out well because they are not "trash," but rather "good country people" (3). Ahem… did you notice that title reference? Because that totally just happened. Anyway, before the Freemans, a year was about the most a family stayed working for Mrs. Hopewell.
Joy has a grumpy attitude, but Mrs. Hopewell lets her get by with it because she has a wooden leg. When she was ten, her leg was "shot off in a hunting accident" (13), which sounds like a major bummer to us. Joy legally changed her name to Hulga when she was twenty-one, but Mrs. Hopewell doesn't call her that. Moms, right? Hulga has a doctoral degree in philosophy but lives at home because she has a heart condition and needs to be cared for by her mother. She might only live another ten years or so.
Today (Saturday) Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman are wondering what Hulga talked about with the Bible salesman who came by yesterday; apparently Hulga is an atheist. Manley Pointer, the Bible salesman, wasn't able to sell Mrs. Hopewell a Bible, but he did get lunch, some conversation, and a date for today at 10:00 AM with Hulga out of his visit.
Hulga and Manley meet up and begin walking in the woods. They kiss, and talk about God, damnation, nothingness, and Hulga's leg. Hulga thinks he's not nearly as smart as she is. When Manley suggests they find a place to "sit down" (104), Hulga leads him to the barn loft. Manley kisses her more and takes away her glasses. She doesn't notice. He tells her he loves her and wants her to tell him the same in return. He also wants to see where her false leg attaches to her real one. She succumbs, reluctantly at first, to both requests.
After Manley removes her leg, he refuses to give it back to her. She panics. Manley open his Bible—and guess what? It's hollow inside. From the hollow, he removes whiskey, cards, and condoms. Hulga is not impressed. She demands her leg and loses all romantic spirit. Manley packs up his things… as well as Hulga's leg. He tells Hulga that he is just as smart as she is and suggests that he completely fooled her: He is an even bigger believer in nothing than she is. Through the loft opening, Hulga watches Manley leave. Her face is agitated.
Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman watch him leave, too. Mrs. Hopewell thinks he was selling Bibles to the black people who live in the direction from which he came. It's not clear what Mrs. Freeman thinks, but she gets the last word in the story. You just know we've got something to say about this over in the "What's Up With the Ending?" section.