Monday Night
April 16, 1962
- Rain comes and it doesn't stop. As Abby lies in bed reading, the Oklahoma River rises, flooding the lower parts of town so that everyone who lives there has to escape to higher ground.
- Patience and Abby's house fills with people, including Lily and the Lightseys.
- Abby and the rest of the kids play Simon Says, and while at first everyone is quiet around her, the kids soon stop tiptoeing around Abby. Yay.
- In the morning, the women all prepare a delicious breakfast of cornbread and greens with fresh butter. Mmm…
- Again the kids play Simon Says. After a few maneuvers Abby can do, though, they forget she's stuck in bed and Lily instructs everyone to take two steps forward. Realizing her error, Lily is embarrassed.
- Abby, however, is inspired: Slowly and carefully, she puts her feet down on the floor, refusing help as she takes first one step and then another. With that, Abby is officially no longer stuck in bed. The kids all scream with glee.
- The floodwater recedes and everyone heads back home.
- Abby returns to church on Sunday… but she doesn't sing.
- Heading home from service, Lily asks Abby what being raped was like. Abby tells her it was terrible, saying she "felt dirty" and that it hurt terribly. She says "the worst part was I felt like I was being spit on by God."
- As far as Abby can tell, God knew what was happening and he let it—so she must have done something to deserve this harshest of punishments. Lily begs to differ, but Abby won't hear it and goes running home.
- It is this sense that God knew what was happening that's inspired Abby to no longer sing. If her voice is a "gift from God," she'd like to return it. She is done with God.
- As she runs home, church deacons talk about how terrible it is that Brother Jacobs raped her and how terribly hard it's been on his wife.
- Apparently Brother Jacobs turned himself into the authorities. As one deacon says, though, "If I had Patience looking for me, don't you know I'd give myself up, too!"