That's What I'm Telling You
- Back to the story. The day that Phoebe tells Sal how brave she is, she also invites Sal over for dinner.
- Sal is pumped, because it means she can avoid eating over at Mrs. Cadaver's house. She doesn't like watching her dad and Mrs. Cadaver being all nice to each other. Frankly, she just wants things to go back to the way they were, back in Bybanks.
- On their way home to Phoebe's place, Sal and Phoebe pass Mrs. Cadaver's house.
- Mrs. Cadaver's elderly mother, Mrs. Partridge, is sitting on the porch. The girls say "hello," and Mrs. Partridge guesses Phoebe's age correctly by feeling her face. Impressive, huh?
- Back at Phoebe's house, her mom, Mrs. Winterbottom, is making blackberry pie. Blackberry pie makes Sal very sad, because it reminds her of her own mother.
- Sal tells Phoebe and Mrs. Winterbottom that Mrs. Partridge is blind (that explains the whole face-feeling thing). Phoebe and Phoebe's mom are shocked to hear this news.
- It turns out Mrs. Cadaver and Mrs. Partridge moved in to the house next door only a month ago, so the Winterbottoms don't know much about them.
- Phoebe tells Sal that she's scared of Mrs. Cadaver. She's scared of the fact that her last name means "dead body," and she's scared of her red hair. All good reasons, Phoebster.
- Plus, Phoebe points out that Mrs. Cadaver goes by Mrs. Cadaver, but that she's never seen her husband. She's got a theory about what happened to Mrs. Cadaver husband, "'and it is awful, purely awful'" (4.57).