Chapter 14 Summary

Sometimes Opal tells Gloria stories that Franny Block has told her. Other times, she imitates Otis keeping the beat to his music with the pointy toes of his boots. Gloria tells Opal that she used to love to read books, but because her eyes are so bad now she can't do it anymore.

Opal confesses to Gloria one afternoon that Otis was a criminal. She wanted to know whether she should be afraid of him, and that's when Gloria takes Opal and Winn-Dixie over to a tree in her yard. Hanging from the tree are bottles on just about every branch. In fact, when the wind blows, the bottles clink together.

When Opal asks what the bottles are for, Gloria told her they were put there to keep the ghosts away. They are the ghosts of the bad things that Gloria has done...