Summary

In Section “35 / May 1866” Josey goes into labor. She is by herself because Jackson left to fight in the Indian War to the west. Like many of the other men in the area he felt he needed to fighting in order to be whole. Jackson had been beaten down by the responsibilities placed on him by having a sick, pregnant wife and an uncooperative mother. He had begun praying for healing for Josey when he snuck up behind her in the kitchen during her fifth month of pregnancy and discovered that she had cut her arms. He stopped praying when he found her laying at the edge of the woods. He fell beside her and cried, cried because he was ashamed of himself because he could not care for her properly. For a while, Charles had gone every day to visit...