Summary

Chapter 3: Sam is over at her friend Dawn’s house, which she notes is shabbier than hers. Dawn is piercing Sam’s ears. They are talking about Sam wanting to marry Lonnie, why Emmett isn’t married and what Dawn wants to do with her life. Sam says she wants lots of money and speaks of her ambivalence toward Lonnie stating that “it is just a situation she is in” (43). She also tells Dawn that after her mother Irene got pregnant, she bought Sam’s birth control pills.

Chapter 4: Sam comes home from Dawn’s to find Emmett digging a ditch alongside the foundation of the house. His intent is to fix the leak in the basement. Sam has never seen Emmett work so hard at anything. He works at it until dusk only stopping for pizza that Lonnie brings by in the...