Summary

Part Two opens with a chapter titled “Lucinda.” When Lucinda was almost 10 years old, some children glued her clothes to the seat at school. She sat there long after school was over and wet her pants. The teacher felt the “devil” got into the children but was more angry that they wasted the glue than their bullying of Lucinda. She lived with her mother in a shack at the edge of the village. The house was filled with things stolen from the long-abandoned plantation. There were red chairs “blackened by coal and black magic” (127).

Lucinda managed to sneak home by a roundabout route. She hoped to reach her room without her mother noticing her but found her mother was having sex with a man who suggests he have Lucinda next time. Lucinda is outside when her mother brutally...