Chapters 22-23 Summary

In Chapter Twenty-Two, "Quench Not the Spirit," Maso schedules another trip to Florida, which worries Joe. Graciela tells him she is pregnant, and they are both delighted, but both secretly are concerned about Joe's safety. Joe enters a small café one day and accidentally encounters two tables full of KKK men. Loretta sits at the only other table. She invites him to sit with her. The KKK men taunt him but leave peaceably. Loretta says what she has learned over the past two years of preaching is that heaven is here on Earth, but it is a paradise lost. She says at first she felt certain of her calling by God, but now she believes certainty is the biggest falsehood. She then says her mother died a few days ago, which Joe did not know. She claims she is not despairing...