Summary

Chapter 21 – The locals in Liberty gossip about Ephram’s relationship with Ruby. Meanwhile, Ruby and Ephram live happily together. Ephram tells Ruby he intends to marry her. Ruby happily tends to her ghost children. Omar, the Dybou, watches all of this during a storm. He is revealed to be Reverend Jennings. The crow is revealed to be the spirit of Maggie, who caws warnings. Ruby rushes outside with a knife. Ephram follows and makes a whistling sound that drives away the Dybou and the storm.

Ruby then reveals the identities of her ghost children and their lives to Ephram. She also reveals her own past to Ephram, including how the Devil in the form of a man named Peter Green visited the brothel one night. There, the Devil killed Tanny, another child prostitute who was Ruby's friend, by strangling her. Ruby...