Chapter 1 Summary

The Sky is Gray, by Ernest Gaines, opens with a young boy and his mother waiting for a bus. The boy watches anxiously, but the mother is looking back from where they came. The road is just an old gravel road out in the country, with weeds, trees, fences, and cows on both sides. It's so cold out that the boy can see the steam from the cows' nostrils, as they breathe.

The boy is extremely attuned to his mother, even stating that he knows what she's thinking about. At that moment, he believes that she's thinking about how things are going back at the home they've left. He knows that his mother is worrying about whether his "auntie" has enough wood to keep them warm, and whether she can take care of the other members of his family while they're gone. He...