Chapter 9 Summary

The nurse announces that the doctor won't be taking any more patients until 1:00 in the afternoon. Octavia talks to the nurse and tells her that she has to get back to the field in the afternoon. She pleads with the nurse (who is white,) to allow her to at least speak to the doctor about how much James' tooth is hurting him. The nurse just tells her to come back later, and the lady sitting next to Mama tells her that she didn't get to see the doctor, because she's black. White people don't have to wait so long.

James and Octavia go outside and stand around. Soon, they begin to walk even though his mother doesn't know where she's going. They walk past the stores where James notices the shoes on the dummy in the window. He thinks that in the summer...