Summary

After moving into their new apartment, Sweetness and Lula Ann lived by themselves. Sweetness had trouble recovering from Louis's abandonment. A few months after their split, however, Louis started sending Sweetness "money once a month" (3). She assumes it was because he felt guilty. Sweetness had never asked him for anything. The money he sent, plus the hours Sweetness worked at her "night job," eventually got her and Lula Ann "off welfare" (3). Sweetness wished they had not started calling government aid "welfare," as she preferred when they called it "relief" (3). The night job provided her more money than the welfare checks anyway.

Sweetness hated the way people saw and treated her and Lula Ann. She knew it was because of Lula Ann's looks.

Though things gradually improved, Sweetness "still had to be careful," particularly with how she raised Lula Ann (4). She needed Lula Ann...