The Girls in the Stilt House

Matilda sees Virgil on her way to Gertie’s, and he’s messing with Stella Mae, a sweet 10-year-old who lives with Gertie and is “not right in the head” (118). Matilda takes Stella Mae inside, and Gertie assures Matilda that she’s got plans for Virgil, by which Matilda understands that Gertie is “hexing” him. Matilda isn’t superstitious, but this makes her laugh.

Matilda tells her parents that she’s planning to leave after the baby comes. Though Teensy raises questions, clearly wanting her daughter to stay, Dalton calls Matilda by her childhood nickname—“Little Bit”—and understands why she wants to go. He knows it’s her chance for a “whole life” rather than a life with only small chances for happiness.

That summer, Gertie reassures Teensy that the pregnancy looks good. Teensy has had three losses since Matilda was born: a miscarriage, a stillborn baby, and a little boy who died the day after he was born. One day, Peggy convinces Matilda to go with her and Leon, Peggy’s brother, to town. Leon is decent and level-headed, while Peggy is impulsive and egocentric. Peggy’s entitlement and privilege irritate Matilda, especially now that Matilda is taking on extra work to save money for Cleveland. Matilda needs to send a letter to Rainy, so she agrees to go. After leaving the post office, she witnesses an interaction between a white man and a young Black couple. The white man demands that they move off the sidewalk and step into the muddy street. The Black man doffs his cap and explains that his wife’s been sick, and these are her only shoes; he doesn’t want her feet to get wet. The white man doesn’t care, and he punches the Black man in the face, breaking his jaw. Matilda steps into the mud to help him and retrieve his beautiful pocket watch, which she hands to his wife. When she turns back, she sees Peggy throw her arms around a man who makes Matilda feel uncomfortable.

The man is Frank Bowers, Peggy’s cousin. He just graduated from law school and plans to work for Creedle for the summer before signing on with a firm in Baltimore. To Peggy, Frank is the “prodigal son,” but his attitude toward Leon reminds Matilda of “Cain and Abel” (143). Matilda keeps working hard, filling her coffee can with her earnings. One day, she sees Frank pilfering bottles of liquor from under the Pattersons’ cottage. He tells her to keep her mouth shut. Another day, Creedle tells Dalton that Frank will start driving half the liquor runs now. Dalton hopes that Frank only stole the one time and won’t do it anymore, and he feels he’s in too far with the operation to back out now.

Matilda shows Leon a fossilized tooth she found in the creek. He identifies it and asks her to show him where she found it. When she expresses her desire to travel as he has, he says that there are female archaeologists, too. Matilda is irritated by his apparent lack of understanding of her status as a Black woman. Peggy finds them digging in the sand and laughing, and she suggests that something is going on between them. Matilda tells Peggy she’s crazy. Creedle arrives, telling Dalton he’ll have to work two years to pay back his debt now that Frank is doing half the work. Matilda realizes that it was never about Dalton’s land lust but, rather, that he wants to protect Teensy from the world. Teensy tells Matilda that the baby will be named Annis, for the sound the wind makes as it passes through the sycamore tree.

Virgil gives Stella Mae a disgusting stuffed rat, telling her it’s a toy, and Matilda slaps it from the girl’s hand. Later, she considers her two enemies, men who hate her, though she did nothing to them. Worse, Virgil knows that Stella Mae is Matilda’s weakness. That night, she pets the dog she calls “Go Away” because she doesn’t want anyone to know that she loves him.

On her way to work, a neighbor’s son tells her she can’t work today, so she grabs a book and goes off to read. She sees the door to an old well-house standing open, then the back end of her father’s wagon partially hidden behind it. Suddenly, Frank appears, pushing a wheelbarrow full of bottles. She tries to look like she doesn’t care, but he spots her and follows her. Frank blackmails her, threatening Dalton and Leon should she tell anyone she saw him. When Frank flicks her skirt up with a stick, she snatches it and strikes him across the hand, drawing blood. He says he won’t tell anyone anything if she keeps her mouth shut, and then he follows her home. She decides to keep the event to herself, as it would weigh too heavily on both Teensy and Dalton.

The next day, Matilda sees Frank and Dalton talking in the yard. When Frank waves, a signal that he’ll keep up his end of their deal if she does, she won’t wave back. She decides she won’t let Frank rob her of her dignity. Gertie checks on Teensy again, and everything looks good. Gertie asks Matilda to find Stella Mae, and she does. The child is sitting in the pasture between Frank Bowers and Virgil Morgan. Virgil is drunk, but Frank seems to be waiting for Matilda, whom he must have heard calling Stella Mae. Matilda understands that Frank is threatening the girl now, in addition to Dalton and Leon. The next day, when Frank waves at her, she grudgingly waves back. At dinner, Dalton says that Frank banished Virgil from the farm, and he’s only allowed back to buy liquor. Matilda understands that Frank is far more dangerous than Virgil.

At church the next Sunday, Matilda can tell by the quiet that something bad has happened. The pastor sends the children outside, and then he highlights Cassie Jones, the woman whose husband would not let her step off the sidewalk that day in town. Her husband, Buddy, died on the eve of his purchasing a parcel of land for his family. His body was found in the river, a gash in his head. Everyone knows it was no accident.