Chapter 17

Outside the Tartt house, Charlie confronts Birdie, revealing Garnett attended her sentencing, had her labeled feebleminded, and ensured she was sterilized at Ellisville. Charlie pleads that Meg must know her mother didn’t abandon her. Birdie, torn, agrees to let Charlie stay briefly and keep her identity from Frances and Mrs. Tartt.

Birdie navigates errands: wires home, collects overdue medicine on partial payment, and visits the bank. She arranges a meeting with Jack Walsh after spotting the bank’s strain and Rory’s fallout. In Freedmen Town, she shops more affordably and notes racial lines drawn elsewhere vanish here.

Returning home, Birdie finds Charlie already improving the yard and soothing Mrs. Tartt with music and ice. Charlie is allowed to stay in the maid’s room and begins helping in the kitchen. That evening and next day, Charlie’s quiet competence wins trust; Mrs. Tartt offers her old dresses to alter, and Birdie and Charlie bring down the Singer to sew.

At lunch with Jack, Birdie reveals Rory has fled with valuables and shows a foreclosure notice demanding $2,754 by September 15. Jack explains the bank’s urgency, the brutal foreclosure process, and two options: find a quick buyer and make a down payment, or sell belongings to buy time. He advises discretion, and Birdie later accepts his invitation to a picture show.

Birdie audits Rory’s bills, finds crushing debts and a disconnect notice, and discovers a recent Jackson filling-station receipt, hinting Rory’s whereabouts. Amid Frances’s denial and gossip from Pripp, Birdie insists Frances return recent purchases.

As storm clouds gather, the electricity is cut, forcing the household to light lanterns and eat perishables. Birdie steadies Frances and Mrs. Tartt, while Charlie hauls water and keeps working, the house now surviving by hand until morning.