Chapter 7: Vernice

Aunt Irene retrieves her brass-buckled trunk and decides to travel to Ohio via Baton Rouge to preserve dignity in a proper colored waiting room. She and Vernice exchange rare tenderness over lost loves—Aunt Irene’s Ohio Man and Vernice’s mother—before Ola Mae and Miss Jemison drive Irene to the bus.

Days later, Ola Mae and Miss Jemison take Vernice to Kinder for a Trailways bus to Atlanta. Intending to comply with segregation, Vernice mistakenly sits one row too far forward. The driver confronts her with slurs and demands she move; crowded seats prevent compliance. When Vernice calls him ungentlemanly, he expels her, keeping her punched ticket and leaving her luggage aboard.

On the pavement, gasman Larry pretends to be kin to pacify the driver, then restrains and strikes Vernice, threatening to “whip” her and implying marriage, as onlookers stare. Vernice, reeling from the loss of her suitcases and ticket, resists his advances and insults.

Carmen, a small, capable mechanic from Breaux Bridge with connections to Ola Mae, arrives and confronts Larry. She offers Vernice a ride back toward Honeysuckle and counsels her about the dangers of defying Jim Crow in Louisiana, gently acknowledging Vernice’s grief and assuring her that a mother’s love endures.

The chapter closes with Vernice’s planned future in Atlanta derailed, Aunt Irene already en route to Ohio, and Carmen’s intervention providing immediate safety and emotional solace amid violence and loss.