Chapter 4: Annie

In the middle of the night, Annie climbs out her window with a bursting suitcase to meet Clyde, only to discover Babydoll pressed close beside him and Bobo in tow. Babydoll claims prior claim on Clyde, and Bobo urges Annie to come along despite the shock. During a roadside stop, Babydoll bluntly shares that Clyde planned to ditch Annie, but Bobo insisted they not abandon her. Annie admits she is headed to Memphis to find her mother, while Babydoll openly declares she wants to be wherever Clyde is.

The stolen Packard crawls north with a failing radiator, forcing frequent water stops. Annie silently apologizes to Niecy and Granny for leaving without goodbyes. By daybreak they reach a Green Book–listed rooming house run by Lurelia Dubose, who refuses to rent a single room to unmarried couples and imposes conditions they cannot afford. With Bobo’s diplomacy, she relents only to offer sandwiches, water, shade until noon, and directions to her sister Lulabelle—warning not to arrive before lunchtime.

After waiting under a live oak and tensions flaring between Clyde and Bobo, they set out again; the Packard finally quits entirely on a country road. They push the car by hand to Lulabelle’s property, a compound of dilapidated shacks and a fine catalog house, evoking sharecropping days. Lulabelle sizes them up, confirms they aren’t married, and, after brief talk of religion, reveals her establishment is a whorehouse.

The revelation reframes their prospects: Annie’s practical need for shelter now collides with moral and social hazards, while her original goal—reaching Memphis to find her mother—grows more precarious amid dependence on Clyde, Babydoll’s attachment to him, and Bobo’s strained mediation.