Foster

One afternoon, while the girl, John, and Edna are making jam, John says that they’ll need to buy new clothes for the girl for Mass. Edna asks what’s wrong with the clothes the girl has been wearing, but John just insists they get the girl new clothes. Before they leave for town, the girl goes upstairs and finds the bathroom door locked. When Edna comes out, the girl sees that Edna has been crying but that she isn’t ashamed.

In town, Edna and the girl go to a shop, and Edna buys the girl a dress. The shopkeeper who helps them thinks that Edna is the girl’s mother, and Edna doesn’t correct her. After leaving the shop, a woman “with eyes like picks” who knows Edna stops them in the street. She pushily wants to know who the girl’s parents are and then says “God help” Edna. After that interaction, they go to a candy store, and John and Edna give the girl money to buy what she wants. When the three return from town, a woman is waiting for them on their front step. The woman says that a man in her family just died, but none of the men are at home, so they need help digging the grave. John leaves to help.

Later in the day, the girl accompanies Edna and goes to the wake. Edna says that the wake is no place for the girl, but she also can’t leave the girl at home. At the wake, John is sitting near the coffin, and the girl sits on his lap. She soon grows restless. A neighbor of the Kinsellas, whose name is Mildred, notices the girl’s restlessness and offers to take the girl home with her and watch her until John and Edna are ready to leave the wake. Edna agrees, and the girl leaves with Mildred.

As soon as the girl and Mildred are outside, Mildred starts peppering the girl with questions. She asks the girl if John and Edna drink and how much butter Edna uses in her pies. Mildred’s questions quickly take on a different tone, though, and she asks the girl if “the child’s” clothes are still hanging up. The girl isn’t sure what Mildred means, and Mildred explains that Edna and John had a son who died after he followed a dog into a slurry pit (a pit that is often a mixture of liquid and animal waste that is gradually turned into fertilizer) and drowned. The girl realizes that she has been sleeping in the boy’s old room and wearing his clothes. Mildred says that after the boy drowned, John took the dog out back with a rifle, but he didn’t have the heart to shoot the dog.

Mildred and the girl reach Mildred’s house and go inside. Before the girl can determine whether she should sit or stand, John arrives at the door. He takes the girl out to the car, where Edna is waiting. In the car, John and Edna ask the girl what she and Mildred talked about. The girl at first tries to avoid their questions, but eventually she says that Mildred told her that John and Edna had a child who died when he fell into a slurry pit. John and Edna are both upset.

When John, Edna, and the girl return home, John takes the girl outside, saying that he’s going to help her break in her shoes. The two walk by the light of the moon down to the shore of the ocean. While they walk, John takes the girl’s hand in his. At the ocean, they take their shoes off and walk in and out of the waves. Two lights from boats glimmer in the distance. John puts the girl on his shoulders and walks into the water until it’s up to his knees.

John and the girl then walk together further up on the sand, away from the ocean. John tells the girl that Edna didn’t mean any harm in sending the girl home with Mildred. He explains that Edna wants to find the best in people, which makes her want to trust people. The girl doesn’t know what to say, and John assures her that it’s okay not to say anything. As they walk back home, they turn around and look back at the ocean. John points out that there are now three lights from boats instead of only two. He then takes the girl in his arms as if she were “his own.”