The White Girl

A disoriented Odette wakes up in a hospital bed. The nurse coming in to check her vital signs greets her as “Betty,” and there’s a card on the foot of the bed identifying her as “Miss Betty Haines.” The nurse explains that after Odette collapsed, unable to breathe properly thanks to the massive tumor pressing on her lungs, her family rushed her to the hospital, where she underwent an operation to remove the (luckily benign) tumor. The nurse compliments Odette on her strength and resilience, noting that her “brother” swore that she’d experienced no ill health prior to the collapse.

Odette’s confusion about this brother evaporates a little while later when Jack Haines and his wife Alma drop by to visit. Jack explains that Wanda found Odette collapsed in the bathroom and called an ambulance. Then she brought Sissy to Jack’s house, and he and Alma went straight to the hospital to check on Odette. He had to lie and claim her as his sister in order to get visiting privileges. Odette soon recovers enough to join Sissy, Jack, Alma, their daughter Carol, and their granddaughter Lidia at their home.

Jack and Alma keep a wall of photographs in the kitchen. The day Odette arrives, Jack takes one down and explains that it’s a picture of his older sister Betty. She got an exemption, too, and joined the family as Jack traveled around looking for seasonal work. She died suddenly—of a heart attack, they assume—on the road. Afraid of running into trouble with suspicious authorities, Jack and Alma buried her themselves on land that used to belong to Alma’s people. They never notified the government of her death. Jack and Alma tell Odette that she’s welcome to stay with them—and to impersonate Betty—as long as she wants.

Odette is grateful for everything Jack and Alma have done for her but isn’t comfortable with the idea of impersonating Betty, which strikes her as somehow disrespectful. Besides, she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life hiding. The day after she arrives, she tells Jack and Alma that she wants to apply for an exemption certificate of her own. Jack suggests that she consult a lawyer, and he even recommends one he knows who also happens to be a communist. Odette hasn’t heard good things about the “Reds,” but Jack says that he’s found them to be far more trustworthy than most White people.