The White Girl: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

After enjoying a quiet Sunday morning to herself, Sissy goes outside to prepare the wood fire she and Odette use to heat their weekly bath. It’s laborious, but the Browns’ bathtub is a luxury. Many years earlier, when it fell off Jeb Lamb’s junk truck, Ruben bought it. Then, he and a crew of relatives and coworkers loaded it onto a cart of their own, secured it much better than Jeb had, and carried it to Ruben’s yard. There’s no hot water supply, so they must fill it with buckets and warm the water by pushing hot coals underneath it.

Odette refuses when Sissy offers her the first bath. After Sissy soaks, Odette washes, oils, and combs Sissy’s hair. It’s a peaceful ritual. Odette can hear the call of a bird—a magpie—in the front yard. Sissy asks if there are ghosts in the graveyard as her classmates claim. Odette says that White people invented ghosts to frighten the living. The “old people” she talks to in the graveyard are neither scary nor dangerous. In fact, Sissy is welcome to come whenever she wants. Changing the subject, Sissy tells Odette that a man was watching the house from the street earlier in the day. She describes Sergeant Lowe. She tells Sissy not to worry, although Odette herself is greatly alarmed by the news.

Afterwards, Odette paints. She earns a living making greeting cards on consignment for a White, female business owner who sells “native handicrafts.” When they met, three years earlier, Odette’s skill impressed the White woman, but the real selling point was her indigeneity. Having an Aboriginal “provenance” made the cards more valuable, the woman explained as she asked for Odette’s “tribal name.” Odette said she was “Bilga,” a word she read off the honey jar on the table. Odette found the woman off-putting, but still accepted her offer, because she makes more money from a few days of painting than she would in a few weeks of housekeeping for White people. She stashes her income in hiding places in her house, since Aboriginal people cannot open bank accounts.

Sissy watches Odette painting a wattle branch, one of the few things currently in bloom. Odette refuses to paint from memory because she wants to capture the unique essence of each individual flower or animal. Sissy, in contrast, thinks all the wattle blossoms look alike. When it starts to rain, Sissy puts jars on the floor to catch drips from the leaky roof, but she loves the cozy sound of the falling water. She tells Odette that she plans to stay in this house with her grandmother “forever.”