The White Girl

When Sissy comes home from school on the following Wednesday, Odette is preparing the bathtub so she can wash  before her doctor’s appointment in Gatlin. Sissy expresses concern, but Odette downplays the situation. Before bedtime, Odette tells Sissy that she will be gone from before sunup until after sundown. She wants Sissy to keep the house locked, to carry her housekey on a string around her neck, and to come straight home after school. Sissy points out that they never locked the door before Sergeant Lowe arrived.

Sissy isn’t excited to have the house to herself on Thursday because she knows Odette is far away. Still, the day passes uneventfully until she decides to go exploring on her bicycle after school. She finds and investigates an abandoned homestead. Clothing still sits in the wardrobes and the table is set as if for dinner. On the living room wall, there is a large photograph of a well-dressed White family standing in front of the house, with two Aboriginal women off to the side. Sissy has heard stories about the women taken from their families and forced to work for White people. As she bikes home, she wonders about the fate of the two Aboriginal women—and all the others taken from their families.

It’s nearly sunset and Sissy has a long way to go when she realizes that she’s gotten a flat. As she wobbles down the dirt track, Aaron and George Kane, out for a joyride in their truck, happen upon her. Aaron uses the truck to make Sissy stop. He gets out and peppers her with aggressive questions. She tries to remain calm. Telling her that she doesn’t look like the other Quarrytown residents, whom he describes with a racial slur, he offers her a ride home. It turns out to be a demand rather than a suggestion, and when she tries to refuse, he throws her bike into the bushes and tries to force her into the truck.

George intervenes, retrieving the bicycle and telling Aaron to leave Sissy alone. Instead, Aaron stomps on the bike, crushing the front tire so that Sissy can’t ride it home. In a whisper, he tells George that he plans to “have some fun” with the attractive girl. George and Aaron tussle, which would have given Sissy an opportunity to run if she weren’t so scared. Aaron resumes dragging her to the truck, but just then Bill Shea happens on the scene.

Bill doesn’t trust the Kane boys or their father Joe. He doesn’t believe Aaron’s claim that he and George are trying to help Sissy, but Sissy is too scared to tell Bill that Aaron broke her bicycle intentionally. When an impatient Aaron speaks disrespectfully to Shea, the mild-mannered police officer becomes enraged and viciously clubs Aaron across the face. He tells George to take his brother home, then turns to Sissy. She accepts his offer of a ride somewhat reluctantly—his display of anger frightened her. When she gets back to Quarrytown, she realizes too late that the key is no longer hanging around her neck.