The White Girl

When Odette leaves her house early in the morning to  catch the early bus into Gatlin, the sky is spangled with stars. She remembers stargazing with Ruben and her father’s promise that no matter how “clever” White people think they are, they will never be able to “touch the stars.”

On the bus ride, Odette remembers her last visit to Gatlin, in search of Lila. After hours of fruitless looking, she found herself in a church sanctuary hoping for some quiet. Instead, she met Delores Reed, an Aboriginal woman like herself. Delores told Odette that she had been married to an Irishman with whom she had two fair-skinned daughters. The Welfare authorities took the young girls away after Delores’s husband abandoned the family and she ran out of money. Although the authorities sent the girls to Gatlin, far away from their south coast home, Delores managed to find and follow them. She told Odette how she’d found work cooking and cleaning for the priest in exchange for room and board and the chance to visit her daughters once a month (but not for money or any extra visits).

When Odette asked if the other children’s parents ever visited, Delores explained that the priest and schoolteachers didn’t consider it beneficial to leave “half-castes” or “quarter-castes” with their families, preferring to “place” them with White families. Odette realized that the same thing would eventually happen to Delores’s daughters. And maybe to Lila or Sissy, if she wasn’t careful. According to Delores, the Welfare authorities at that time were “in love with the fairer ones.”

In the present, when Odette arrives at the hospital, Dr. Singer is waiting for her. He’s just as kind, patient, and polite as he was during their initial visit as he talks Odette through the process of taking x-rays. He tells her to return to the hospital at 2:00 p.m. to discuss the results. Unsure how to fill the time, Odette wanders through town window shopping. She’s not impressed by what she sees. She even stumbles upon the shop of the business owner. The woman smiles at her through the window but clearly doesn’t recognize her at all.

Eventually, Odette goes to the church to check on Delores. A kindly groundskeeper named Robert gives her the bad news that Delores is gone. About eight years earlier, the church moved her daughters to another school. It was too far away for Delores to follow them. She fell into a deep depression and decided to die by suicide. Robert leads Odette to Delores’s old room and gives her photographs of Delores’s daughters, which Odette takes reluctantly, and only because Robert—an orphan himself—is distressed by the idea of them getting thrown away. Odette at least knows the girls’ names. 

Back at the hospital, Dr. Singer shows Odette her x-rays and explains that she has a tumor. While it’s likely benign, it needs to be removed before it causes her further problems. He explains that this will entail an operation in Gatlin, followed by several days in the hospital and several weeks of recovery in bed. Odette balks, worried about who will take care of Sissy. Dr. Singer tells her to take the time she needs to make arrangements for Sissy’s care. But when Odette gets off the bus in Deane to find Sergeant Lowe waiting for her, she knows she cannot do anything that would give the authorities an excuse to take Sissy away from her. She won’t have surgery.