Krishna
Jossilyn Lassiter is waiting for her birthday in summer in the Southern USA. It is her thirteenth birthday. Earlier she almost drowned due to pranks played by the boys and is rescued by a bigger boy who is very handsome.
When that boy (rather older than Jessie) Luke Talley comes for dinner one day she is smitten. Her parents are very amused and try to be serious for her sake.
Meanwhile, in a storm one day, the farmhand’s family was wiped out due to a lightning strike on their hut. Jessie’s dad decides to take Gemma in. There is only one problem in the US of those times – Gemma is black. He faces down criticism and mounting anger from the townspeople, including the priest.
There is this thrilling scene where Josie and Gemma are sent to the grocery store by the parents (who are with them in town but have to go run other errands) where young Josie runs the gauntlet of the open but wordless hostility of the townspeople. She is insulted by a prejudiced man who has it in for her father already over her father’s ‘support’ of black folks.
The whole family is cold shouldered in the get together to which the family stubbornly attends. Buddy Pernell, who dunked Jessie in the water earlier, comes drunk and starts misbehaving but Jessie is saved by a tutor who intervenes.
There is a Klan group headed by an evil man called Walter Bevin. When Bevin confronts Gemma when she and Jesse were in town and hits her, Jesse tries to defend her. Jesse’s father arrives at the right time and saves them.
Bevin holds a grudge and when they come one day to ‘force the father out’ they do not realize that her parents had gone out. They grab Gemma and in the commotion, Jesse gets her father’s rifle and shoots Bevin (on the shoulder), she fires another shot into the mist but could not determine if she hit anyone else.
When she hears that Cy Fuller was missing and found dead, she is filled with guilt. In the meanwhile the case against Bevin is taken to the court but Bevin is released ‘for want of evidence’ and Jesse and Gemma are disappointed. Bevin gloats at his victory.
When Jesse goes to the library to replenish her books, she meets the nice old lady Miss Cleta who offers her books. On her way back she is waylaid by Bevin who tries to force her into the truck he was driving but is scared off by Miss Cleta with a gun.
The village life is interesting. The whole village is hostile to the Lassiter family for harbouring Gemma in their midst and treating her like their daughter. The social ostracization during a social dinner is very stark and the author describes it well without verging into melodrama. In fact, the whole story is handled with polish and while the viewpoints are very well made, it is a bit understated deliberately, and the narrative style works very well.
But Jessilyn behaves rashly, refuses to take precautions since ‘it limits her freedom’ even when the Klan has her in their sights and even when Walt Bevin specifically has it in for her.
She even suspects the ‘dependable’ Jeb and discovers a Klan outfit in his trunk in his shed when they go prowling.
She goes and eavesdrops on Otis when he confesses to killing Cy Fuller (which Jess thought was her crime) and every time she is so clumsy that he lets herself be seen – every time. Others rush to save her – every time. It gets so annoying to find a little girl running wild against the advice of saner elders.
The author builds suspicions when Jeb is caught talking to Walt Bevin and other incidents like that. But all is explained as the story goes.
There is a tiny surprise at the end. The surprise is not that Jessilyn did not kill Cy Fuller as she thought she had – we could see it coming a mile away. But the little twist is who is the real killer.
She finds it by one of her clumsy and very contrived attempts at eavesdropping.
It is simplistic in tone and slightly unreal but it entertains, after a fashion. A bit preachy at times, but not surprising, given the author’s own background.
4/10
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