Tar Baby

Content Warning: These chapters contain scenes of domestic violence and instances of racism and the use of slurs.

Jadine and Son travel to Eloe, Florida, taking first a plane, then a bus, and finally a car ride. They stop first at Soldier’s house, an old friend of Son’s, and Soldier and everyone else in the area are excited to see Son. They tell him that Sally Brown, his ex-mother-in-law, finally died, and Jadine can see the relief on his face. Son leaves Jadine at Soldier’s house and goes to visit his father, Old Man. Son is excited to see him, and when Old Man tells Son of Sally Brown’s death, he also tells Son that she slept with a shotgun, waiting to kill Son if he ever came back to town. She also looked for the boy who survived the fire, but he and his family left town after the incident. Old Man wants to meet Jadine, but because the couple is unmarried, Old Man tells Son that Jadine must stay with Son’s aunt, Rosa. When Son asks about the money orders he sent to his father, Old Man tells him he never used all of them, and kept the envelopes, attached to his name in his own handwriting.