Summary: Chapter 17
That night, Will dreams that Lightfoot is calling to him
from the railroad tracks. She removes her clothing and Will sees
that a train is going to hit her. He tries to call out to her but
cannot, and the train shatters her. Will also dreams that he is
running from a train, but Loma stands in his way and insists that
he call her Aunt Loma or she won’t move. Will wakes up and remembers
Aunt Loma’s twelfth birthday. She and Will, who is only six years
her junior, played together like sister and brother until she turned
twelve and demanded that Will call her Aunt Loma. Will refused,
and Loma broke all of his lead soldiers. Since that day, Will and
Loma have hated each other. Will gets furious with Aunt Loma all
over again as he remembers that day. He thinks of other people he
dislikes, including Hosie Roach and his paternal grandfather. Hoyt’s
father, Grandpa Tweedy, is a lazy, pious farmer who spends all day
sitting on his front porch giving lectures about religion and swatting
flies for his pet hen to pick up. Will hates Grandpa Tweedy mostly because
Tweedy prohibited Will from fishing on Sundays.
Summary: Chapter 18
Will forgets about the date he made with Lightfoot. The
newspaper reporter interviews him about his brush with death. Despite
everyone’s kindness to Miss Love after Rucker’s prayer, no one calls
on the newlyweds the next day. Mary Willis is livid when she finds
that Miss Love is cleaning the house and Rucker wants his daughters
to go through Mattie Lou’s belongings. Will goes to see if he can
help Miss Love around the house. When he arrives, Miss Love has
taken a break to play the piano. She is playing boisterous dance
music, and her dress has fallen low across her chest. Will, agog,
watches Miss Love’s breasts bounce for a moment before announcing
his presence. To his shock, Will sees that Miss Love has written
down the day of her marriage to Rucker in the Bible that belongs
to Mattie Lou’s family. After looking at Miss Love’s arrangement
of the house, Will sees that she has her own bedroom and thinks
he was right that Rucker married her so she would keep house for
him. Rucker arrives, and after lunch Miss Love persuades him to
let her give him a haircut and shave off his wild beard. After the
haircut, Will can hardly believe how young and distinguished his
grandfather looks.
Summary: Chapter 19
How come you married my grandpa?
See Important Quotations Explained
Will and Rucker look even more alike after Miss Love shaves
off Rucker’s bushy beard, which greatly pleases Will. After Rucker
goes back to the store, Will looks around the house. In Miss Love’s
room, he finds a poster advertising a women’s suffrage meeting.
Miss Love and Aunt Carrie are the only people in Cold Sassy who
openly support women’s right to vote. Will suddenly asks Miss Love
why she married his grandfather. Hearing himself ask her such a
personal question, Will is aghast at his own impudence.
Summary: Chapter 20
Will expects Miss Love to be angry, but she isn’t. She
explains that her marriage to Rucker is an arrangement, not a real
marriage. Rucker needed a housekeeper, so immediately after the
Fourth of July parade, he asked Miss Love to marry him. In return,
Rucker offered to leave Miss Love the house, the furniture, and
two hundred dollars after his death. Will asks Miss Love why she
wasn’t already married to her former beau, Son Black. Miss Love
replies that she never loved Son Black and gave up on marriage after
something bad happened to her in Texas. Miss Love does not elaborate on
the bad thing that happened to her, but the gossips in Cold Sassy say
that she called off her wedding after her fiancé impregnated her best
friend. As Will and Miss Love talk, Will sees a well-dressed cowboy
walking toward the house.
Analysis: Chapters 17–20
Will’s dream in Chapter 17 demonstrates
that he is moving toward adulthood. The dream functions as a way
for Will to deal with some of the issues he faces as he passes into
adolescence. Clearly, he begins a sexual awakening. His fantasy
about saving the disrobed Lightfoot shows that he has a newfound
subconscious awareness of the female body. Sex and desire begin
to permeate his conscious mind as well, as evidenced by the fact
that when he visits Miss Love, her heaving bosom and bare knees
titillate him. But Will’s dream also shows that he is dealing with
having to make choices about how he fits into society. Lightfoot
is an object of desire for him, while Loma is an object of detestation.
In refusing to call Loma his aunt, he effectively rejects the constraints
of Cold Sassy society and makes a choice for himself to follow his
desires, which include Lightfoot.
Will’s blossoming relationship with Miss Love sets him
apart from the rest of Cold Sassy. While most townspeople gossip
about Miss Love and her marriage to Rucker, Will accepts Miss Love
without resenting her presence or condemning her conduct. Will dislikes the
gossip and insinuation that entertain the people of Cold Sassy. His
description of the rumor mills makes the town sound claustrophobic.
Although Will has grown up surrounded by gossip and moral severity,
he is young enough to question them. Unhampered by worries about
what the town will think, he forms a bond with Miss Love, and she
begins to trust him with the intimate details of her marriage to
Rucker.
