Call Your Daughter Home

Gertrude is aware of a sickness spreading through the community. Her sister-in-law, Marie, hasn’t come to work at the Sewing Circle. Berns is ill, too. During the week that follows, many more seamstresses succumb to the epidemic. Finally, Mrs. Coles consults with the local doctor. He tells the garment workers that this is a diphtheria outbreak. He will distribute free vaccinations to anyone who comes to him. Mrs. Coles decides to close the shop for the rest of the week to prevent the spread of the disease. Everyone will receive half pay.

As the situation worsens, Gertrude is convinced that Alvin is haunting her. That night, Retta comes to her door asking if one of her daughters wants a job at the Coles house. Nelly is deceased, and Retta needs a new helper. Edna volunteers immediately. During this conversation, the sheriff drives up with Otto. Otto insinuates that Gertrude may have killed Alvin, but she is no longer intimidated by his bullying. She knows secrets about Otto, too, and suggests he was the last person to see his son alive. Further, she says that nobody questioned the disappearance of his second wife.

Enraged, Otto strikes Gertrude, but she fights back. Retta and the girls corroborate Gertrude’s alibi for the day that Alvin went missing. Gertrude had gone to see Mrs. Coles about a job. Since the sheriff doesn’t want trouble with the powerful Coles family, he backs off and drags Otto away with him. Gertrude is relieved but knows he will be back. Afterward, she goes to check on Berns and Marie, bringing food and money for them. They’re both succumbing to the disease and won’t allow her inside the house for fear of contagion.

The following Monday, Annie receives a telegram from Edwin. The return trip has been delayed by a week. Relieved not to have the men underfoot, Annie decides to manage the hog-slaughtering process that is usually Edwin’s domain. She orders a local crew to arrive and butcher two sows for Homecoming Camp since this event is approaching. Annie goes to the slaughterhouse to set out the knives and implements that the workers will need. Edwin keeps all his tools in locked wooden boxes, but Annie now has possession of his key ring.

As she sets the knives in place, she carelessly slashes her hand with one, leaving a deep cut that will require stitches. When Annie attempts to place the knife back in its holder, she finds fabric jammed into the bottom of the sheath. To her horror, she realizes it is a pair of child’s underpants. She finds three more such items in other sheaths.

Retta is in the kitchen, annoyed by Edna’s delusional chatter about her father living in Detroit and owning a fine home. They see Annie approaching the house with blood on her hand and run to her aid. Edna is told to cancel the butchering order for that day while Retta examines the wound. She advises stitches. Since Annie already invited the local doctor to come to dinner, she will wait until he arrives in a few hours.

Retta is taken aback when Annie shows her a pair of child’s underpants. Annie says, “Tell me what I’m thinking is wrong. Tell me I’m wrong” (207), but Retta confirms her suspicions. She’s suspected Edwin for years, but her own mother advised her to stay out of white folks’ business.

Annie gives Retta the keys to the slaughterhouse and tells her to hide what she found there. When Retta investigates the evidence, she finds 22 pairs of underwear from both girls and boys. She locks them in a heavy-lidded box.

Later that day, the doctor arrives but protests that he can’t stay for dinner because a storm is approaching. He stitches Annie’s hand and then agrees to remain for a quick meal. As they eat, Annie asks, “If a human being behaves like a monster, if he does monstrous things, should he be treated as a monster or a human being?” (214). The doctor is taken aback by the question, not knowing that Annie is thinking of Edwin. He leaves as the storm intensifies. By this time, Edna has run to fetch her sisters since Gertrude is off at her brother’s house. Annie, Retta, and the three Pardee children shelter in the Coleses’ root cellar.

As the storm worsens, Gertrude prepares Berns and Marie’s bodies for burial. She feels sorry that she couldn’t do more for them when they were alive but knows it was right to stay out of the house. Still, she already feels the effects of the disease. She thinks of Alvin’s evil spirit terrorizing her and her daughters until he kills them.

Growing sicker and more delirious, Gertrude takes Berns’s rifle and the money that remains in the house. Then, she goes to find her daughters. The wind is growing stronger, and Gertrude struggles to stand upright against it. When she finds her house empty, she concludes the girls have gone to the Coles house for shelter. Once she arrives, she sees that the windows have been blown out by the storm, and the door is open. The house is dark, but Gertrude senses movement: “Then I see him, Alvin, crouched and waiting. I reach for the gun but am too sick and too slow. The cold of the steel touches my fingertips, too late—he leaps from his hiding place and is upon me” (221).

Retta, Annie, and the children are waiting out the storm in the root cellar, but Edna grows restless. She developed claustrophobia after Alvin locked her in a cedar chest for being too noisy. Unable to bear the enclosed space, Edna runs outdoors. It’s morning now. Retta goes after her and sees that all the Coleses’ outbuildings have been flattened except for the house itself. Still battling the wind, Retta gets Edna inside the house and orders her to find some towels to dry off with.

When Retta enters the parlor, she finds Gertrude standing in the corner with a rifle in her hand. Gertrude thinks Retta is Alvin coming to kill her, so she points the gun at her. Retta calls for Edna to come into the room so Gertrude can see her. Retta talks to Gertrude soothingly and tells her that Gertrude’s mother was pregnant at the same time that Retta was. They bonded over their physical discomfort. In later years, Gertrude’s mother lost her mind and wandered around town, convinced that demons had taken her children. Retta now sees her spirit in the room with Gertrude.

Gertrude is still hallucinating, coughing up black phlegm, and gasping for breath. Retta tells Edna to fetch the other girls in an effort to snap Gertrude out of her delusion. She prays for God’s help, which she hasn’t done since her daughter’s death.

At that moment, Annie arrives with the other girls. Retta can still see Gertrude’s mother havering around. Gertrude finally recognizes her daughters, but she is choking on the phlegm clogging her throat. Edna is ordered to take the girls back down to the root cellar while Annie and Retta try to clear the obstruction. Retta uses a turkey feather quill to spear the blockage, and Gertrude coughs up the phlegm. Retta sees black smoke rise and dissipate, and Gertrude is able to breathe freely again.