Mockingbird Summer

Belle tries to make sense of her feelings—she wants Cal to understand her, but she also feels like there’s “a problem that seem[s] to have no name” (115). Despite having a family and financial security, she still feels she’s missing something. Belle talks with Evangeline, asking her about Haiti. Evangeline has not heard from her husband yet. The two women share a moment of understanding and Belle decides to go out.

As Corky walks home from the drugstore, she spots her mother’s car outside the Baptist church and Roy sitting at the door. She finds Belle inside and asks her if everything is alright. Corky asks again about her and Cal’s fight, but Belle says they love each other and urges Corky to stay quiet and sit with her thoughts. Corky realizes she knows few things about her mother and asks for a story from Belle’s teenage years. Belle talks about growing up during the Great Depression and a trip she took to New Orleans to visit relatives where she had her first kiss with one of her cousin’s friends. The trip made her realize that the world was bigger than the little town she grew up in. After her marriage to Cal, she understood that “seeing the world [i]sn’t realistic” but books can always transport her to faraway places (122). She confesses she secretly applied for a passport that she keeps hidden. Corky feels that her mother is “interesting.”

That night, the truck does not appear to disturb Corky. She thinks of faraway places and hopes to dream.

Corky works at the drugstore with the usual customers around. Coach Trumbull comes and gives Mack America’s shoes. Later, Reverend Washington from the Southside teases Noah IV about his performance, inviting him to the Southside church to sing spirituals. As Reverend Washington takes his prescription and leaves, Corky runs behind him and thanks him for encouraging America to play on their team. The reverend says that when they were young, he played a game of scrub baseball with her father. Cal invited the Southside boys to play ball with his group until the local policeman broke up their game. However, Reverend Washington withholds part of the story—when the policeman took the white boys back home, he told their parents to whip them for breaking the segregation laws. Papa Cal led Cal into the woodshed to punish him, but there was Willy chopping wood. Papa Cal looked at Willy’s perplexed face and couldn’t go through with the whipping. Corky gives America’s shoes to Reverend Washington and asks him to convey a message to her.

Corky goes to the library to talk with Miss Delacourt about America, explaining that people from Southside cannot come to the library because of Jim Crow laws. Corky asks her if she is married and she says no. Thinking about Belle, Corky says that according to her father it is not “normal” for women to work. Miss Delacourt argues that oftentimes, “normal is what is being changed” (137). She adds that Belle is great at selling things and raising funds. When she asks about To Kill a Mockingbird, Corky asks again what rape is. Miss Delacourt tells Corky to look in the dictionary. Corky reads the definition and begins to understand the novel on a different level.

On the way home, she meets Dwayne, who talks about America. He warns Corky that she might find a burning cross in her yard and threatens to kill her dog. Tommy Tilton comes and warns Dwayne that he’ll arrest him if anything happens. Tommy tells Corky to be careful because he sees unknown vehicles around town and has become suspicious.

Reverend Washington delivers the shoes to America. She finds a note from Coach Trumbull telling her he is proud of her and hopes she will run. He conveys Corky’s message: I understand now. Evangeline does not ask about the shoes, lost in thought about her husband.

America goes to her room and overhears her mother on the phone with her father. Evangeline wonders how they will “get by” if her father doesn’t find work, adding that they always manage. Evangeline sits in the kitchen; remembering her wedding day and her love for her husband calms her down. In her room, America feels restless again. After Evangeline falls asleep, she runs out toward the railroad tracks. She passes by the schoolyard and the boys tease her, except one—Lion. Their ball falls toward her side, and Lion asks her if she wants play. The other boys say girls cannot run or play hardball. America challenges them to race with her and beats one of the boys.

That evening, Bubba gets drunk at a dark bar, ranting about America, using racial slurs. When he leaves, two men go after him. The two men get into the old flatbed truck and follow behind Bubba’s car.

In her bedroom with Roy, Corky hears Bubba crash his car outside her house. Everybody runs outside and Tommy arrives, hauling a passed-out Bubba into his cruiser.

Later, Roy’s insistent barking wakes Corky. She follows the dog to the door and sees Dwayne and his brothers burning a cross in the yard. Dwayne’s sleeves catch fire. As Corky runs to wake her parents, Tommy arrives and stops the fire. He tells the boys to be careful or he will notify the county sheriff. Cal wakes up but Corky keeps quiet about what happened. Roy continues to bark and Corky thinks she hears the distant sound of the truck. Corky decides not to say anything about the burning cross, fearing that the softball game will be canceled.

On Sunday, Corky attends church with her mother where the central ritual is the pastor’s sermon. Pastor Pete chooses to preach about the softball game, explaining that it is remarkable for the community to have a young Black woman play with the Baptist team and calling the event a “momentous crosstown Christian cooperation” (156). Members of the congregation interrupt the pastor to protest, but Pastor Pete notes that Jesus would play softball with America. People begin to yield but Noah IV yells that it is wrong. Pastor Pete ends the service by inviting everyone to sing a hymn. On the way out, Tad hands Corky a note to meet him at the schoolyard, but Corky needs to visit her grandfather.

The Boatwright family gathers for dinner, and Noah IV rants about Pastor Pete. Noah says he adheres to the values of his ancestors, and feels disrespected by the town his family once “owned,” sensing that he is losing his power. Noah gets up and leaves the table saying he is going to stop it.

Corky visits Papa Cal, who’s sitting with Willy watching television and crying. Papa Cal asks Corky about America and tells her she should not play with her. He wonders why people try to change things. Corky gets the newspaper and deliberately reads him the articles about the civil rights movement, which annoys Papa Cal. Later, he tells her he can hear a rattlesnake outside and asks her to kill it with his gun. Corky recalls that Papa Cal taught her to shoot when she was 10 and told her to target some birds. As she killed them, she noticed a mockingbird among them and felt appalled by the experience. On the way home, Corky tells Mack the story and he says that Willy once saved their grandfather from a rattlesnake. Also, after hiring him, Papa Cal saved Willy from drowning.

The next morning, Mack and Corky return to Papa Cal’s, and as they approach, they hear a shotgun blast.