A Thousand Never Evers

Addie Ann stays on the pavement until night falls and then returns home. As she goes inside, Mama rushes to tend to her wounds but is visibly upset about Elias, having already heard the news.

Addie Ann goes into her bedroom and lays down, trying to ignore the sounds of Mama’s cries. She thinks of how, normally, when a member of the community is threatened, Reverend Walker sends men to stand guard at their house, which they call the Reverend’s Brigade; tonight, however, everyone is out looking for Elias.

Addie Ann lies down in Elias’s bed. As she falls asleep, she sees “sunlight. Glittery bits. Yellow and orange. Everything around [her] sparkles” (54), and she sees Elias, who tells her that he is “here.”

Addie Ann is woken in the middle of the night as the sheriff and Buck arrive. They burst into her home and tear it apart, having tracked Elias’s scent.

They eventually come into Addie Ann’s room and search it. The sheriff kicks and shatters her television screen, laughs at her, and then shows her that they have Elias’s shoe.

After searching the house, the sheriff decides that Elias must have drowned in the bayou and that the scent was old. He and Buck leave.

Uncle Bump comes into Addie Ann’s room and talks to her. He tells her that her mom still thinks she is a little girl, but he knows that she is old enough to know the truth and keep a secret. He tells her that Elias was here moments before the sheriff. Uncle Bump gave Elias his gold pocket watch to sell, and then Mama rubbed his shoes with onions and covered him with whiskey to hide his scent. He is running from town and will sell the watch for money.

The rest of the night, Addie Ann struggles to sleep. When she awakes at dawn, the men from the Reverend’s Brigade are there, having searched all night for Elias and found nothing.

Six days after Elias left, Addie Ann and Mama are at the Tates’ house preparing for a Garden Club meeting—a group formed by the white community to discuss the garden. Addie Ann is put in charge of Ralphie while Mama serves the attendees.

Mrs. Worth comes to the meeting with her daughter. Miss Springer, a single woman from town who is trying to build a library, also comes, as does Mr. Mudge and several more townspeople.

As they talk about what to put in the garden, Mr. Mudge interrupts. He suggests that instead of a garden, they build a private school. He believes that integration will happen soon at public schools and that they should get ahead of it by having a private school already built for white children.

The mayor interrupts to say that that won’t be necessary. He tells them that he oversees the school system in their town and that integration “ain’t nothin’ but a thousand never evers” (70).

The Garden Club meeting continues, with Miss Springer and Mr. Mudge at odds over what to do with the land. Once Mr. Mudge relents to having a garden, he is insistent that they should grow all of one crop. However, once they take inventory of the seeds left by Adams, Miss Springer gives a list of what they should plant— to the agreement of Mrs. Worth and Mrs. Tate.

Once they figure out what to plant, they argue over how it will be tended. They agree that they will hire field hands to do the planting, but Miss Springer argues that their husbands can weed and water the garden for free throughout the season. When Mr. Mudge argues that “weedin’ and waterin’ is Negro work,” Miss Springer takes offense, telling the group that all their ancestors did the work years ago; otherwise, they “wouldn’t be where [they] are today” (77).

Two weeks later, Mama, Addie Ann, and Uncle Bump begin work on planting the community garden. The week before, Mr. Mudge had sent them a note informing them that he was paying the wages for the field to be planted out of his own pocket and that he wanted Elias’s family to be able to do the work.

Addie Ann and her family work in the field the entire day planting seeds. At one point, Mrs. Tate, Mrs. Worth, and Miss Springer come and sit on the porch to watch. As the workers are sweating in the heat, Addie Ann watches as the ladies get out a feast of food—made by Mama—and watch the workers. They begin to talk about Elias, with Mrs. Worth upset at the fact that her son’s leg is broken and that he may not be able to play football. Mrs. Tate comments on how “the Negro problem’s getting out of hand […] They just make everything so…complicated” (85).

That evening, Mr. Mudge pays Addie Ann and her family for their work. The money initially makes her happy, but then she realizes that all the work they did will produce much more food and money than what they were paid, angering her again.

A few days later, while working at Mrs. Tate’s home, Mama realizes that she forgot to put Mrs. Tate’s bingo supplies in her car. She tells Addie Ann to take Ralphie and the supplies to Mrs. Tate at the courthouse.

At the courthouse, Mrs. Tate is waiting while Mrs. Worth registers voters. Addie Ann sees a Black man attempt to register to vote. However, he is first asked how many steps the courthouse has as a test to see if he is able to vote. When he gets it incorrect, Mrs. Tate tells him that he is “not eligible to vote” and should “check back when [he has] a better understanding of what it takes to be a citizen” (92). Addie Ann wonders to herself how unfair this is and why anyone would bother to know the answer to that question.

A week later, Addie Ann lies in bed and listens as Mama cannot stop talking about Elias. Eventually, Mama comes into Addie Ann’s room to pray with her. Addie Ann knows deep down that Elias is alive but believes that Mama is losing faith.

Unable to sleep, Addie Ann sneaks out of her house to get Delilah. They go down to the bayou, where Addie Ann discusses the dreams she has of Elias’s survival. She begins to cry as she talks about her Mama’s lack of faith.

In response, Delilah takes her to the cemetery where Addie Ann’s father is buried. They ask to speak with Elias’s ghost to know for certain whether he is alive or not. As they wait, Delilah falls asleep, but Addie Ann stays up all night waiting.

When Elias never comes, she awakens Delilah and tells her that he must be alive. She leaves the cemetery to sneak back into her home, filled with a “new power” at her certainty of Elias’s survival (103).

The Tates have a party at their home, and Addie Ann and Mama are responsible for the food. Addie Ann gets Ralphie ready and then brings him down and gives him to his father, Ralph.

As she is working with Mama in the kitchen, she hears Ralphie start to choke, as Ralph is unable to help him. Addie Ann rushes into the party and grabs him, and then in the kitchen, she slaps him over the back twice, causing him to spit up a grape. She consoles Ralphie as Mrs. Tate sits nearby, shocked and relieved, and the party continues in the other room.

Later that day, Addie Ann is in Ralphie’s room changing his clothes for bed when Mrs. Tate comes up. Mrs. Tate tells Addie Ann that she reminds her of Messy Melvinia, her maid from when she was a child. Mrs. Tate comments how “what [her] mama says is true”—that “Negroes are good at loving other people’s children” (110). The thought upsets Addie Ann, who thinks of how her exterior characteristics—the color of her skin—have nothing to do with her love for Ralphie; instead, it is the “connection” that’s in her heart.

The day before Addie Ann starts school, she is nervous about the idea. She is upset that she will no longer see Ralphie in the mornings because of school. She is also nervous about the thought of walking three miles with Cool Breeze.

She tries to explain her nerves to Mama, but Mama dismisses them. Addie Ann thinks of how this is because Mama never went to school herself. She only made it to fourth grade at the plantation school before needing to drop out to work. As a result, she cannot read or write. However, Addie Ann’s father, before he passed away, made Mama promise to make sure that their children go to school. He believed that education was “the only way for them to live free” (114), no matter how much money it cost their family.

The following morning, Addie Ann leaves for school. She walks the distance with Cool Breeze and tries to make conversation about maps and boxing, but he is uninterested.

When they finally come to the school, she is excited by the fact that her classroom has enough seats for everyone. She thinks about how Mrs. Jacks looks “magical” as she smiles at the students. However, Mrs. Jacks then gets strict, telling the students that she is here to help them grow up. She refers to them as “Midnights,” meaning on the border of becoming adults.

Before starting, Mrs. Jacks calls Addie Ann forward to talk to her about Elias. She tells her that she thought he was born to be a leader and is sad that he is gone. She also says that he is thinking of Addie Ann and her first day of school, wherever he is.

Addie Ann continues to go to school and care for Ralphie in the afternoons. One day, as she attempts to get him to fall asleep, she starts to doze off herself and has a nightmare of the events nine days before. Delilah came over to her house and told her, Mama, and Uncle Bump about a bombing at a church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four young girls were killed. Addie Ann wonders if the same thing could happen to her and Delilah.

Addie Ann goes to find Mama but instead comes across Mrs. Tate crying in her bedroom over letters in her hands. When Mr. Tate calls to her, she rushes to hide the letters but drops one. As Mr. Tate comes into the room, Addie Ann grabs the letter before he can get it and pretends that it is hers. She rushes from the room and back to Ralphie.

Addie Ann contemplates reading the letter but decides that she would lose her job if she did. Mrs. Tate comes into the room and apologizes for her husband. She explains that the letters are to her friend, J. D. Foster, but she keeps them because she does not really know his address to send them.

Back at home, Addie Ann cannot think of anything but the letters. She decides that she has to tell Mama. Mama scolds her for telling a secret, making her decide not to tell anyone else.

A few days later, Addie Ann goes fishing with Uncle Bump. Although she hates the idea of worms and gutting the fish, she sees it as an opportunity to speak with him. She thinks of Uncle Bump as someone with whom she can talk about anything without fear of getting scolded or embarrassed like she would when talking to Mama.

Addie Ann asks Uncle Bump about love, and he surmises that she is talking about Cool Breeze. She tells him that he has no interest in her and that “every boy likes Delilah. Nothing ever changes” (142). However, Uncle Bump insists that one thing can change: Addie Ann herself.

As Addie Ann and Delilah are sitting on the porch, Reverend Walker comes into the lane carrying a poster. On it, it gives the opening date for the garden and says that white members of the community should come at sunrise to pick from it, while the Black community should wait until noon.

The reverend tells Addie Ann’s family and their neighbors that they need to go to the garden at sunrise. He explains that now is the time for the movement to come to their community and that “there comes a time when a man’s dignity’s worth more than his life” (149). Most of the community agrees, including Addie Ann. However, Mama is adamant that they should steer clear of the “danger” it entails.