Salvage the Bones

The chapter opens with Esch eating all of the food she made for Skeet that morning, which he didn’t eat.  Randall takes an inventory of the food they have stocked up and is angry to find that there is nowhere near enough. Randall goes to speak to his father about what to do and their dad only has a few hundred dollars saved, “in case it’s an emergency after the storm.” (195). He instructs them to “make do with what [they’ve] got” (195).

Skeet beats the dirt out of China’s blanket while Randall and Esch worry about not having enough food. They decide to hunt for eggs. Randall explains to Junior how their mother taught them to find eggs: “‘Look but don’t look…they’ll find you. You gotta wander then they’ll come” (199). Randall and Junior find twenty-four eggs and Esch boils them to eat and save. Manny comes over to the house and tries to talk with Randall to smooth things over, and assuring him that he’s “like family”, but Randall isn’t receptive.

Manny leaves and Esch calls after him to tell him she’s pregnant with his child. He responds: “‘I ain’t got nothing here’” (203). He pushes her back, forcefully, a few times, and calls her a slut. Randall finds Esch sobbing and asks her to help him go to the white people’s house to gather supplies. When they arrive at the house, all of the windows are boarded up. They didn’t bring a crowbar or anything, and so Randall punches and kicks at a board. Behind the wood he breaks glass. After a few more kicks, they still can’t get inside the house, but Esch sees that it has been emptied and cleaned. They leave. On the way back they discover that China has captured and killed one of their chickens.

Skeetah tells them he is bringing China and the puppies inside the house during the storm. Randall disagrees and they bring the matter to their dad, who agrees with Randall. Skeetah tells them that, in that case, he will be in the shed with the dogs. “‘Everything deserve to live’, Skeet says, ‘And her and the puppies going to live’” (213). They reach a compromise whereby China stays in one room or she gets kicked out into the storm.