Betty

At school, the boys constantly pull Betty’s skirt up, so she wears shorts one day despite the rules. She is sent to the principal’s office, where he tells her that when a woman wears pants, everyone looks at her crotch. He also says that the reason the Cherokees were conquered is that women are not strong leaders. Betty insults him because he has a dead fish on his wall, and he pins a compass to her skirt, telling her that her moral compass is broken. She leaves school and goes to the Dandelion Diner to see Fraya. At the diner, she and Flossie run into a boy named Cutlass Silkworm. Despite the fact that he is not good looking, Flossie dates him because he has a nice wristwatch on. A few months later, Betty watches her mother tell Flossie that the only way for her to become a star is to get pregnant by this man so that she can use his money to have a good life. That night, Flossie begins trying to get pregnant, and soon she and Cutlass get married. Flossie moves out of their house to become a wife.

The Breathanian reports that a local man named Landon Carpenter has been called in for questioning in connection with the gunfire.

Fraya, Lint, Betty, and Landon are working in the garden when Leland approaches and begins ruining ears of corn. Betty gets angry at him, and he leaves. She begins to tell Landon what she saw Leland do, but Fraya starts ruining the garden herself, using a knife to cut up plants and rip up carrots and squash tomatoes. When Betty still starts telling him again, Fraya slits her wrist in front of them. Landon stitches it up and later gives her a jar full of sand, which he says is from heaven and represents the long life she is meant to live. She doesn’t believe him, and as soon as he leaves the room, she drops the jar, and it shatters.

Fraya tries to forget about what happened in the garden as the pregnant Flossie becomes increasingly irritable. She has gained weight, and her body is controlled by the baby inside of it. Flossie doesn’t want to give birth, and when she does, she is reluctant to hold the baby.

Flossie does not want to care for the baby, who is named Nova, so the Silkworms hire a woman named Mrs. Anchor to care for her. Flossie’s visits home are awkward, as she talks about her fancy car and clothes but refuses to help her parents financially. Landon tries to understand and shows Nova rainbows with the hose outside.

In 1969, Betty gets her period for the first time. She goes to see Fraya at the Dandelion Diner, and Fraya tells her that the Cherokees view women’s menstruation as a source of power. She gives her a sanitary napkin and a clean skirt. Fraya receives a phone call in another room, and Betty hears her arguing with someone. When she returns, Fraya says that she doesn’t feel well, so Betty leaves. As she walks home, she sees an owl stuck in a barbed-wire fence, and a woman with a shotgun tells Betty that she’s on private property. Betty convinces the woman to cut it down rather than shoot it, and together they take it back to her yellow barn to recuperate. Betty goes back to Fraya’s to tell her about the owl, but Fraya is asleep. Betty climbs into bed with her, but when she goes to leave in the morning, she notices that Fraya is cold. Though she is aware that Fraya is dead, she says, “It’s okay […] You can sleep in” (396). She promises her that tomorrow, she’ll “poke enough holes in the sky for [them] to fly out of” (396). When she goes back to check on the owl, she does not see the yellow farmhouse and cannot find the woman. The owl is still there, impaled on the fence and dead.

The Breathanian reports that a local man was rushed to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the penis. After initial speculation that the mysterious shooter was responsible, it was revealed that the man’s wife shot him after an argument.

Fraya’s death is ruled a suicide. Though this is not explicitly stated at this point in the novel, her hand is inside a jar containing a dead bee. Fraya is allergic to bees, and the family and authorities believe that she died by suicide by getting herself stung deliberately. Her diaries and other writings are scattered all around the house, but none of them contain any explicit reference to her sexual abuse by Leland. Some are written in a secret code that only Fraya knew, and Betty supposes that in these, Leland’s crimes are recorded in detail, but no one will ever know what they say. Landon says that since suicide is a sin, they have to burn Fraya to ashes and scatter them as far apart as possible so that God won’t be able to put her back together and damn her. Flossie goes to the vineyard with the Silkworms, and Lint stays at the barn in case anyone comes, so Betty and Landon scatter her ashes themselves, all over the town of Breathed. Leland leaves town as soon as he hears about Fraya’s death, and Landon tells Betty that this is because Leland and Fraya lived many years together before the younger ones were born and thus had an especially close bond. Betty cannot bring herself to tell her father the truth.

The Breathanian reports that a woman heard gunshots near her house, saw blood on the floor, and believed that she had been shot before realizing it was only her period.

Alka and Landon try to survive after Fraya’s death, but they are drowning in their grief. Alka asks Lint if he wants to go on a bus to Mamaw Lark’s house, and he agrees without knowing why.

Upon arrival, they see that she is blind and is crocheting on her porch. She does not notice their presence until Betty touches her with a broom. When she asks if it was Alka, Betty and Lint run away. Lint says that he thinks everyone might have been better off without him, and Betty tells him that he’s the foundation of their family. He calls Betty the strongest girl in the world.