Dreamland Burning

James and Rowan are attending a concert, and James shows an old advertisement he has found for Victory Victrola Shop, owned by Stanley Tillman, as well as a listing for his son, William Tillman. James reminds her that the name on the receipt was W. T., which must be for William Tillman. It’s too loud for Rowan to hear, so they shout until they start getting dirty looks. Rowan tells him about Geneva’s observations about the skeleton, which James calls racist. However, Rowan repeats what Geneva said about how “race might be an artificially created construct, [but] patterns of evolutionary differences in skeletal morphologies from isolated geographic areas are real” (142). James is skeptical.

The next morning, as Rowan drives to work, she sees a cat in the road and slams on the brakes. Rowan is relieved to see the cat escape, but then a truck rams into her car from behind. Rowan’s head slams against the headrest, knocking her unconscious. When she begins to wake up, the world is fuzzy and there is an angry white man, the driver of the truck, who yells at her for stopping in the middle of the road. As the man accuses Rowan of ignoring her, Rowan, still barely conscious, sees a familiar person approaching. It’s Arvin. Arvin recognizes Rowan and tries to help her, insisting that he needs to get her to Dr. Woods. The driver of the truck screams at Arvin to get away. When Arvin doesn’t listen, the man says, “Goddamn nigger” (143), and grabs him, shoving him into oncoming traffic. Rowan hears the sound as an SUV hits Arvin, its driver screaming. Through her haze, Rowan hears sirens and sees flashing red and blue lights. The man is staring at Arvin laying in the street as if he might get back up, but Arvin is dead.

The drive to Greenwood is bumpy, seeing as Will has only had one driving lesson. However, Will is more concerned with the way the streets are quiet. Most of the people outside are men who are heading toward the courthouse. In Greenwood, the air is tense. Groups of people stand together, falling silent when they see Will. Will is anxious to get Angelina’s family and go home. When they reach the Dreamland Theatre, Will knows that there will be trouble. Nearly 100 black men are gathered there, some of whom are armed. One man stops the truck and tells Will that he shouldn’t be there. Angelina informs him that they are just there to pick up her son and his family, but the man points to where her son is already there in the crowd. Angelina immediately gets out of the truck to have a conversation with him. After a while, she gets back in the vehicle and directs Will which way to go, adding, “He’s got plans of his own. Best we on our way” (146). They drive on in near silence.

At Angelina’s son’s house, she herds three boys into the truck and goes back in the house. When Will explains where they’re going, the oldest boy asks him why. Will explains that it’s in case there’s danger. However, Samuel repeats the question, implying that he wants to know why Will, a white boy, is helping them. Unsure how to answer, Will says, “Because my mama told me to” (148). Will asks Samuel what is happening at Dreamland and Samuel explains that they’re all trying worried that Dick Rowland might be lynched without fair trial and are trying to decide what to do. Some of the men want to send a representative to speak to the white men at the courthouse, but others say that “things have gone too far for talk” (148).

Will wonders which side the boys’ father agrees with, and Sam just says that his father doesn’t think that a man of any color should be killed unless God or a judge decided it was right. Angelina gets back in the truck with a woman who she introduces as her daughter-in-law, Grace Brightwater. As they start to drive, Will asks if they know Ruby and Joseph Goodhope. The middle boy, Marcus, admits that he knows Ruby. Will asks where they live and Marcus reluctantly agrees to show Will, complaining, “I can’t stand that Ruby Goodhope. She pinches” (149). When they arrive at the Goodhope house, they only find their mother, Della, who is worried about her missing children and terrified that a white boy is at her house. Angelina explains that Will is just worried about Ruby and Joseph and that his mother is providing a safe place for black women and children until the danger is past. Will invites Della to come with them, but she declines, determined to wait for Joseph and Ruby. 

It’s getting dark and Will is reluctant to leave without finding Ruby, but he does. At the Tillman house, they sneak Angelina’s family into the servant’s quarters, careful that no one can that they are there. Kathryn sends Will back with food. Anxious, Will sits on the porch and tries to read, but he’s distracted by the stream of cars driving by, cheering and shouting things like, “Gonna put ‘em in their place tonight!” (150). Then his father pulls into the driveway and marches, determined into the house. Stan asks if Angelina is in the servant quarters and sends Will out to tell her to lock herself in. Angelina is terrified, having heard the bloodthirsty mob driving by. When he gets back to the house, Stan is holding his gun and orders Will to get his. Will hesitates, but Stan barks the order again, telling him to load it. Will obeys “because it hadn’t yet occurred to [him] that he had any other choice” (152).

At the hospital, doctors only ask about Rowan’s physical symptoms. They attribute her constant crying to the concussion instead of asking about watching Arvin die. Her mother gives her painkillers to help her sleep and then more after Rowan wakes up weeping. The following day, two detectives, one white and one black, arrive to question Rowan about the accident. Rowan has trouble talking about it and they apologize, adding that they just need Rowan to tell them about what happened with Mr. Brightwater. Rowan is confused, and they clarify that they’re talking about Arvin. Rowan explains how Arvin was trying to help and Mr. Randall, the truck driver, called Arvin a slur and pushed him into traffic. The white detective clearly doubts Rowan, and Isis coldly intercedes tells them that they need to let Rowan rest. After they leave, Isis praises her daughter but Rowan, disturbed, asks if this is what her mother meant when she told her that racism is “complicated” (155) and Isis nods.

When James is allowed to visit on Monday, Rowan’s head is clearer and she is angry. She feels helpless that Arvin, another innocent black man, was murdered and she can’t do anything to make sure his killer is prosecuted. In the meantime, Rowan is even more determined to figure out who the skeleton is and who killed him. Rowan tells James to go to the title company using her name (because Rowan is a unisex name) and find out the original owner of the house. James is reluctant, but Rowan convinces him to agree. Later that morning, Tru brings flowers from someone he calls Mama Ray. Rowan starts crying and Tru tells her that if she feels better, she can attend Arvin’s funeral on Thursday with everyone else from the clinic. Rowan says that she’ll be there. When Tru smiles, Rowan sees his teeth, which are damaged from meth use, and realizes that the reason that he shows them proudly because they are “proof that he’d chosen to survive” (158).

The next morning, Rowan stops taking prescription pain medication so she can focus. She searches the same directory where James found information about the Tillmans. The listing for Victory Victrola Shop disappeared in 1937, and Rowan located an obituary for Stanley Tillman, who died of a heart attack the same year. The last line of the obituary states that at the time of his death, Stanley’s son William was missing. Rowan searches for the other name on the receipt, J. Goodhope. She finds Della Goodhope, but her house no longer exists and was likely burned down during the riot. Regardless, Della lived in Greenwood and with Jim Crow laws, the person who was shopping at a white Victrola shop was probably not black. Rowan becomes curious about Greenwood before the riot. With more research, she finds a black-owned newspaper that starts to give her a sense of the rich culture and community that existed there. Rowan’s head starts to hurt, so she goes to sleep.

Stan has left Will alone in the shop, armed and ordered to shoot anyone who tries to enter. Groups of armed black men offered to protect Dick Rowland, and several white men tried unsuccessfully to drag Dick out of the jail. Stan is concerned about protecting his business. Kathryn worries, beginning to cry, and Stan insists that he needs to go down to the courthouse saying, “I’m a tolerant man […] and good to Negroes. But I’ll not stand for armed gangs of them coming into proper Tulsa” (163). After an hour in the shop, Will calls his mother to check in. Then, alone in the dark, Will worries about Ruby. Then he hears a gunshot, followed by many gunshots. After a while, Will’s mother calls. Will reassures her that he is safe, and before hanging up, Kathryn mentions in code, because they have a party telephone line and someone could be listening, that it’s good that they didn’t tell Will’s father about Angelina’s family.

Then there’s a knock at the back door. A window opens above him, and Will is relieved to hear a voice calling for Ruby. Will goes outside and discovers Joseph trying to see into the back room. Joseph looks at Will’s gun and asks if Will plans to call the police. Will asks, “Why? […] You gonna rob us?” (165). Joseph replies that Will already knows that he isn’t and asks if Will has seen Ruby. Joseph is terrified because no one has seen Ruby since noon, when according to the teacher who called Della’s café, Ruby left school. At the mention of the café, Will murmurs, “Peach pies” (166), to Joseph’s confusion, and then tells Joseph about Ruby’s weekly visits. This brings tears to Joseph’s eyes.

Will insists that he wants to find Ruby, too. Joseph indicates the gun and asks if Will would use it to help Ruby. Will says adamantly that he would. This alters the relationship between Joseph and Will. Joseph didn’t see what happened at the courthouse, but the white men were on edge with so many black men present. After guns started firing, the white men swore that they would force all black people out of Tulsa permanently. Joseph says that many of the black men who were there served in the military, and that they didn’t go there looking for violence, but they would defend themselves if necessary, especially because they’re outnumbered 10 to one.

Realizing that Joseph would be worried about his mother, Will explains about Angelina, her family, and that Della was safe but worried. Joseph seems skeptical, but this also seems to make him trust Will more. Joseph uses the shop phone to try to call his neighbors and Della’s café, but no one answers. Will suggests that they go to Joseph’s house to hopefully find Ruby. Joseph again questions why Will would help and Will doesn’t know how to answer, but before he can say anything, they see headlights. Joseph hides and Clete knocks on the glass, someone else standing behind him in the dark. Clete tells Will to join them and Will insists that his father told him to stand guard. Clete exclaims that Stan Tillman sent him to get Will. The figure behind Clete comes forward and it’s Vernon Fish, who says, “Open the door, Half-breed. Or I’ll smash it in myself” (169).

On Tuesday night, James brings gelato and a copy of the original title to Rowan’s house. In 1920, Stanley and Kathryn Tillman bought the land and started construction. However, they sold it in 1922 to Rowan’s great-great-grandparents. Because the body of the skeleton probably died in 1921, Rowan is relieved that the murderer probably wasn’t her relative. If the Tillmans owned the house and William disappeared around the same time, it seems likely that William was either the body or the killer. However, William probably wasn’t black, although Rowan and James learn that Kathryn Tillman was a wealthy, Osage Indian.

In the 1920s, after the government determined that a white person must handle a native person’s money, there was a slew of white men who married Osage women to control their fortunes. Many of those women were murdered. James wonders if Geneva is wrong and the body is Native American not black. Perhaps Stanley Tillman murdered his son to stop him from inheriting his mother’s money. Of course, this story has holes. To start, Kathryn didn’t until 1976, which was long after Stanley’s death, and why would Stanley murder his son and not his wife? Then, they realize that someone alive might remember Kathryn in Pawhuska where she finished out her life. After a quick web search, James finds an 1898 photo Kathryn Yellowhorse Tillman, and Rowan dreams about her that night.

Rowan is awakened by a reporter calling about Arvin’s death. Stunned, Rowan hangs up on him. Then she searches Arvin Brightwater’s name online and is surprised to see that the country has taken notice of his death. Rowan is initially glad to see that people are remembering Arvin, but then she dives deeper and sees the endless speculations about the incident. Strangers argue about whether Arvin was mentally ill, whether it was a hate crime, or if Jerry Randall was defending himself. Some suggest that Rowan was at fault. Rowan is angry that everyone is keeping it from her that Arvin’s death is national news. Rowan decides to call Geneva to find out if there is any news about the body.

Will lets Vernon and Clete in, and they tell him that they’ve been deputized as temporary police to help stop the black uprising and as law enforcement, they demand that Will help them. Vernon brandishes Maybelle and Clete talks excitedly about the notches. Will asks if his father really told them to get him, and Vernon admits that Stan didn’t say it directly but would have if they weren’t separated. Vernon stares at Will and tells him to “quit pissin’ and moanin’ like a damned woman and come fight!” (177). Will thinks about Joseph, Ruby, and Angelina and her family and then tells Vernon no. However, Vernon threatens to smash up the shop if he doesn’t and Will, more concerned for Joseph’s safety than the shop, agrees to go. Heading out, Will pretends to have forgotten ammunition and goes back inside. 

Will and Joseph rush out the back door, but the engine of Will’s truck stalls out. Seeing Will with Joseph, Vernon becomes murderous and points Maybelle at them, just as Will successfully starts the truck. Vernon pursues, and Will finally escapes. They teens are relieved, but the danger is just beginning. They see families who are running away from Greenwood. Then Joseph spots someone he knows, a teen named Gideon Wright. Gideon is suspicious of Will and asks why he’s helping Joseph. Will finally answers the question: “Because of Ruby” (181). Gideon replies, “That girl’s like a skeeter’s bite on the ass!” (181), and they all laugh, breaking the tension.

Gideon explains that the fighting has slowed and people are fleeing before it gets worse. He tells Joseph that three white men captured Della while she was searching for Ruby. Gideon only knows that black prisoners are being held in Convention Hall and that Della was taken alive. Will insists that they need to find Ruby and Joseph, stunned nods in agreement. Joseph comments that Eliza Clark turned down his invitation to the prom to go with Gideon. In fact, the prom was supposed to take place the following night. Joseph asks if Will thinks Ruby was grabbed too, but Will can’t answer. Then Joseph says, “Won’t be any colored folk dancing in Tulsa tomorrow night” (183), wiping away tears.

Geneva says that the DNA results will take another week. However, the gun has been analyzed and it turns out that it was purchased by the US military. The initials carved on the side were V.F., but it looked like the V was once an R. The weapon was issued to a soldier named Raymond Fisher, who went AWOL in 1919 when he went on leave to attend his mother’s funeral and went missing ever since. Rowan suggests that he might be the murderer, and Geneva replies that he could also be the one who was murdered. Apparently, Raymond Fisher’s draft card identified him as black.

Rowan decides not to attend the candlelight vigil for Arvin that night, knowing that the funeral the next day will be difficult enough. Instead, she sits outside in her backyard. Tim comes out and gently tells Rowan that the district attorney decided not to charge Jerry Randall, deeming the incident self-defense. They clearly didn’t believe Rowan’s account, and Tim suggests that it probably wouldn’t have been enough regardless. Rowan asks what her mother, the lawyer, thinks about that, and Tim doesn’t know but says that he knows that her mother does believe her. Rowan feels helpless.

The funeral the next day is crowded, even though it wasn’t announced to the public. Rowan asks her mother who the people in the crowd are, and Isis replies that they are Arvin’s family and friends. Knowing that Arvin was homeless, Rowan is surprised that she didn’t realize he was probably still loved. No one looks like a reporter or an outsider, and Rowan insists that she wants to join them. Rowan connects with Tru and they listen to Arvin’s family and friends telling stories and saying kind words about Arvin. The last speaker is Arvin’s Aunt Tilda, who seems stoic when she starts talking but is weeping by the time she finishes. Afterwards, Tru offers to drive Rowan to the reception at his house and then take her home after. Her parents agree, seeming relieved that they don’t have to go.

At Tru’s house, Rowan is taken aback when she finally meets the Mama Ray who sent flowers with Tru after Rowan’s accident. First, Mama Ray is black and Tru is not. Second, she seems far too young to be Tru’s mother. Mama Ray scolds Tru, explaining that he likes to let people believe that she is his mother just to see the shock on their faces when they meet her. Tru replies, “For the record, Rowan, Mama Ray didn’t give me my life, but she did save it” (189). Mama Ray was a youth pastor who met Tru at a soup kitchen while he was still on drugs. She convinced him to go to rehab and gave him a place to stay. Mama Ray insists that all she did was help Tru see that he had choices.

As the guests arrive, Mama Ray insists that Tru find Rowan a place to sit and rest. The house fills up, and Rowan is struck by the fact that she is in a room full of people who are black like her. Most of the time, Rowan feels out of place; although she’s half white, the world sees her as black. Rowan describes, “At Mama Rays, I wasn’t the awkward line in a poem. I fit the meter. I rhymed” (190). After a while, Arvin’s Aunt Tilda arrives at the house and immediately introduces herself to Rowan. Rowan apologizes for Arvin, but Tilda surprises Rowan by asking, “You gonna let it keep you down?” (190). Rowan is confused, so Tilda clarifies, “Are you the sort that stays down or the sort that gets back up?” (190). Rowan replies immediately, “I get back up” (190), which pleases Tilda. Tilda talks about Arvin’s kindness and then gets up to bring Rowan some of the pie she brought, made from her friend Opal’s grandmother’s recipe—the “best peach pie you ever had” (191).

Ruby isn’t at the Goodhope’s house. Will and Joseph hear a commotion as two white boys are breaking into the Tylers’ house, the Goodhopes’ neighbors, and talking excitedly about stealing Will’s truck. Joseph asks if Will’s gun is loaded and it is, but Will realizes that he only has one bullet. Nervously, Will points the shotgun at Joseph and pretends to have captured him. The two white boys, Eugene and Tyler, grin and disappear into the house next door. Will and Joseph decide to run, but then another white boy named Jack pushes an older black couple in their pajamas, the Tylers, out of the house with his rifle. Jack, his eyes flat and dead, begins to beat the old couple.

Will claims that nothing of worth was in the Goodhopes house, Jack suggests that he “take what [he] can out of [Joseph’s] hide, then” (194) Thinking quickly, Will claims that someone at Convention Hall is paying Will $5 for each live black person he brings in. Dubious, Jack suggests menacingly that he ought to bring three all three prisoners himself. Will shows Jack the $50 his mother gave him and claims that it’s what he has earned so far, offering to pay Jack $20 for all three. Jack brandishes his rifle and suggests that he give him all $50. Will agrees, pretending to force Joseph to help the Tylers into the truck and tying Joseph’s wrists together, relieved that all three are at least alive.

Driving through Tulsa, they approach the body of a black man who seems to have been dragged behind a car, mutilated, and burned. Joseph gets out of the car and Will waits while he prays. Joseph doesn’t want to leave him, so they wrap him in a tarp. Will promises Mrs. Tyler that they will find somewhere safe soon. Mrs. Tyler tells him that she has heard of a church that is harboring people and Will promises to try and get them there. Joseph tells Will to retie his wrists for show just in case. Joseph believes that Ruby might be at the Dreamland Theatre, but if that’s the case, there are armed men to protect her and it’s more important to bring the Tylers to a doctor. Will says that he has an idea of where to go and Joseph replies, “I trust you, Will. Let’s go” (197).

Will tries to circumvent the danger, but comes across a blockade of armed white men, many of whom have handmade “deputy” badges. When they stop the truck and ask Will what he’s doing, Will tells them that he’s “hunting Negroes” (198), which makes them laugh. The man asks if Will has caught any, and then looks in the back of the truck without waiting for a response. Will claims that he beat Mr. Tyler for attempting to escape. The man praises him, but suddenly grabs Joseph and pulls him off of the truck, criticizing the knot in the twine around Joseph’s wrists. The man gags Joseph with a handkerchief and slices his shirt open, ordering, “String him up, boys” (199), promising a learning experience for Will.

The morning after the funeral, the story has broken that the DA doesn’t plan to press charges against Jerry Randall. The newspaper doesn’t name Rowan, but there are seven messages on her phone from reporters. Rowan tells her mother that she feels terrible. Going to the funeral and talking to people who loved Arvin was nice but also made everything more difficult. Then Isis says that she and Rowan’s father think that the DA may have made a wrong decision. She asks if Rowan thought that Randall pushed Arvin in self-defense, and Rowan says no. Then she asks if Rowan thought that Randall would have done it if Arvin was white, and Rowan isn’t sure, but remembers the slur Randall used.

Rowan claims that she plans to rest all day like she is supposed to do. Skeptical, Isis reminds Rowan to avoid looking at screens. After her mother leaves for work, Rowan immediately pulls out her laptop and researches Raymond Fisher. She learns that he was indeed black but listed on his draft card as light-skinned with blue eyes. The scant records end after 1919, and Rowan assumes that he changed his name after he went AWOL. Then, she looks up Arvin’s name, disturbed as she stumbles into racist forums led by neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Then, James shows up at the door and tells Rowan that they’re going on a road trip to Pawhuska because William’s son is waiting to speak to them there. While Rowan was at Arvin’s funeral, James spoken to a historian at the Osage Tribal Museum. He also located William’s 1921 yearbook picture.

Looking at his photo, Rowan knows that if the skeleton belonged to a black man, it couldn’t be William. William resembles his mother a bit, but is not African American. Rowan and James arrive at a nursing home in Pawhuska, where Joseph Tillman is in bed. Joseph welcomes them, appreciative for visitors. Joseph asks them to call him Joe and tells them that he has cancer. Rowan begins by telling Joe that they live in the house that his grandparents built. Joe suggests that Rowan and James would probably not be surprised to learn that his grandmother refused to set foot in the house. Rowan asks what he means, and Joe says, “I mean you’ve found it, haven’t you? […] After all these years, someone’s finally found the body” (205).

The white gang is bloodthirsty, and Will has to yell several times to stop them from lynching Joseph on the spot. The gang’s leader is suspicious, but Will claims that he promised to bring them to Vernon Fish. Vernon’s name stops them in their tracks. Will pretends to be in awe of Vernon and says that he wants to become junior Klan, but Vernon will be angry if he brings captors who are already beaten. Will asks him politely to let him bring Joseph in himself to make both Vernon and his father proud. The leader recognizes Stanley Tillman’s name as the Victrola shop owner who Vernon has been trying to recruit into the Klan and happily tells Will that Stan finally agreed to join the Klan that very evening.

The man describes how Stan believed that African Americans were harmless until he saw vehicles full of armed black men arrive at the courthouse. Will’s father joined up and paid his dues on the spot because any black man who would stand up to law enforcement could decide to do it to him and attack his shop. Will is upset to hear this, but grateful that to escape with Joseph and the Tylers unharmed. Driving, they see another body in the road, but Joseph asks him to keep going this time. Suddenly, there is a man standing in the road and Will has to stop after he clips him with the truck. The man is injured, not only from the truck but also a bullet wound. He begs Will to help him and then sees Joseph behind him, who has picked up the man’s rifle and aimed it at him. The man curses and calls Joseph a slur and Joseph, pushing the gun against the man’s head, whispers, “How many goddamned niggers have you killed with this gun tonight, sir?” (209).

Will almost stops Joseph, but then realizes that after the events of the evening, he shouldn’t tell Joseph how to react. Instead, he stands next to him. Joseph is conflicted, telling Will, “I’ve spent my whole life forgiving white folks […] and I am so very tired of it” (209), before lowering the gun. The man won’t tell Will who shot him, so Will steps on the bullet wound in the man’s leg, while he screams and curses. He begs Will to help him. Will agrees but demands that he admit that he was shot by white men. The man spits at him. Deciding that he does want to be a good person, Will binds and gags the man and loads him into the back of the truck. However, Will acknowledges that he might not be that good as he allows the man’s injured legs to hit the bumper. They arrive at the church Mrs. Tyler suggested. Will knocks and a familiar face answers: a girl named Claire who is a year ahead of Will at school.

Stumbling over his words, Will asks her to help the Tylers and Claire recognizes Will, happy to see him. Will realizes that he is a little surprised when two people come out to help to Mr. Tyler first, because white people usually receive priority, but not as much as it shocks the injured white man. Claire removes his gag and the man tries to charm her, claiming that Joseph shot him in one leg and Will ran over his other and then tortured him. Claire looks to Will, who admits that he hit him with the truck but only accidentally. She tells the man that there is a doctor who is with them until morning. When the doctor, a black man, comes out to help him, the man starts screaming and cursing until Claire shoves the gag back in his mouth. This pleases Mrs. Tyler, who asks Will to help her inside to be with her husband. When they open the door, Will is nearly knocked to the ground when Ruby flies at him and hugs him. Happily, he hugs her back hard, neither willing to let go.

As soon as Joe brings up the body, Rowan asks who it is. Joe apologizes and explains that he promised his father on his deathbed that that secret would one day die with him, and he can’t go back on a deathbed promise. Joe asks what Rowan and James have discovered by investigating, because he never promised not to help someone figure out the secret themselves. Rowan shows Joe the receipt, because that’s what led them to Joe. Joe takes it, becoming emotional because the receipt clearly holds great significance. He explains that he was named after Joseph Goodhope. After the riot, William left school as a junior and changed his name to Daniel. He was successful and sold Victrolas and then radios like his father. Joe asks if they had a yearbook picture of Joseph, and Rowan and James are surprised to learn that he was in school as well, although he went to the black high school.

Joe directs Rowan to photo from 2001 of himself and Ruby, who was 90 years old in the picture but wearing a t-shirt for the hip-hop group Naughty by Nature. The photo surprises Rowan and Joe laughs, explaining, “Ruby lived out loud like no one else I’ve ever known” (215). James, who has been concentrating on his phone, shows them a picture he found of Joseph Goodhope. Joe is moved, having never seen him before, because Joseph died at a young age. Ruby, however, became a nurse and continued working until the age of 75, then she continued volunteering and died at age 97. Joe mentions Ruby’s peach pie, which makes Rowan start. Ruby made it every year for Kathryn on June 1 and then for Joe after Kathryn died. Joe calls it “the best peach pie in the whole wide world” (216).

When Rowan gets home, her mother is waiting impatiently for her and Geneva is in the back house. Rowan turned off her phone to avoid calls from reporters and missed her mother’s call. Rowan tells her mother everything, and her mother scolds her for not resting but confesses, “I’d probably have done the same thing if I were you” (216). In the back house, Geneva and some workers are taking out the floor planks. Then, Isis asks Rowan if she would be willing to talk go with her to the District Attorney about Arvin’s death and give a statement to show Randall should be charged with a hate crime. Isis tells Rowan to think it over, because she’d probably have to testify. Before Rowan can respond, Geneva comes out and points at the floorboards that are now spread over the lawn. One has a bloodstain that would be consistent with a head wound that bled out. However, there is another bloodstain that shows that a different bleeding victim dragged themselves and then stopped. Geneva doesn’t know what it means but is glad for more information.

In the church basement, Claire gives Will and Joseph cups of coffee. Ruby has taken to Claire and is acting “like the sweetest, most obedient child you ever did meet” (219). Ruby tells Will that she took his warning seriously and searched for Joseph but couldn’t find him. Ruby hid behind a bush at the courthouse and saw the fracas break out after the first gunshot. Most people were fighting, but one man grabbed her and took her to safety. Ruby admits that she bit and scratched the man, but he held on until they were out. Claire tells Will that he would need to move his truck. The man with the injured legs told her that the white rioters heard about the church. A few already tried to bang on the door and gave up, but the truck makes it obvious that the church isn’t empty.

Will decides to drive home and spend the night there, and he’ll come back in the morning to take Ruby and Joseph home. Before he goes, as a gesture of friendship, Will gives Joseph the receipt he has been carrying around and asks if Saturday is a good day to deliver the Victrola. Joseph agrees. When Ruby learns that Will is leaving, she tries to tell him to stay. Will convinces Ruby that it’s necessary and promises to return. Ruby kisses Will on the cheek and hugs him. When Will gets home, all of the lights are on and his mother is grateful to see him. Angelina and her family are still safe and hidden. Stan called, unhappy with Will for leaving the shop, and is expected home by morning. She sends him to bathe and then go to sleep. Will wakes up to find his mother stunned and quiet. She says to Will, “He took them” (224), and it takes Will a moment to figure out what she meant.

Angelina is unconscious, and Stan has taken her family. Will discovers that his father beat Kathryn when she tried to stop him. She swore that if he took Angelina, Stan would return to find her gone. Kathryn tells Will that she can deal with Stan, but she needs to know the full story. Will tells his mother everything and Kathryn is proud. She tells Will to take Joseph and Ruby to the new house and hide them in the servant’s house there. Kathryn adds that she hopes that the Goodhopes will have a home after everything is safe. Will is confused and his mother says, “Can’t you smell it? […] They’re burning Greenwood to the ground” (224).

While Will eats breakfast, his mother calls the safe haven church. It happens that Kathryn is friendly with the pastor’s wife, who also knits caps for orphans. They make a plan for Ruby and Joseph to meet Will at the church door. Kathryn warns Will, however, that there are still gangs of white men grabbing black people and holding them captive. She plans to hide Angelina upstairs. Will goes to the church and hides Joseph and Ruby in the back seat, delivering them to the servant’s quarters at the new house. Then Joseph tells Will that the white mobs are setting fire to Greenwood, “shooting anyone who resists and taking whatever they want” (226). They are worried about their mother and Will promises to find Della for them. Before Will leaves, Ruby looks directly at him and says, “You’re a good man, Will Tillman” (226), which gives Will the strength to keep going.

At the outskirts of Greenwood, white men and women are carrying valuables that they have looted from black homes. Will sees that the Goodhope home has been burned down but is determined to find Della. Suddenly, Will spots Eunice, wearing a stolen formal gown and screaming that Clete has been shot. Will comforts Clete, who quietly tells Will that Vernon plans to kill Joseph and Ruby. It sounds like a threat, but Clete clarifies that it’s a warning. Clete’s mother heard Kathryn talking to the pastor’s wife on the party line. She told Clete Will’s plan, and Will told Vernon. Clete starts to confess but dies before Will can pretend to believe that God will forgive him. Suddenly, Will realizes that Ruby and Joseph are in immediate danger.

James is at work, but Rowan goes by herself to see Opal Johnson, Ruby’s daughter. Rowan has been obsessing all night about what it would mean to talk to the DA and expose herself for every news outlet and blogger to criticize. She has also been obsessing about the skeleton and connecting the dots on the information they have gathered, and Rowan asks Opal about her mother. Rowan tells Opal everything she has learned and asks if the body is Joseph, and Opal just stares at her, finally stating that her mother told her not to talk about it. Rowan is disappointed, but then Opal invites Ruby into the parlor and shows her an antique Dictaphone. Opal has no children and doesn’t want to die without passing the story down, and she decides to give it to the girl Arvin tried to help before he was murdered. Opal warns that the recorded confession on the Dictaphone was a long testament to how difficult and complicated the world could be.

When Will arrives at the construction site, Vernon is already inside. He hears a gunshot and races into the servant’s quarters. Joseph has been shot in the shoulder. Vernon is taunting him, promising, “I don’t aim to let Maybelle have her way with you till I’ve had mine with your sister” (233). Joseph tries to drag himself across the floor but pauses when Will enters and grabs a brick. Vernon presses a gun to Ruby’s head and is reaching for her shirt when he hears Will approaching. Laughing, Vernon threatens to shoot all of them if Will doesn’t drop the brick. Will smiles and tells Vernon that he spoke to his father and now wants to be on the side of white people who are only trying to put the world in order. Will insists that he just wants to get the receipt from Joseph’s pocket. Vernon lets Will take the receipt and orders Ruby to show it to him, confused about its significance.

Will explains that the receipt proved that his father was weak and sold Joseph a Victrola. Will claims that he plans to take it to protect Stan’s reputation, kill both Joseph and Ruby, and then bury their bodies on the construction site. Vernon puts the receipt in his wallet and smacks Ruby’s face so hard that she spits out a tooth. Then he grabs Will and urges Will to take his turn raping Ruby before Vernon did. Will pretends to be confused and Vernon starts to unbutton his pants. Then, while Vernon is focused on Ruby, Joseph silently hands Will the brick. In an instant, Will bashes Vernon’s head and he falls on top of Ruby. Will picks Ruby up and shields her eyes while Vernon spasms and dies.

Rowan is recovering from her accident and has started running again. She has also returned to working at the clinic, and both things make her feel resilient and a sense of normalcy. She prepares to go in with her parents and speak to the District Attorney, who is willing to reconsider his decision about whether to bring hate crime charges against Jerry Randall. Rowan still hasn’t told James everything she learned from Opal, but Opal has promised to leave the recording to Rowan when she dies. Rowan is anxious, and her mother asks if she’s ready to go inside the courthouse. Rowan thinks about everything that has happened that summer and the stories she has heard and tells her mother that she is ready.

It’s 1926, five years after the riot. A month prior, Joseph wrote to say that he graduated from college and was planning to attend medical school. A few days ago, a letter from Ruby informed Will that Joseph died: He drowned while attempting to rescue a child who fell in a river. Will has decided to record a full accounting of what happened on that June 1, the night that Vernon Fish died, feeling the need to preserve their story. Since that night, a detective from Georgia came to Tulsa looking for Vernon, and new information came to light. Vernon’s real name was Virgil Fisher, raised by a white sharecropper father who taught him to hate black people. As an adult, Vernon discovered that his mother was black. She gave birth to Vernon’s darker-skinned brother, and his father kicked them out. Vernon was white-passing, so he could stay and help with the farm work.

When his mother died, Vernon’s brother located him. Outraged by the truth, Vernon killed his brother and disposed of the body. Police started searching for Vernon after the body was found. Joseph and Will hid Vernon’s body well, buried it at the construction site, covered it in lime, and flipped over the blood-stained floorboards. After the riot, no one was concerned about how many black men were murdered, and Will decided that “it’s poetic justice of the grimmest sort […] that for all his hatred and bile, Vernon Fish ended up just another murdered Negro whose death never merited looking into—or even remembering” (240). Kathryn Tillman moved in with her cousin in Pawhuska, and Stanley Tillman stayed in Will’s childhood home.

Will changed his name, moved to Kansas City, and married Claire. In Will’s own Victrola shop, he treated all customers equally. Angelina’s family was reunited when Kathryn Tillman vouched for them. Ruby and Joseph found their mother at the high school, which became a makeshift hospital. Will delivered Joseph’s Victrola there as well, putting the final $2.50 payment into the till from his own pocket. Each year, on June 1, Ruby leaves a peach pie on Kathryn Tillman’s doorstep. The people of Greenwood rebuilt, even though insurance companies refused to pay out, demonstrating the resilience of its citizens. Will thinks about the first night he saw the original Greenwood, remembering, “It wasn’t just a promise I beheld, but a thing as real as bricks and mortar and hope” (241).