Summary

The story opens outside a rural house located somewhere between Sanford, Florida and Orlando, Florida. The house is occupied by an African-American family of low socioeconomic status. Isis Watts, the young girl of the family, is sitting on a gate post. Isis’s maternal grandmother, Grandma Potts, yells at Isis to rake the house’s yard. However, Isis is preoccupied with looking out at the road that passes the house; Isis simply shrugs her shoulders at her grandmother. Grandma Potts becomes enraged, and she tells Joel (Isis’s older brother) to hand her a nearby stick. Grandma Potts threatens to beat Isis if Isis does not obey her. Isis protests, saying that she sees George and Jim Robinson coming down the road, and she wants to wave to them. Grandma Potts says that Isis should not be waving at every person that passes on...