Chapter 13 Summary

It's July 1929. Willie is in the library when he reads a newspaper headline about Bess having her husband arrested. It says she's accusing him of abuse and the paper lists the address where Bess is hiding from her husband. Willie goes to Bess and they talk about running away together. Bess says she's pregnant and that her husband's family is too powerful—that they'll have Willie's bail revoked. The next day after work when Willie returns to where Bess is staying, the door is open and her belongings are gone.

As the Depression hits again in 1930, Willie loses his job at the landscaping company. He has enough money saved to make it a few months, if he doesn't eat a lot. He's sitting in front of the library when he runs into Marcus Bassett, who he knows from prison. Willie goes back...