Summary

In Chapter 13, Leia put Birchie to bed, noticing how frail and similar to a baby she looked while naked. Leia asked Birchie about the bones and Birchie told her it was her father, Ellis, who she had hit on the head while he had been reading the paper. Leia was disturbed by this revelation and cried in the hall while also deciding she would do everything she could to protect Birchie. Wattie and Leia went to have tea in the kitchen, with Wattie dosing her own with bourbon. Wattie told Leia she had helped Birchie put the body in the trunk after Birchie had called her and told her she needed help. Wattie told Leia she did not know why Birchie had killed her father, that only Birchie could know that. Birchie had told people in the town that her father had gone...