Chapter 5 Summary

Upon their arrival back home, Ellen's father takes off, not to return until the following evening. Ellen enjoys all the funeral food and prepares to attend school the next day, knowing everyone will be talking about her loss. In her mother's memory, Ellen wears some of the dead woman's clothes under her own.

Ellen describes herself physically, referring to her large head as nearly "defective." Before deciding on which items to wear, Ellen riffles through her mother's things. At school, the teachers are curious and one outright asks Ellen how her mother died, a question Ellen walks away from, refusing to answer. Ellen and Starletta walk home together, where Ellen finds her father returned. From that point forward, Ellen stops speaking to her father and he, in turns, does nothing but drink and sleep. On one occasion, his brothers, Rudolph and Ellis, must...