Tims Creek Elementary School, North Carolina, 1984

Jimmy describes the school as having the appearance of an "old plantation" building (39). This is ironic, as he is the first black principal of an integrated school in the United States. In the present, Jimmy remembers Horace having confronted him with a gun and threatening to shoot him with it. Later in the novel, Horace visits the school he attended as boy, experiencing flashbacks in the form of hallucinations. The conflict between Jimmy and his cousin continues from Horace's perspective. Horace explains he has been taken over by a demon and that he is not meant to live in the world. Horace commits suicide, an action that makes up the main storyline of the novel.

First Baptist Church of Tims Creek, North Carolina, 1983-1984

First Baptist Church has historical and personal significance to the Cross family and its Fundamentalist Christian background. The lands...