Summary

KB thinks about how Lansing is different because it is so quiet outside while in Detroit, she cannot go outside much because of loud cars and guns. She spends a lot of time in a tree reading. She considers how her mother may have been like the main character in Their Eyes Were Watching God who knew the bad things her partner could do but found him worth it anyway. KB plans to collect empty bottles for money to get home to mom, but she cannot find any.

The white children come outside, and despite her grandfather’s warnings, KB goes to play with them because she wants friends. She draws with sidewalk chalk, but she has to use yellow for her skin in her self-portrait because the kids do not have brown. The girl, Charlotte, draws a picture of KB in...