She was a good girl. She got excellent grades. Hardly a season passed without her piano playing winning her a prize or affording her a mention in the newspaper that would join the articles about her birth that adorned the walls of her parents’ home. Still, she was monitored every hour of her day. All of her socializing took a backseat to the four hours of piano practice she did daily in preparation for the two lessons she had each week with Zara Olavsky, an internationally renowned piano pedagogue who taught at the university’s music school. She was required to check in hourly whenever she was away from home. And she had the earliest curfew of any teenager in town.
Her parents grew even more vigilant that year, with Richmond in college and Clarice still in high school. There were no dates at all unless she double-dated with Odette. Clarice was certain that, with Odette’s gruff personality around boys and those horrible outfits she wore that growled “keep away,” her parents viewed Odette as walking, talking virginity insurance. Not that Odette’s face was all that bad. She could be cute in the right light. And her figure was decent, top-heavy and round. Lord knows there were plenty of boys who longed to slip a hand down her blouse. But no boy wanted to cop a feel off the fearless girl. She was just more trouble than she was worth. Richmond had called in all kinds of favors to get his college friends to go out with her. Pretty soon he was going to have to start paying them.
But Richmond had a date for Odette that night and Clarice’s parents had agreed to allow her to stay out an hour later than usual. It was going to be a perfect evening. Now Odette’s mother was trying to ruin it.
Whining often worked on her own mother when she wanted out of an unpleasant chore or wanted her curfew extended, so Clarice gave it a try with Dora Jackson. She said, “But, Mrs. Jackson, we’re going to the All-You-Can-Eat and Barbara Jean lives the other direction and I’ve got on heels.”
Odette mouthed, “Shut up.” But even though she knew from the look on Mrs. Jackson’s face that she should stop talking, Clarice piped up with “And besides, Barbara Jean is not our friend. She’s nobody’s friend, except the boys she runs around with. And she stinks, Mrs. Jackson. She really does. She drowns herself in cheap perfume every day. And my cousin Veronica saw her combing her hair in the bathroom at school last year and a roach fell out.”
Mrs. Jackson narrowed her eyes at Clarice and said, slow and low, “Odette’s gonna take this chicken over to Barbara Jean to show that child some kindness on the day of her mother’s funeral. If you don’t wanna go, then don’t. If you’re worried about your feet, borrow some sneakers from Odette. If you’re worried about roaches fallin’ off of her, then step back if she gets to flingin’ her head around. Or maybe you should just go on home.”
The only thing Clarice could think of that was worse than delaying her date with Richmond to run this ridiculous errand Mrs. Jackson couldn’t be dissuaded from was the idea of going back home and, with her chaperone otherwise occupied, being forced to stay in and keep her mother company all evening. Seeing her plans with Richmond fading away, Clarice rushed to save them. Speaking quickly, she said, “No, ma’am. I’ll go with Odette. I didn’t really believe that roach story. Veronica likes to make stuff up.”
Mrs. Jackson left the room without another word, and Odette and Clarice headed to Barbara Jean’s.
Plainview is shaped like a triangle. Leaning Tree comprises its southeast section. To get to Barbara Jean’s house, the two girls had to walk south along Wall Road and then along side streets into the very tip of the triangle’s corner.
The wall that gave the road its name was built by the town when freed blacks started settling in Plainview after the Civil War. A group of town leaders led by Alfred Ballard—whose house Barbara Jean would one day own—decided to build a ten-foot-high, five-mile-long stone wall to protect the wealthy whites who lived downtown when the race war they expected finally came. Though further north, the poor whites were on the east side of the wall with the blacks, but the town leaders figured they could fend for themselves. When the new inhabitants proved