Chapter 20 finds Sethe continuing to wander the past, resolved in her choice to reclaim Beloved. She recalls that she reported to Mrs. Garner that schoolteacher’s nephews attacked her while he watched. Mrs. Garner, reduced to invalidism, did nothing about the atrocity. Through the dying woman's bedroom window, Sethe heard shots. Quickly, she entrusted her three children to the woman in the wagon, and Sethe returned to Sweet Home to try to find Halle. The beating she received for freeing her children cost her a piece of tongue, which she bit off when the lash opened the skin on her back.
In Chapter 21, Denver ponders her brothers' fear of their mother after she tried to kill them. Denver admits to herself that she is a recluse: "Not since Miss Lady Jones' house have I left 124 by myself. Never." Her only forays into the world outside 124 have been a burial and the outing to the carnival. Her mind churning from worry that Sethe will harm her and Beloved, Denver remains alert. She frets, "This time I have to keep my mother away from her." She exults that Paul D is gone and vows to hang on "till my daddy gets here to help me watch out for Ma'am and anything come in the yard." The bright spot in Denver's reality is Baby Suggs, who taught her to appreciate and love her own body. The hope of Denver’s future is Beloved, who returned to fill the emptiness left by Baby Suggs's death.
