Kneeling before the altar, Florence recalls her mother and remembers that it was she who first taught her how to pray, how to humble herself before the Lord. Now, however, Florence feels more bitter than humble because she knows that she is dying. She remembers all the people who influenced her life, for better or worse, and wants their forgiveness for injustices she believes she perpetrated against them.
Florence looks back on her life, beginning with a night when she was 13, huddled in the small cabin that she shared with her mother and her brother, Gabriel. They feared that their home would be burned down by white men in a way of retaliation for a father’s threat of retribution for the gang rape of his daughter Deborah. The horses and riders passed, and they knew themselves to be safe for the time being.
Florence’s mother, Rachel, had been a slave before she was freed by the Civil War and had suffered all the miseries and injustices of her position. She had lost several children through death or auction; she had even had one, whom she was never allowed to see, taken away to live in the master’s house. For these reasons, Gabriel and Florence were especially precious to her. However, being a boy in a male-centered society, Gabriel was even more special to her.
Gabriel had been their mother’s favorite since his birth, and Florence feels cheated of the things that she wanted but that were given to Gabriel instead. He had a chance to attend school, he had the best clothes and food that the family was able to afford, and he had the care of his mother and sister. Yet Gabriel never appreciated what he was given and carelessly squandered it all. When Gabriel was young, he made mischief around town. As he grew older, he took to drinking and loose women, coming home blind drunk and covered with his own vomit.
When Florence was 26, after her employer made an improper sexual advance toward her, Florence bought a ticket to New York City, packed a bag, and left home. She left behind her dying mother, her drunken and bewildered brother, and her good friend Deborah.
In New York, Florence married a man named Frank. Their marriage lasted for more than 10 years before he left her after an especially bitter argument. Rather than being depressed over this turn of circumstances, however, Florence was relieved. Frank moved in with another woman and later died overseas during WWI. Florence thinks now that she would like to find Frank’s grave and place flowers on it, and she wonders how he died.
Florence weeps for the lost Frank and hears Gabriel’s voice behind her. The sound of his voice triggers thoughts of her friend and his first wife, Deborah. Once, Florence had received a letter from Deborah telling of Deborah’s suspicions that Gabriel had fathered a son by another woman. For years, Florence had planned to show that letter to Gabriel; even tonight, at the church service, the letter is in her purse. Now she wonders whether Deborah had ever confronted Gabriel with her suspicions, and she wonders if she will ever show him the letter that she has carried for over 20 years. Florence has been waiting for a time when revealing the letter could do the most damage to her brother. She realizes that she will probably be dead before the long awaited day when her evidence could bring about his destruction.
Florence is suddenly furious at God for loving her mother and brother more than loving her. She is angry that she, “who had only sought to walk upright,” was to die while her brother, who wallowed in sin, was allowed to live. And she is angry that her mother in heaven will see her daughter’s descent into hell. Florence collapses sobbing at the altar and feels the hand of death upon her and hears its voice warn her that her time to die is approaching.
