While Elisha is speaking in tongues, Elizabeth fears that God is speaking to her, condemning her for her sins and warning her of trials yet to come. When Elisha rises and seats himself at the piano, the song he plays reminds Elizabeth of her aunt and how Elizabeth had come to live in her aunt’s house.
Elizabeth had never been close to her mother, who was very beautiful but frail. Her mother had not been affectionate with her, and Elizabeth attributed this lack of affection to the fact that Elizabeth was much darker and not as beautiful as her mother. Elizabeth was, however, quite close to her father whom she had loved dearly and with whom she had spent much time.
Following her mother’s death, Elizabeth’s maternal aunt took her away from her father, who ran a house of prostitution, declaring that he was unfit to raise a little girl. Elizabeth was devastated and hated her aunt. She screamed and cried at the railway station when she was taken from him and had to be carried to the train that would take her to her aunt’s house.
Elizabeth knew that her aunt would never love her, even though the woman professed that she did. Her aunt prophesied that Elizabeth would fall from grace because of her pride, but it was only Elizabeth’s pride and bitterness against her aunt that allowed her to endure her life in her aunt’s house. These thoughts make Elizabeth think of Richard, the man who took her out of her aunt’s house, the man whom she had loved more than she had loved God—and she believes it was for this reason that Richard was taken from her.
Richard worked at a local grocery. Elizabeth met him when she went into the store to buy some lemons. He smiled at her, and they spoke briefly and she left, but it was the beginning of their romance. Elizabeth fought for and won permission from her aunt to move to New York City (with Richard, unbeknownst to her aunt). Elizabeth told her aunt that she wanted to take advantage of the greater opportunities the North held. In New York City, Elizabeth lived with a female relative and found work at the same hotel as Richard. The two planned to marry as soon as Richard saved some money, but, because he made so little and was also attending school, their wedding was not in the foreseeable future.
Despite her happiness with Richard, Elizabeth saw that there was little difference between the North and the South. The North promised but did not give, and what a person could take was snatched right back away again. Then one Sunday, Richard did not arrive for the dinner at which he was to meet the woman with whom Elizabeth was staying, and on Monday, he was not at work. Elizabeth shortly after discovered that Richard was a suspect in a robbery and had been arrested. She visited him in jail, and he told her what happened: The three young men who had robbed a store ran down into the subway and stood by Richard. When the police caught up with the three, the police assumed that Richard was with the robbers and arrested him too. The white storeowner identified the group as those who had robbed and stabbed him. Richard was beaten when he refused to sign a confession.
Elizabeth was terrified. She knew that she was pregnant and wondered what would happen if Richard was convicted and sent away. But Richard was found innocent of the charges and released. That night he wept in Elizabeth’s arms, and she decided to wait to tell him that she was carrying his child. She never got the chance, however, because Richard committed suicide that night.
Back in the present, Elizabeth weeps for John, wondering what kind of trials he will have to face in his life. Would he be forced to pay for the sins of his mother and father? When he was born, should she have given him to another family who would have loved him more than her husband, Gabriel, ever had? She knows that if Gabriel loves her it is only because she is the mother of his son Roy. Then she remembers how she had come to know Gabriel.
Florence had been Elizabeth’s friend. The two of them talked over coffee after work and talked about their lives. One Sunday, Elizabeth took the infant John to Florence’s house. It was then that Florence told her that she had a brother who would be moving to New York soon. Though Florence had not seen Gabriel in more than 20 years, she was not looking forward to his arrival because she believed the years had not changed him.
Elizabeth met Gabriel a few weeks later, and he made her feel that there was hope that she could again be a woman worthy of respect. Florence did not approve of the developing romance and often said so. Yet Gabriel was very good to Elizabeth and treated John as if he were his own son. When Gabriel asked Elizabeth to be his wife, promising to love and honor her and to provide for and love John like a son, she accepted his proposal.
A cry from John interrupts Elizabeth’s reminiscence, and she opens her eyes to see John lying on the floor, overcome by the power of God.
