It is the summer of 1936, and the Dead family is on their ritual Sunday drive through town in their green Packard. Although the drive affords Macon little pleasure, he enjoys the opportunity to flaunt his affluence and prosperity. Ruth enjoys showing off her family, and Lena and Corinthians like watching the men. For five-year-old Milkman, the trip is “simply a burden.”
During the drive, the Dead family’s strained conversation touches on numerous topics that reveal the family members’ personal beliefs and values. While Corinthians is excited about Macon’s plans to establish a beach community at Honoré for “high class Negroes,” Ruth’s comments are generally ignored. Lena is intent on keeping the peace between her parents, and Milkman fidgets and finally finds a way to escape his imprisonment—he needs to go to the bathroom. After a brief stop results in a minor family crisis, the family heads back home.
The narrative now shifts to seven years later, and twelve-year-old Milkman meets seventeen-year-old Guitar, who introduces him to Pilate—Milkman’s aunt—and the mysteries of her wine house. Pilate invites the two boys into her house, offers each of them a soft-boiled egg, and tells them stories about growing up in Montour County, Pennsylvania, and about her childhood relationship with her brother, Macon, and her and Macon’s escape from Montour County following their father’s murder. Entranced by her stories, her brass earring, and the “piny-winy” smell that permeates her house, the boys are fascinated to learn that the rumor concerning Pilate’s being born without a navel is true. Suddenly, their conversation is interrupted by Pilate’s daughter, Reba, and Pilate’s granddaughter, Hagar, who have returned from picking blackberries. For Milkman, meeting his cousin Hagar is love at first sight.
Returning home, Milkman learns that Freddie has told Macon about Milkman’s visit to Pilate’s house, which Macon strictly forbade Milkman to enter. Macon scolds Milkman for disobeying him and is stunned by his son’s questions about the Dead family’s history. Consequently, like Pilate earlier in the chapter, Macon reminisces about his childhood in Montour County, sharing with Milkman some of his fondest memories concerning Pilate, his father, and his father’s beloved farm, Lincoln’s Heaven. However, as Macon regains his autocratic composure and his anger returns, he reiterates his warning to Milkman to stay away from Pilate, whom he describes as a “snake.” He also says that it is time for Milkman to learn the family business, to “learn what’s real.” He will teach his son the “one important thing [he’ll] ever need to know: own things.”
