Billie Jo grieves for her mother and baby brother. She is in pain both emotionally and physically. She feels guilty because she blames herself for their deaths. She blames her father, too, and is angry with him for leaving the kerosene next to the stove. She questions whether she can ever forgive him — or herself. Billie Jo takes over her mother's chores, but because her hands are so badly burned, she is in agony. The physical pain she experiences is so great that it prevents her from playing the piano. Billie Jo's father is also grieving. He has lost his wife and son and is losing his farm and crops. He becomes depressed and withdrawn, treating Billie Jo as though she is invisible. He is unable to comfort or reassure her, and they become strangers living under the same roof. Her father deals with his grief by digging a big hole for an eventual pond, following through on a suggestion that Billie Jo's mother had provided weeks ago. He soon takes a job working long hours for Wireless Power.
Life goes on for Billie Jo and her father. Dust storms and the aftermath have become a common occurrence. Billie Jo is lonely. Most people feel sorry for her because she is motherless. She has few friends and is grateful to Mad Dog, because he sees her for who she is and treats her as friend, not as a pitiful victim.
After hearing about a talent contest hosted by the Palace Theatre, Billie Jo decides to enter. She practices on the piano at school, unable to play on her mother's piano at home because her feelings of guilt and her grief consume her. While competing in the contest, Billie Jo plays her heart out and wins third prize, but not without paying a price — her hands "scream with pain for days." Billie Jo tries to play the piano again, but she can't; she feels like a "cripple." Her father begins to take adult education classes at night, just in case the farm doesn't make it and he has to make a living some other way. Billie Jo receives a letter from Aunt Ellis inviting her to live in Lubbock, Texas. Billie Jo puts the letter on the shelf over her mother's piano, as a reminder that she has an escape from the Dust Bowl.
