The Sweetness of Water

Isabelle experiences an “uncompromised freedom” as she deals first with Caleb’s loss and then his reappearance. She feels that George has placed his grief in his project with Prentiss and Landry and left her to face life by herself. Even after her brother Silas visits and leaves for home she wonders if siblings grow apart without losing that bond that unites them.

Isabelle contemplates Caleb’s aloofness and his weak physical features that she thinks rendered him too fragile for war. She asks Caleb to work with George in the field, but he suggests that his father did not need additional help. Worried that George’s distance from her would spread to Caleb, she offers to pay Caleb for his work. That night she asks George to ask Caleb for help, and the next morning when George extends the invitation, Caleb reluctantly agrees.

Isabelle visits the field where the men are working. She feels an “awe of miracle” when she sees the farm developing out of a forest. Believing she is witnessing something intimate, she returns to the cabin and vows not to return to the field. Ted Morton and his hand Gail Cooley arrive and ask for George. When Isabelle tells them George is busy, Morton and Cooley proceed to the field with Isabelle in pursuit. Morton tells George that Prentiss and Landry are his property and that he has raised them from the cradle, fed them, and put a roof over their head and accuses George of stealing his property. Prentiss tells Morton that the conditions at his farm were not as good as he described them. Morton tells George that he is preparing his farm incorrectly and that his peanut seeds are unlikely to grow. George asks Morton not to return to his farm unannounced. Caleb predicts that the men will return, but George, unphased by the events, continues to work.

Later that evening, Caleb drives Isabelle to a social gathering at the Beddenfeld’s home. Caleb tells her that George speaks of her often and that he is perplexed as to why they do not talk to each other much anymore. He reveals that he hadn’t seen such anger in Morton’s face before and worries that Prentiss may flee. Caleb does not understand why his father keeps the men and says that people in town are saying bad things behind George’s back.

As they arrive at the Beddenfeld’s, Isabelle acknowledges the noises of society as the “sounds of excess.” She observes the gaudy elegance of the Beddenfeld’s home. When she enters, all the women except for Mildred fawn over her. Over dinner Sarah Beddenfeld asks if it is true that George is building a plantation to circumvent enslaving workers. The women continue gossiping about George’s plans and relationship with the brothers. Isabelle defends George as an honest, passionate man and abruptly excuses herself from the table. While walking home in the dark, Mildred offers to give Isabelle a ride home. Isabelle is touched that Mildred left the party for her, and the two have a good laugh about the events that transpired. When Isabelle returns to her cabin, she sees George making dinner for Caleb, Prentiss, and Landry. Isabelle joins them for dinner and comments on how their company is better than any she had at the Beddenfeld’s party.

After days of rain, George visits Ezra in Old Ox. He observes the town’s squalor but feels a little relieved that some of the freedmen’s tents were empty, suggesting that they found a decent place to get out of the weather. He visits the Palace Tavern and is relieved to see that many soldiers have returned home.

Brigadier General Arnold Glass, a Union leader, introduces himself to George and tells him he has spoken to Wade Webler about rebuilding the city and forming a city council. He wants George to join the council, but George asserts his unhappiness with the treatment of recently freed men. Glass argues that the price of freedom is worth the suffering of a few and reminds George that his father had enslaved workers. George declines the offer and continues looking for Ezra.

George finds Ezra sitting alone in the tavern. Ezra reveals that he also declined to join the committee. Ezra is angry that returning soldiers are already asking for loans and begging on street corners complaining about how the freed slaves have stolen their jobs. George scoffs at Ezra’s negativity and concludes that Ezra has asked him there to ask for more of his land. He warns George that the town is talking about his arrangement with Prentiss and Landry and that the Confederate soldiers have returned home humiliated and restless. The brothers coming into Old Ox bargaining for goods with their pockets lined with cash while the soldiers beg for money in the streets angers some of the townspeople. Ezra warns George that he and his family are in danger.

When George tries to leave the tavern a soldier’s voice calls out to him and asks if he is Caleb’s father. When George confirms his identity, the boy raises his fist to George’s face and tells him that that is what traitors get. A large man, turning out to be Charlie, Mildred Foster’s son, intervenes and says that George is his mother’s friend. As the scene deescalates, George bids them all a good evening and leaves the tavern.

On his way home, George thinks about Taffy, a young girl about his age his father had bought when George was just 11 years old. He believes that Taffy was brought into the household to serve as a maid and learn the chores for which his mother was responsible. George and Taffy developed a strong friendship until one day George tells her that he loves her. George’s mother sells Taffy after his father’s death, and George feels guilt for doing nothing as Taffy was removed from their home.

George stops at a brothel where he meets with a woman named Clementine. She listens to his concerns about the town, Prentiss and Landry, Isabelle, and Caleb’s death and sudden return. George cannot help but see a resemblance in Clementine’s face to Taffy’s. He reveals that his family is tied to him but not Prentiss and Landry. He concludes that he pays them to keep him company, “to keep some facet of himself alive” (128). George is concerned that townspeople will come to his farm with torches in hand to seek revenge. Concluding that he will not pay with his life, he is worried that Prentiss and Landry would pay with theirs and that he would not be courageous enough to stand beside them. He feels that he is a burden to both his family and the two men and vows to provide Prentiss and Landry safe passage out of Old Ox.

Landry roams the countryside and feels an unshakeable sense of dread. Sundays were his day off from working George’s farm, so he would take to the woods to be alone. While wild animals mostly provided company on these mornings, a few times he was comforted by the sight of women washing their children in the creek. Deeper in the woods, he becomes lost, but the light of a fire brings him to two men, who climb a tree and bludgeon roosting birds blinded from the sudden glare of their light. As he watches the men, he feels as if he, too, is being watched. He feels something wet at his hand and realizes someone has placed one of the bludgeoned pigeons next to him. He takes the pigeon back to the barn.

Prentiss tells Landry that George thinks they should leave. Prentiss told George that they will stay until the end of peanut season. Once the peanuts are ready to harvest, Landry observes that they are imperfect but somehow appropriate for the random world in which they live. While he dozes under a walnut tree, Landry is interrupted by Isabelle. She tells Landry that she is comforted by their presence and thanks him for helping George and Caleb. She tells Landry that she knows he does not speak, not because of his jaw but rather because he chooses not to.

One Sunday morning Prentiss asks to join Landry. Landry touches Prentiss’s hand and holds him to his chest and leaves. One day in the woods Landry visits an area that George had shown him. Landry hid some of his belongings under a canopy of greens. He had acquired knitting needles and yarn from a woman and on his days away from the barn, he would knit the way his mother used to. He knitted a shawl and gloves that were not so good, but finally began knitting a pair of socks. He had taken socks from Isabelle’s clothesline to serve as a model. When Isabelle had showed herself and wished to talk to him at the clothesline, he recognized that she was as lonely and silenced as he. The socks, barely bigger than a child’s foot, would be perfect for a woman. He takes his finished socks and proudly hangs them on the clothesline.

When Landry comes across the pond, he feels relaxed and free. He dreams of having a cabin next to the pond and living freely on the wide-open landscape. He knows Prentiss plans to move North, but he wonders if building a house would interest George. While concealed in the water, he sees Caleb and another boy engaging in sexual activity. He gets out of the water, dresses, and realizes that the unknown boy has seen him. Landry runs back toward the barn and hears footsteps upon him.