16. Reading

Summary

• The chapter starts in 1960 with loneliness taking root in Kya, who decides to visit Colored Town to see Jumpin' and Mabel. She takes with her two jars of her homemade blackberry jam as a token of appreciation for their kindness and friendship.
• En route, Kya has a painful encounter with racism when she witnesses white boys harassing Jumpin'. She steps in, hitting one of the boys with her bag of jar-packed jam and then fleeing the scene.
• The next day, Kya resumes her reading lessons with Tate. Despite her limited knowledge of letters and words, she quickly becomes enthusiastic about learning and starts practicing the alphabet and reading sentences.
• Tate brings her books like Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac as material for reading practice. Kya discovers the depth of words and sentences and begins to apply her new skill to her collection of natural specimens, building a new appreciation for the alphabet.
• Kya starts to anticipate Tate’s visits and, while her romantic feelings for him develop, she decides against expressing them because of her fear of rejection and abandonment.
• Meanwhile, Kya assigns herself homework, sitting at her kitchen table at night practicing her reading and writing. She is motivated and does not feel intimidated by long words like "Pleistocene".
• However, Kya realizes that she lacks basic mathematical knowledge, unable to count past 29, and Tate briefly instructs her on the numbers and promises to bring books about arithmetic.
• Kya also discovers the true names of her family members listed in the family Bible, comes to know her parents' real names were Jackson Henry Clark and Julienne Maria Jacques, and gets insight into her family's past.
• The chapter ends with a detailed account of Kya’s parents’ backstory, revealing how her father, Jake, lied to her mother, Maria, about his wealthy background, how they struggled through the Depression and the war, their move to the cabin in North Carolina, and the births of their children. The story also explains Jake's ptsd-induced alcoholism and how poor decisions led to the eventual deterioration of their family.