At Miz Lottie’s cluttered house, Gloria tells her about Miss Anne Powell’s promise to involve a law student. Miz Lottie pushes Gloria to think bigger than local help and says she should start writing letters every day to prominent Black figures and publications, including Thurgood Marshall and Zora Neale Hurston, because public attention might shame Gracetown into acting. When Gloria accidentally mentions fire, Miz Lottie realizes Gloria has heard something about the reformatory and stops avoiding the subject. She prays for Robbie’s safety from harm "from this realm or another," then admits that children can sense what adults refuse to name.

Miz Lottie tells Gloria that Gracetown suffers from a "blood sickness" created by generations of racial violence and death, and that the reformatory is one of its worst centers. She says the town is full of restless spirits because the soil remembers what has been done there. To explain what the place does to people, she recounts how Junior once took a janitorial job at the reformatory after the war, then came home morally damaged. Junior confessed that during an escape alarm, his boss handed him a rifle and ordered him to shoot at fleeing Black boys, and he obeyed before later breaking down in shame.

Miz Lottie then tells Gloria the story of the 1920 fire: a group of white and Black boys were locked together in a shed behind the warden’s office, the workers left them unattended while looking for beer, and a fire started while the boys were trapped inside. Every boy died. Although the official story calls it an accident, Junior believed someone may have set the fire deliberately because the reformatory brings out people’s worst impulses and teaches cruelty as ordinary work. The story confirms Gloria’s growing sense that the place holding Robbie is not only brutal but haunted.

Too distressed to stay, Gloria walks home after dark despite Miz Lottie’s warning. Haunted by the story and desperate to help Robbie before he suffers more, she turns in at McCormack Farm, believing Red McCormack is the only man who can quickly influence the judge. The farm dogs rush her, but Duke, Lyle’s dog, recognizes her and prevents an attack. Lyle comes out with a flashlight and gun, and after Gloria pleads with him, he reluctantly agrees to bring her to his father even though he expects anger in return.

In Red McCormack’s workshop, Gloria delivers a careful plea for Robbie’s release. Red insults her, confirms with Lyle that Robbie kicked him after a misunderstanding, and still refuses to undo the six-month sentence, saying Robbie belongs where he is. However, Red reveals that he had asked Warden Haddock to give Robbie twenty lashes and agrees to call and cancel that punishment. After dismissing Lyle, Red privately questions Gloria about whether she is pregnant by Lyle and crudely offers to send a doctor if needed, reducing her to a sexual problem to be managed. On the walk back to the gate, Lyle treats his help as leverage, demands a kiss, then gropes Gloria and presses himself against her. Gloria breaks free, lies that she is engaged, and runs from the farm, escaping both men but leaving with no assurance beyond the possible reprieve from lashes.