Perfect Peace

On Christmas in 1944—when Perfect is four years old—Emma Jean wakes her children up early to open their gifts. The three eldest boys—James Earl, Authorly, and Woody—receive new overalls. The three youngest boys—Bartimaeus, Sol, and Mister—receive new shirts and their brother’s old overalls. Perfect receives a beautiful new doll. Mister becomes angry, asking his parents why Perfect received a new toy when he only got a new shirt. Gus slaps him and reminds him to be grateful, and Authorly tries to deescalate the tension. Meanwhile, Perfect is ecstatic about her new doll, and she shows the toy off in front of her brothers, who are all extremely jealous. Perfect decides to name the doll Olivia after a woman she hears on the radio every night. She asks Gus if they can write Olivia’s name in the family Bible, and he tells her that they can carve the doll’s name on the wall somewhere instead. Perfect picks a spot on her bedpost, and Gus asks for Emma Jean’s help with spelling Olivia’s name. Afterward, Perfect fixes Olivia’s hair just like Emma Jean’s.

Perfect walks back to the living room, and Emma Jean scolds her about how she is holding her doll. Emma Jean tells Perfect that Mae Helen gave her sisters a doll, but she never got one. Mae Helen stated that all three of the siblings could play with the doll, but the young Emma Jean decided not to, knowing that her mother had truly meant the gift for Gracie and Pearlie, not her.

Later that day, Mister antagonizes Perfect by calling Olivia ugly. Emma Jean tells Perfect to ignore her brother, and Mister contemplates his role in the family compared to Perfect’s. Mister believes that Emma Jean loves Perfect more than any of the boys simply because she is a girl. Mister decides that he hates Olivia and begins to think of ways to break her.

One day, when Perfect is six years old, she watches her brothers play outside. Perfect asks Emma Jean why she can’t play with the boys, and her mother tells her that girls can’t play the same way that boys do. Emma Jean tells Perfect to play with two of the neighborhood girls—Eva Mae and Caroline. Perfect invites them to play “house.” They assign each other roles; Perfect is the mother, Eva Mae is the father, and Caroline is their child. As they play, Perfect begins to feel uncomfortable with how Eva Mae is acting as the father; she is cursing and aggressive. Toward the end of their pretend meal, Eva Mae slaps Perfect for questioning her authority, claiming that as the man of the house, nobody should question her. Perfect is confused by this reaction, but she decides to ask Eva Mae to be gentler when she hits her. Caroline, comparing Eva Mae’s actions to the abuse that her mother endures regularly at home, decides to react how she normally would; she leaves the area and comes back, pretending that nothing happened.

The girls set up a bed for Caroline, and they pretend to put her to sleep. Eva Mae and Perfect enter the crawlspace under the house and pretend that it is their bedroom. Eva Mae begins to touch Perfect in ways that make her uncomfortable. Eva Mae reassures her that this is what a “normal” mother and father do. She begins to kiss Perfect’s chest and touch her intimately. The pair are called inside for lunch and break apart. Later, to celebrate their “one-day anniversary,” Eva Mae kisses Perfect and makes her promise to keep the things that they do a secret; Perfect reluctantly agrees. 

When Perfect is seven, Gus comes home with a new “coffee table” for the family’s living room. The boys and Emma Jean believe that Gus has lost his mind because the “coffee table” is really a coffin. However, the family adapts to using the coffin as a table, and eventually, Bartimaeus begins to sleep inside of it; to him, it is more comfortable than the ground, and he is not bothered by the darkness.

Because Bartimaeus is blind, he is the only child whom Emma Jean allows Perfect to spend time with independently. One day, as the two siblings walk along one of the back roads of Swamp Creek, they discuss his inability to see. Bartimaeus wonders why God refused to allow him to see, and Perfect promises that if she were able, she would give Bartimaeus one of her eyes. The pair stumble upon a cow and a bull mating, and Perfect asks why the girl cow is penetrating the other cow. Bartimaeus explains that only males have penises. This upsets Perfect. Bartimaeus eventually relents, believing that Perfect is pretending or confused.

Perfect asks Bartimaeus if he knows what she looks like. He tells her that he does, and she brings his hands to touch her legs, stating that her legs are very thick. Perfect then moves Bartimaeus’s hands to her genitals, which shocks her brother. Perfect exclaims that girls can have penises, and Bartimaeus yells that something is wrong. He begins to feel protective of his sister, wondering why their mother has never told them that Perfect has a penis. He forces her to promise never to let anyone touch her in her genitals because people will hurt her if she does. Perfect knows that her brother loves her, so she agrees to listen to him.

That night, Bartimaeus is awakened by Mister, who asks his brother what he wants to be when he is older. Bartimaeus is unsure. Mister exclaims that he wants to be a preacher because they talk as much as they want and get free food. Bartimaeus ushers his younger brother back to bed and returns to his coffin bed. He prays to God for Perfect’s safety, forgetting for the first time in his life to ask for God to restore his vision.

Three days before Perfect’s birthday party, Emma Jean walks around the community, inviting all the children to come celebrate. Perfect decorates the living room of her home in yellow ribbons and helps her mother make her birthday cake. This activity makes Emma Jean emotional, and she tears up thinking about how quickly Perfect has grown. As the pair are making the cake, Perfect asks her mother if it is true that she is going to “start bleeding” soon; Caroline has told her that all women do. Emma Jean is shaken by this question and unsure of how to answer, so she tells Perfect that as long as she thanks Jesus for his sacrifice, she will never menstruate.

At Perfect’s birthday, the children play for a while before they are called inside to eat birthday cake and ice cream. Emma Jean watches as the children sing happy birthday, and she wonders why her own mother couldn’t have done this for her. Suddenly, Gracie and Pearlie arrive at the door and inform Emma Jean that her mother has passed away. Emma Jean makes a “disrespectful” comment, upsetting her sisters. Emma Jean yells about her mother’s abuse, scaring the children, and she refuses to go to her mother’s funeral. Frightened by her outburst, the children at the party begin to leave. The party quickly dissolves, and Perfect runs to her room, crying. Gracie and Pearlie leave, deciding that it is Emma Jean’s choice to live with hate in her heart forever.

Emma Jean is haunted by Perfect’s question about menstruation. She decides that the only way to protect Perfect from being hurt is to tell her the truth herself. The afternoon after the party, Emma Jean takes Perfect into the woods and tells her that she is male. She announces that from this moment forward, Perfect must be a boy. Perfect does not understand her mother’s words until Emma Jean pulls her own pants down and shows Perfect her vulva. Perfect cries and is unable to believe what her mother is saying. Emma Jean dresses Perfect in overalls, takes away her dress, and cuts her hair. Perfect wonders if she will ever be “pretty” again.

Emma Jean drags Perfect home and admits that she lied about Perfect. Gus demands to see “proof.” (At this point in the text, the narrator begins to use masculine pronouns when referring to Perfect, and this convention persists throughout the rest of the novel.) Perfect removes his pants, and Gus screams. Gus attacks Emma Jean until Authorly and Woody pull him away. Emma Jean retreats to her bedroom, crying. Mister helps Perfect dress again and leads him to the couch. Bartimaeus cries in the living room; he feels guilty that he never told anyone that Perfect has a penis. An hour later, Authorly gathers the brothers together and tells them that they have a new brother. He says that they must “accept it and keep on livin’” (134), which saddens Perfect because he no longer feels special or safe in his brothers’ presence. He forces himself not to cry because he fears being reprimanded rather than comforted as he has always been in the past.

Authorly enters Emma Jean’s room and asks if she is okay. After receiving confirmation that his mother is fine, he begins to yell at her. Emma Jean tells him that he knows nothing about how she was raised, but he tells her that God will punish her in the future. Authorly leaves his mother’s room, resolving to “get the girl out of Perfect” and make him into a boy (137). In the barn, Gus contemplates how to accept Perfect as his son when he has “no room in his heart for a son who, only yesterday, had been his daughter” (138). Somewhere in the background, Sugar Baby yells in the rain, and Gus thinks he hears the words “Beware the blaze” (140), but he dismisses this.

Inside, Gus tells everyone that although what Emma Jean did is horrible, they are going to protect Perfect because he is family. Gus demands that they rename Perfect, and he decides to call him Paul. (From this point forward, the character formerly known as Perfect is referred to as Paul.) Gus orders Paul to sleep in the living room for the night. In the bedroom, Gus and Emma Jean talk about what happened. Afraid of being subjected to more violence, Emma Jean remains quiet as Gus speaks, only responding when necessary. As Paul lies on Authorly’s old bed, he wonders how to change himself into a boy. He thinks about Bartimaeus’s reaction to figuring out that he has a penis and feels no anger toward his brother. He knows that Bartimaeus was trying to protect him out of love, and he loves his brother for it. Paul wonders why the fact that he has a penis immediately changed the way his family thought of him. He wonders if the only thing that makes a boy “a boy” is his penis. He wonders why his family now looks at him as though he is the “carrier of a contiguous, deadly disease” (144). He wonders why he represents an abnormality to his family.

The following Sunday, Emma Jean goes to the cemetery to visit her mother’s grave. She weeps and blames her mother for her decision to raise Paul as a girl, declaring that she needed to show her mother how a daughter should be treated. She hopes that everything will be fine as long as Paul doesn’t hate Emma Jean as much as Emma Jean hates her own mother. When she gets home, Emma Jean burns Paul’s dresses and ribbons and paints his bedroom blue, covering up the more “feminine” yellow. Over the next few days, Authorly tries to help Paul become more masculine. When Paul can’t change how he speaks immediately, Authorly begins yelling. Woody, Sol, and Mister come to Paul’s aid, reminding Authorly that Paul has been raised as a girl and that change doesn’t happen overnight. Authorly refuses to relent, so Woody threatens to fight his brother if he doesn’t leave Paul alone. Authorly backs down, and Paul decides to practice his “deep voice” at night until he masters it.

The next day, Gus tasks the boys with yard work. As they pick the weeds, Mister asks Paul what it was like to be a girl and have a close relationship with their mother. Mister admits that he was jealous of Paul because of this close relationship, but he has always wanted to play with Paul. Mister reassures Paul that Authorly doesn’t hate him; he just wants to make sure that Paul isn’t ridiculed by the other people in the town. At lunch, Paul spots a snake and runs away, screaming. Authorly yells at Paul and demands that he come back. Mister kills the snake and gives it to Authorly, who tries to make Paul hold it. Gus doesn’t like Authorly’s actions, but he tells Woody and Sol that Paul must learn these things. Paul holds the snake, and everyone goes back to eating their lunch. Later, when Paul goes behind the barn to urinate, Authorly follows him. Paul squats to urinate, but Authorly teaches him to urinate standing up. Paul is astonished by the fact that he is seeing a man’s genitalia. He compares his own to Authorly’s and wonders when he will develop in a similar manner. The narrative states that Paul will never develop like Authorly and will stop trying to be masculine at age 16.