The Last House on the Street

During spring break from college classes, Ellie and her best friend Brenda come home to Round Hill. Brenda is pregnant and will soon marry her boyfriend, Garner. They sit with Pat, Ellie’s mother, looking at a bridal magazine. They hear Ellie’s father read a news article about SCOPE, the Summer Community Organization and Political Education project. Reverend Greg Filburn, whose church is in a nearby Black community, is among the pastors bringing young people from the North and West to register Black citizens to vote. They discuss the late Aunt Carol, a northern transplant who was quite liberal and served as a mentor to Ellie. As a student reporter for the college newspaper, Ellie once spontaneously joined a civil rights protest on campus. The family roundly criticizes SCOPE, believing that the northern students will only cause problems. Silently, however, Ellie realizes that she wants to be a part of the volunteer effort.

Kayla summons the Greenville Police to her office. She and her assistant describe the threatening woman. The police suggest that Kayla remain vigilant and cautious. Kayla explains that her daughter spends most of her time with Reed, her father. Kayla and Rainie will move into their new house on Saturday, a dream home built on a heavily wooded lot. As Kayla leaves work that evening, feeling apprehensive, she wishes that she was not moving into the big empty house that is almost totally surrounded by dense woods.

Ellie takes Brenda out for lunch as a way of inducing her to ride along when Ellie searches for Greg Filburn. Though they have been close for years, Brenda is caught up in wedding plans. She wants Ellie to marry Reed and criticizes her for her decision to volunteer for SCOPE. They drive through Turners Bend out into the country, where they find Greg’s African Methodist Episcopal church.

Ellie makes Brenda come with her inside the building, where they meet by the surprised pastor. Ellie introduces herself. Greg knows her father, Danny Hockley, who is considered a good man because he fills prescriptions for Black customers. They call him Doc Hockley. Ellie says that she wants to participate in the SCOPE program. Greg tries to dissuade her, saying, “[t]he thing the Klan hates more than a Negro is a white person who tries to help a Negro” (28). Ultimately, he says that he will allow her to submit an application for SCOPE.

During her 30-minute commute to her father’s house in Round Hill to pick up Rainie, Kayla cannot stop thinking about Ann Smith. She reflects on what a source of strength her father has been, especially after the death of Jackson. After Kayla moves into her new home, Reed will move into a new condo, selling his house. She tells her father about the woman and they discuss how seriously Kayla should take the threat.

After Brenda’s wedding, Ellie and her brother Buddy, who are very close, walk into the woods. They go to the giant oak tree where their father built them a treehouse when they were children. They climb into the treehouse, where Ellie tells Buddy that she is going to volunteer for SCOPE. Buddy, who does not understand why Black citizens are discontent, tells her that he will not let her join. She asks him why he will not support her. He responds, “[h]ow can I support you when I’m afraid you’re gonna get yourself killed? […] Or worse” (41).

As Kayla, Reed, and Rainie ride to the new house to check it out, they pass the Hockley house, an old, two-story house where Buddy, now terminally ill, lives. They see a new car in the driveway. Going into the new house, they notice how the woods make it seem as if it is in a cave. Inside, the finished house is magnificent. Kayla thinks, “[t]he architect in me is proud and amazed at what Jackson and I created. The widow in me can barely move” (45). Kayla remembers her trip with Jackson to Falling Water, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright house built over a waterfall. Kayla wonders if moving into the house is the right idea. She calls her realtor and discusses putting it on the market. Like her father, the realtor counsels Kayla to be patient and give the house a chance.

Two weeks into the spring semester, Garner and Reed show up at the university to spend the weekend with Brenda and Ellie. Garner takes Brenda to a hotel, while Reed secretly stays in Ellie’s room in the dorm, though he and Ellie have agreed not to sleep together. Reed brings a packet from Greg, which contains information and an application for the SCOPE program. Ellie tells him what her intentions are. In the discussion, realizing that he will not see her throughout the summer, Reed asks if they are breaking up. Ellie makes it clear that her priority is the program. She wakes early the next morning and tells Reed that she is driving back to Round Hill and will take him home. She has decided to talk to her parents about joining SCOPE.

During supper with her parents and Buddy, Ellie says that she is going to volunteer for SCOPE. Her father raises his voice to her for the first time in years and tells her that she is not going. That evening, her mother comes into her bedroom, and they argue about SCOPE. Her mother slaps her when Ellie presses a point about racial disparity. Pat tells Ellie that she is going to spend the summer with one of her mother’s friends in Myrtle Beach. After everyone has gone to sleep, Ellie forges her father’s signature on the application.

After the movers deliver and unpack Kayla’s furnishings, she and Rainie are left alone to spend their first night in the large house. It is an adventure for Rainie but makes Kayla continue to wonder if she has made a mistake building and moving here. The house is silent and dark and the uncovered back windows are intimidating. She notes, “[t]here is only one light I can see and it burns in the window of the old Hockley house […] as if it’s shining from a lighthouse and I am lost at sea” (68).

As Ellie makes her final preparations to join SCOPE, people find out what she intends to do and try to dissuade her from volunteering to register voters. The notary at the bank tells that her she needs to give it more thought. Uncle Byron, the town sheriff (who is also her godfather), tries to dissuade her and gives her his card, telling her to call him if she is ever in trouble regardless of where she is. The night before she leaves, her mother receives an anonymous threatening phone call.

The day Ellie leaves, her parents have little to say. Buddy lingers, telling her that he loves her and that he is always there if she needs help. Three students come down from the North to pick Ellie up. Ellie invites them into the house for a snack. They tease Ellie about her accent and the customs of rural North Carolina. Ellie frets that she does not belong in their group: two Jews and an Italian who view Ellie, her family, and Round Hill as provincial. Ellie admits that she has never been out of North and South Carolina. She is astonished at the differences in their backgrounds and finds they have virtually nothing in common. She says, “[t]his is my first time doing something like this, myself. […] I’ve done absolutely nothing. And now I plan to change that” (82).

When Kayla drives down the street toward her home, she sees a woman at the Hockley house offloading groceries. She stops and offers help, which the woman gladly accepts. The woman introduces herself as Ellie, Buddy’s younger sister who lives in California but has come back to take care of Buddy. Since she has arrived, she also brought her mother, Pat, out of an assisted living home so that she can care for her as well. Ellie says that she moved to California 45 years ago. She explains that she has been a yoga instructor for 35 years. Kayla expresses interest in resuming yoga and Ellie suggests that the two of them should practice yoga together. Ellie says that she misses her friends in San Francisco but must remain as long as Buddy needs her. In parting, Ellie learns that Reed is Kayla’s father and her attitude instantly cools.