The Last House on the Street

When Kayla sees her father after meeting Ellie, she casually mentions that she met Buddy’s sister. Reed responds oddly to this and Kayla remembers that Ellie also had an odd response upon learning that Reed was her father. She wants to talk more to him about it, but he walks away dismissively.

Wanting to entertain Rainie when they get home, Kayla takes her for a long walk in the woods along the circular trail. It leads to the murky lake, which is completely cut off by dense underbrush. Kayla finds the woods spooky. Completing the circle, they come to the massive oak tree she has heard about and, looking up, they see the treehouse. As Kayla climbs the steps to the platform with Rainie, she realizes that Jackson has been there before her. Clearly, he has fortified the planks, rails, and steps so that it will be safer for them to climb. Though Rainie is excited about the treehouse, Kayla tells her that she cannot play there by herself until she is eight years old.

Ellie and three other students leave Atlanta in the car of volunteer Paul Golden. Riding with her are Paul from Columbia, Jocelyn from UCLA, and Win, who is a Black student from Shaw University in Raleigh. They introduce themselves to one another, and in order to stay awake, they sing freedom songs. Ellie notices that Win is extremely serious. She says, “[t]he only time I saw him smile was when Reverend King took the microphone. He was there to work, not play” (112).

When they arrive in Derby County, they stop at a special education school, their staging area. The night before they arrived, someone shot through much of the glass in the building. In addition to the white volunteers, there are local Black volunteers, one of whom is Rosemary, whose cousin, Ronnie, works for Buddy. Greg, the local SCOPE director, tells them that President Johnson has not yet signed the Voting Rights Act, so all they can do is educate citizens. Ellie discovers the next day that she and Win will be partnered, walking around Flint to canvas potential voters.

Kayla stops by the Hockley house with a bag of za’atar for Ellie. Ellie invites Kayla in to meet Buddy and Pat. They recognize immediately that she is Reed’s daughter. Kayla asks about practicing yoga, as Ellie suggested, only to find out that Ellie is not really interested. Kayla notes, “[t]he faraway look I see now in Ellie’s eyes had been in my own during those last few weeks” (124). Kayla offers to help Ellie with her mother and brother, though Ellie does not seem to want her around. Ellie warns her to take down the old treehouse in the woods.

A letter that Ellie writes to Brenda describing her inculcation into the civil rights movement comprises this chapter. She tells of her field work in the area around Flint, interacting with the Black volunteers. Ellie says she stays with the Dawes family, who have two sons and four little girls who practically knock her down with joy whenever they see her. She shares a twin bed with two of the younger girls. The house has no electricity or running water. She must use an outhouse.

While driving toward her home, Kayla notices fire coming from the Hockley house. She stops and yells for help from a construction crew, then goes to a locked door, where Buddy is futilely trying to exit. She manages to open the door and Buddy falls onto her. She realizes that the fire came from him smoking around his oxygen source. First responders and Ellie arrive quickly, and Buddy gives Kayla credit for saving his life. Ellie tells Kayla that she’s ready to practice yoga any time.

Win arrives at the Dawes house to walk with Ellie as they begin to canvass for the first day. As they walk, he discusses the different roles that they will play in canvassing people and how they must be judicious in approaching different individuals. He asks Ellie if she understands what voting rights will mean to the Black citizens of Derby County and she lists several positive developments. Win says that he is involved because of the call of Dr. King, putting his own agenda aside to serve. He says, “[i]t doesn’t matter if you’re white or Black or rich or poor or in between, we’re here to do the same work” (139) During their canvassing, they see a white man in a pickup truck and hide behind the barn.

As Kayla straightens up the room that would have been Jackson’s study, she discovers a letter that her father wrote to Jackson asking him not to use the wooded lot to build their house. He mentions that some people have thought it was haunted. Looking back, Kayla remembers that her father resisted the idea of their buying the lot. She had no idea that her father wrote the letter and Jackson never told her that it existed.

Ellie and Win become an effective team as they canvass potential voters. While they wait to be picked up, a truck pulls up and two white men get out, one with a shotgun. Ellie and Win run through the fields, hearing the gun being fired behind them. They stop and rest when they know that they are out of range. As they recover, Ellie notices Win in a different way. She says, “I hadn’t thought of him as handsome before that moment. […] [R]ight now, all I could see in front of me was a beautiful young man” (149).

SCOPE holds its first protest at the county courthouse. Volunteers sing and march without much interference. Their spirits are high. That night, as they are sleeping, someone sets a cross on fire in front of the Dawes’s house. Ellie keeps the younger children back as the Dawes fight the fire.

Making good on her promise to Kayla, Ellie invites her to do yoga. As they finish, a woman outside calls out Ellie’s name and Ellie invites her in. Kayla meets Brenda, Ellie’s friend from her childhood. Brenda is interested that Kayla is Reed’s daughter and mentions that Ellie knew Reed better than anyone else. Though Kayla wants to hear about that, she believes that Ellie is ready for her to leave. Brenda asks where Kayla lives and is surprised to hear she has moved down the street. She reveals that she also lost her husband in a fall when he was very young. As the conversation continues, Kayla gets the idea that there is friction between Ellie and Brenda. She says, “[t]here’s something between these two women besides friendship, I think. Something old and prickly” (159). As Kayla leaves, Brenda tells her that she and Ellie used to double date Garner and Reed.

Ellie gathers her belongings the morning after the burning cross, knowing that she must find a different place to stay. At the school, she discovers that someone also shot out the windows again, terrifying Jocelyn who stays there by herself. She spends the day with Jocelyn, who admires Ellie for her willingness to go out into the field instead of staying back and doing paperwork. Win canvasses with Rosemary, causing Ellie to feel displaced, though she tells herself that she is not jealous. She receives a letter from Brenda saying how wonderful married life and pending motherhood are and asking when Ellie will wise up and come home. Ellie realizes that she has no intention of living the domestic life Brenda loves. One of the volunteers sees a poster indicating that the Klan will hold a rally in Round Hill that night. The white SCOPE students decide to visit the rally anonymously.

The Klan rally has thousands of people of all ages. It reminds Ellie of the county fair, including concessions and a Ferris wheel. The students stay together and try to be inconspicuous, though Ellie recognizes Garner, Brenda’s husband, at a distance. A woman moving past them sees Jocelyn’s SCOPE pin on her collar and proceeds to tell others that the voting rights volunteers are present. As they leave, Ellie encounters Uncle Byron, the town sheriff, who tells her to run. The electric lights go out so that the Klan can ignite a giant cross. In the dark, Ellie falls into a ditch and is knocked unconscious.

Deciding that she must talk to her father about the letter that he secretly wrote Jackson and about his past relationship with Ellie, Kayla invites him to come for supper. Reed acknowledges that he wanted them to move somewhere else. He says, “[w]hen we were kids, we all thought this area was haunted” (177). He tells her that the Klan used to hold meetings in the circle around the giant oak. They discuss his relationship with Ellie. He explains they had been close, but Ellie had fallen in love with someone else, a volunteer with SCOPE. This ended their relationship. Kayla wishes that she and Jackson had built the house somewhere else.