The Truth According to Us

Chapter 2 is comprised of a set of letters and telegrams exchanged among Layla Beck, members of her family, and others in her circle. Together, they provide an explanation for Layla’s arrival in West Virginia. Layla has definitively refused to marry a man named Nelson, angering her father and disappointing her mother. Her father, a senator, leans on his “possibly socialist” brother Ben to secure Layla a government job, and he secures her a position with the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) in West Virginia. Layla is horrified, both at the job description and the location, but her uncle is adamant, and her brother, Lance, provides only temporary relief. Meanwhile, Layla receives a scornful letter from her communist lover Charles, ending their relationship and expressing the hope that experiencing work will help her overcome her class prejudice.

Willa and her younger sister, Bird, walk to the train station to meet Layla. Willa is run down by a local boy on his bicycle, and her hands and legs are badly cut. A man who works at a nearby garage offers to drive Willa home in his truck. He still thinks of the Romeyn home as the “president’s house,” as it was when Willa’s late grandfather was president of the American Everlasting Hosiery Company. As the aunts crowd around Willa, Jottie observes that, with her injured hands and feet, she seems to have stigmata, which causes Mae and Minerva to laugh. At this moment, Bird arrives with Layla, and Felix strides up from another direction, further taking attention away from Willa.

The next section of the narrative, told from Jottie’s point of view, describes Layla’s arrival. Jottie notices Neely’s shyness, and she longs to reassure him that the house and family are not as “fancy” as they were in the past. She can see that Mae and Minerva disapprove of Layla’s elegance, and she worries that Felix has already begun to seduce her. When she shakes hands with Layla, Jottie feels “inconsequential” by comparison, as though Layla has already decided that Macedonia will be just one minor episode in her life before she moves on. Jottie experiences a pang of the sense that she will “never move on” but quickly recovers her composure (31), recalling how she is needed and loved by Felix and the girls.

The chapter concludes with a letter from Layla to her brother, Lance, sardonically describing her first impressions of Macedonia and speculating about the Romeyn family.

Willa observes Jottie as she works in the kitchen, noticing how her aunt seems to be distracted. Jottie mumbles something about being an “old lady,” and when Willa protests, Jottie points out that her parents—Willa’s grandparents—died in their fifties and that she is already 35. Willa doesn’t like that Jottie thinks her life is over already, but Bird’s arrival lightens the mood. Jottie, Willa, Bird, and Mae speculate about Layla.

Willa slips out of the kitchen and finds Layla in the front room, wearing an expensive silk dress and looking like a “princess.” Eager to win her over and find out more about her past, Willa tries to be as likeable as possible and to answer Layla’s questions about the family. Layla seems surprised that Mae and Minerva are both married but live in the house during the week, though Willa does not elaborate. Her father appears shortly thereafter, followed by Bird.

The narrative point of view returns to Jottie as dinner is served. Layla’s silk dress makes her uncomfortably hot, which seems to please Mae and Minerva. Questioned by Felix, Layla describes a recent visit to Hitler’s Germany, stating that she was favorably impressed by the improved prosperity and morale. Jottie imagines Layla running off with a German officer or having an affair with a musician. Jottie asks Mae and Willa to help clear the table before dessert; although Layla offers to help, the aunts seem to disapprove of her anyway.

After dinner, Felix sits on the porch with his sisters and daughters. The adults reminisce about their childhood misdemeanors as the girls listen, fascinated. Two neighbors, Richie and Harriet, stop by the house. After asking Felix about the “chemical business,” Richie reveals that 44 workers were fired from the American Everlasting factory that day, something that Felix’s father would never have allowed. Richie compares Shank, who made the decision, unfavorably to Sol, though Harriet tries to discourage him from praising the latter. Felix retreats inside the house as the adults seek to distract the girls. When Willa asks about her father, Jottie claims that he has gone to buy cigarettes and immediately realizes that her niece knows she’s lying.

Benjamin “Ben” Beck’s formal letter to Ursula Judson Chambers of the FWP informs her that Layla will be working on the history of Macedonia directly from the town, without passing through the central office. Ursula responds with an angry letter, threatening to report his insubordination. Ben replies with a telegram asking her to “hold fire,” followed by a more informal letter explaining his situation. He describes Layla as “exactly as fit to work on this project as a chicken to drive a Buick” (56). Layla writes a brief, self-pitying letter announcing her arrival. Ben responds, equally briefly, that she should not blame him for her situation.

Willa waits for Layla before breakfast, having resolved to become her assistant. She is disappointed to learn that the lodger has already left for work.

Willa successfully completes the initiation test to join a local gang of children called “Geraldine’s Army.” Geraldine informs her that the “army” is in training to fight the “Reds,” who have already taken over Washington. She claims that the American Everlasting is a hotbed of communism. When Willa reports Geraldine’s words to Jottie, she is dismissive and expresses some sympathy for the communist revolutionaries in Russia. Willa responds that she wishes her family was “like everybody else” and that she is “tired of lying” (65). She sees that Jottie is hurt and immediately feels guilty.

Layla is surprised to find that the library is in the same building as the local jail. In the library, she meets Miss Betts, the librarian, who offers to help her write the history of Macedonia, saying that she is looking forward to the project.

Willa is at home when a neighbor comes to ask Jottie to talk to the elderly Vause Hamilton. According to Jottie, Mr. Hamilton was never the same after his son, also named Vause, died young, so a couple times a year, he burns a rubber boot in his garden, filling the surrounding air with acrid smoke. Today is also the younger Vause’s birthday, Mr. Hamilton reminds Jottie, who is widely believed to be the only person in the neighborhood who can talk to him in this state. Willa overhears Mr. Hamilton tell her aunt that Vause “liked [her]. Better than all the other girls” (70), while another neighbor tells her that Jottie is a “saint.”

Willa makes enquiries with her aunts and learns that Vause, who was close to both Felix and Jottie, died in a fire at the American Everlasting Hosiery factory—a fire that, according to them, he set himself after stealing money from their father. The aunts don’t have an explanation for why Vause stole the money, and when Willa repeats Mr. Hamilton’s words about Vause liking Jottie, they curse Mr. Hamilton for having made Vause and Jottie “miserable.” They caution Willa not to mention Vause to Jottie or Felix.

Jottie rests after calming Mr. Hamilton and allows herself to remember a visit from the young Vause on his 18th birthday. Her reverie is interrupted by the sounds of Layla and Felix arriving home. Jottie listens to Felix and Layla discuss Layla’s plans for learning about Macedonia’s history. Jottie doesn’t like hearing them make plans to go to a historical site that weekend, thinking that Layla is being “foolish.” Jottie is saddened when she overhears Willa relaying the story of Vause’s death to Layla.

After visiting a historic home, Layla glances into a soda fountain and sees a man she thinks is Felix. After she waves enthusiastically and he looks confused, she realizes her mistake: It isn’t him after all. She disappears into the crowd when he leaves the soda fountain. The narrative focus stays on the man, whose name is Emmett, as he talks with a group of workers who tell him about the recent firings at the factory. Emmett encourages them to unionize, and they gradually come around to the idea.

Jottie reflects uneasily on something Willa said earlier in the day about feeling the need to lie about her family and wishing the Romeyns were more conventional. She is fiercely protective of her niece but also has to admit to herself that Willa cannot be kept in the dark about certain histories forever; she will eventually find out about Jottie, Felix, and Vause. Jottie contrasts Willa’s increasing worry with her own relatively carefree childhood. She thinks about the family’s decline in prominence since then, including the gossip that she had been “thrown over” by Vause and became a recluse for a year after the fire. She knows that people talk about how Willa and Bird’s mother lives with another man while Jottie raises the girls. Jottie thinks about how she could increase the respectability of the family, perhaps by joining a ladies’ club.

Felix interrupts her, criticizing her for trying to comfort Mr. Hamilton and reminding her that she is under no obligation to either the old man or his late son. Jottie asks about a recent trip that Felix took and is dissatisfied with his answers. She encourages him to stay home for his daughters’ sake, even though this puts him in close contact with Layla. Felix mocks his sister’s broader plans to pursue respectability, insinuating that she is jealous of him and that she still hasn’t gotten over the family’s loss of American Everlasting. Jottie realizes that she will have to pursue respectability alone. 

The chapter begins with a letter from Parker Davies, Head Councilman of the Town Council of Macedonia, to Layla. The letter contains a detailed description of the historical booklet she is to write. The history is to begin in 1758, with General Hamilton’s elimination of Indigenous residents, and is to focus on the town’s “most illustrious families,” of which a list is provided (92). He proposes that they meet at the earliest possible date.

Layla shows the letter to Miss Betts, the librarian, who reads it with some disdain for the pretensions of its author. Willa enters the library, intending to research Albania. An awkward conversation embarrasses her, and Willa quickly disappears into the stacks. Miss Betts talks offhandedly about the Romeyns, referencing Jottie’s cleverness and gesturing toward the role the family played in Macedonia’s history—even though their name is not included on Parker Davies’s list—though she remains reticent about elaborating on “dramatic episodes” in their past, especially when she sees that Willa is listening. Willa continues to eavesdrop, but Layla and Miss Betts’s conversation never returns to the Romeyns.

After leaving the library, Willa turns onto a street full of rundown buildings and spots her father’s car parked outside an establishment called Cooey’s Red Apple. She is scared to enter the building, so she resolves to wait for her father in the car. She wonders what it means to be a “first family” and tries, but fails, to open the bag in which he carries his “chemicals.” She ducks down behind the seats when she hears voices and sees her father come out with a group of men she does not know and leave in a truck with one of them. As Willa marvels at the information she has gleaned after only a few days of attentiveness, her uncle Emmett approaches the car. Emmett can tell that she is prying into her father’s business and advises her not to “ask questions if [she’s] not going to like the answers”—if the answers are likely to “endanger something that’s precious to [her]” (102). The advice puzzles Willa, but she agrees to go home and not wait in Felix’s car. As she departs, however, she asks Emmett what Cooey’s Red Apple is; he tells her that it’s a bootlegger’s establishment.

Back at the Romeyn house, Willa asks Jottie why they are excluded from Davies’s list of “first families.” They are interrupted by Layla, who is worn out after her tea with the councilman. Layla asks whether Mr. Hamilton is a descendent of General Hamilton, and Jottie recounts the “madness” that runs in that family. When General Hamilton arrived in Macedonia, says Jottie, he was largely responsible for wiping out the Indigenous population. When he discovered that his only son was in a romantic relationship with an Indigenous woman, he stabbed him in the foot. Jottie concludes that “truth will out” even if Davies tries to “whitewash” events. Layla declares that as the “official historian” of Macedonia, it will be her “duty” to make sure that the “true history” is recorded. Jottie is impressed and begins to warm to their lodger.