Losing Battles

Losing Battles Summary | Part 1 Summary (through page 50) Summary

This first Sunday of August is no ordinary day in Banner, Mississippi, for it is Granny Vaughn's ninetieth birthday and before the day is out four generations of her family will arrive to celebrate that fact. Even as dawn heralds the arrival of the special day, the Renfro family - Miss Beulah Renfro, Granny Vaughn's only granddaughter; Beulah's daughters: Ella Fay, sixteen; Etoyle, nine; and Elvie, seven; her youngest son, Vaughn, age twelve, and husband, Ralph Renfro - sit down to breakfast.

At the breakfast table, the children begin discussing who of the family they believe will be the last to arrive at the reunion. Etoyle thinks that Uncle Homer and Auntie Fay will take that prize, based solely on the fact that everyone is relying on them to bring the ice, while Elvie decides on Brother Bethune. For her part, Ella Fay says Uncle Nathan. Vaughn decides that his elder brother, Jack, will be the last to make it to the reunion. Miss Beulah does not take kindly to this suggestion, Jack being the apple of her eye.

Just then, the first of the day's guests arrive: Uncle Curtis Beecham, next-to-oldest of Miss Beulah's brothers, and his wife Aunt Beck, in a ten-year-old Chevrolet sedan-cum-hauler laden with dogs, a crowd of children and a cargo of red and yellow peaches. Uncle Curtis notices the house's new roof immediately. Even as the dust settles, Uncle Dolphus and Aunt Birdie Beecham, of Harmony, arrive in an old pickup truck with a flat tire; it too, is packed with people. They too make mention of the new tin roof.

As the newcomers are saying their birthday wishes to Granny Vaughn, another old Ford pulls into the yard, carrying Uncle Percy Beecham and Aunt Nanny. Miss Beulah sends Vaughn on an errand to the cemetery: to deliver a churn of salvia to Mama and Papa Beecham's gravesite; dahlias to that of Grandpa Vaughn's; and milk-and-wine lilies to Sam Dale Beecham. Still, the parade of arriving family members continues, this time with Uncle Noah Webster and his new bride, Aunt Cleo pulling into the yard.

Aunt Cleo, knowing little of the family news, is surprised to hear that Jack Renfro, on whose return everyone at the reunion is waiting, has spent time in Parchman, the state penitentiary. At that moment, Gloria, the woman whom Jack married shortly before his incarceration comes out of the house. Vaughn returns from the cemetery laden with tables from the church dinner grounds and a passenger: Mr. Renfro's sister, Miss Lexie.

At Aunt Cleo's behest, the gathering begins to tell the story of how young Jack Renfro came to be sent to jail. Eighteen months previously, on the first day back at school, Ella Faye, wanting a wine ball, skips across the road to Curly Stovall's store. He, however, does not intend to give her anything and instead starts chasing her around the store, asking when her family intends to pay for the seed and feed he has supplied over the years. Ella Faye, having borrowed Granny's golden ring, shows it to Stovall who promptly snatches it up and refuses to give it back. Ella Faye leaves the store in tears.

Hearing the news, Jack rushes over the road from the school to the store and quickly gets involved in a fight with Stovall. Curly admits to having placed the ring in his safe, but will not open it. During the scuffle, Jack manages to bundle Stovall into a coffin on display in the store and ties it shut with clothesline. Jack then picks up the safe and carts it back to the school. The teacher sends him home with his lunch in one hand and his books saddled around his neck. En route, Jack drops the safe and by the time he gets it home, the safe door, having not been locked, has already opened and the safe's contents emptied somewhere along the road. During the telling of the story, it is revealed that Gloria is the schoolteacher, and that Curly Stovall's store used to belong to the Renfro family.

Aycock Comfort, a friend of Jack, and Ora, Curly's sister, discover Curly in the coffin and free him. At about the same time, Homer Champion, the current justice of the peace, arrives, having stopped there as part of his egg route. The family search for the ring, but are unable to find it. They do discover the mortgage to the store, however, and Vaughn takes it back to Curly.

The next morning, Homer Champion and Curly Stovall arrive at the Renfro home to arrest Jack. Jack, coming from the barn with two buckets of milk, throws one bucketful into Curly's face, but having set the other bucket down to do so, finds himself on the receiving end of a bucketful thrown by Homer. Then the two men hoist the safe and Jack into Homer's van and drive off. Jack is taken to a jail in Foxtown where he digs through the wall of the jail with a pie knife, but finds himself in the fire station next door and is incarcerated once more.

Jack is released on bail. Back home, his family asks what it is that he would like to do before the trial and Jack says that he would like to get married. During the telling of the story, as if on cue, Lady May Renfro, Gloria's fourteen-month old baby comes running out of the house and into the yard. Gloria snatches up the little girl and sits down amongst the family who continue telling the story. Grandpa Vaughn marries Gloria and Jack at Damascus Church on a Sunday evening that spring. However, later that same day, Curly comes to the Renfro homestead to tell Jack that he's expected to be in Ludlow courthouse at eight o'clock the next morning, and just to be sure, sees to it that Jack is locked in Ludlow jail overnight - on his wedding night. Aycock, of his own accord, goes along as well.