That Evening Sun

That Evening Sun Summary | Detailed Summary

The story starts with the narrator (whose name we do not learn until later in the story) comparing Monday morning in modern Jefferson to the Jefferson of his youth 15 years before. He starts by describing how Jefferson has been modernized with the addition of paved streets, power lines and the cutting down of trees. He also notes how laundry is now picked up and delivered by professionals in trucks or by "Negro" women who drive cars.

He then goes on to describe how the Negro women collected laundry 15 years before. The laundry would be bundled up and carried on the women's heads to their cabins in "Negro's Hollow" for washing.

The narrator then describes his how family's washing woman Nancy would carry their laundry on her head along with her cap. He also discusses her agility, which allows her to keep the bundle, balanced even as she walked or crawled through a gap in the fence. We also learn that while husbands often helped their wives, Nancy's husband Jesus did not. The narrator also notes that his father has told Jesus to stay away from their house even when Nancy was replacing their regular cook.

He then describes how he and his brother and sister would often have to fetch Nancy from her cabin while carefully avoiding Jesus, who is described as a "short black man, with a razor scar down his face." He relates one such incident in which the children roused Nancy by throwing rocks at her house.

When Nancy asks the children what they want, they tell her it is time to cook breakfast, and she refuses to come. They then speculate on her being drunk, which she denies. The narrator notes that the children believed it was alcohol until they witness Nancy being arrested. On the way to jail, Nancy is reported to have confronted a prominent white man named Stovall, whom she alleges has not paid her in three "times" (although the narrator is only a child, the reader is left in no doubt that the two are discussing prostitution).

After Nancy taunts him, Stovall kicks her in the face, knocking out her front teeth. Nancy is then said to have been noisy in jail until trying to hang herself with her dress in the early morning hours. The narrator describes how the jailer insists that Nancy is on cocaine, and tells how the jailer cut her down and then beat and whipped her. We also learn that Nancy is pregnant at this time, with "her belly already swelling out a little, like a little balloon."

We learn more about this pregnancy as the story progresses, and the narrator discusses how Jesus and Nancy have a discussion in the kitchen about whose vine the "watermelon" (her swelling abdomen) came off. When Nancy tells him to be quiet in front of the children (the narrator's sister, Candace, interjects with questions and clearly does not understand their sexual innuendoes), Jesus talks about how white men visit his cabin and displace him. There is an inference in Jesus' words that the narrator's father ("Mr. Jason") may even be one of these white men. This is when, says the narrator, the father tells Jesus to stay away from their house.

With their regular cook, Dilsey, still sick, Nancy works for the family for some time. On one evening, the narrator (whose name, we learn, is "Quentin") goes to the kitchen to tell Nancy to go home and finds her sitting in the kitchen, afraid to go home. We learn that Jesus has left her, and that she is "scaired of the dark" according to Quentin's brother Jason. Much to the dismay of his wife, the father decides to walk Nancy home, along with his three children.

On the way home, Nancy talks about how Jesus has been good to her, and it becomes clear that she is actually afraid of Jesus. As she and the father speak, the children discuss an incident in which Jason had been scared on the path to the Negro section of town; apparently ignorant of the bigger issues the adults are discussing (although it is clear from his narration that Quentin is paying attention). Father asks if "Aunt Rachel," a woman who may or may not be Jesus' mother, could calm him down, and Nancy replies that Jesus believes he has the devil in him. When father says it is good that he is gone, Nancy replies that she knows Jesus is still around, and that he has plans to kill her.

In the next section of the story, Quentin describes how they walked Nancy home for several days and then made a place for her to stay in the kitchen. The children then hear noises in the middle of the night, and it becomes clear that Nancy is terrified. She is eventually allowed to sleep in the children's room, but she is clearly afraid for her life. Under questioning from the children, Nancy implies that God is about to punish her for her sins.

Following this incident Dilsey returns to the family, and Nancy comes to the kitchen once more in fear. She insists that Jesus has returned, and that she "can feel him laying yonder in that ditch." The children once more talk around the adults, discussing "niggers," before Jason asks Nancy if she is a nigger. Nancy replies that she is "hellborn," and that she will be going to Hell soon.

Dilsey makes Nancy coffee, which Nancy is too nervous to drink. Dilsey urges her to get the police involved, and tells Nancy that "Frony" (presumably Dilsey's husband) will stay at her cabin for protection. Nancy asks the children to let her stay, but their mother says no. Five-year-old Jason cries at her answer until he is threatened with a loss of dessert. Mother urges father to contact the police, but he counters that the police will do nothing.

At this point seven-year-old Candace interjects, expressing wonder at Nancy's fear and asking if wives are afraid of their husbands. Father offers to walk Nancy home, to which mother objects and the children are sent off. They tell Nancy to go home, and question her about Jesus. Dilsey says she will get "Versh" to walk Nancy home.

Nancy then talks to the children, inviting them to her cabin. Quentin objects, but eventually the group heads off toward Nancy's cabin. On the way, Nancy talks loudly and implies that father is along with them. The group sits in Nancy's house and Nancy tells them a story, briefly reemerging from her depression and fear before sinking back into it. The children then decide they want to leave, which Nancy tries to delay with popcorn and another story.

Nancy then places her hand in several hot places while turning up the lamp and building up the fire. Jason begins to cry, and Nancy attempts to calm him. The popcorn is burnt, and Jason threatens to "tell" on her for getting smoke in his eyes. Father then shows up to bring the children home.

He tells Nancy to go to Aunt Rachel's house. Nancy notes that Jesus is there, and that he has left a "sign" for her in the form of a bloody pig bone left in her cabin. She says she will be dead soon, which father ignores. The group then leaves, but Nancy appears not to notice and refuses to get up and bar the door of her cabin.

The story ends with Jason and Candace arguing about Jason being afraid of Jesus, and Quentin asking his father who will do their laundry once Nancy is gone.