Ava's Man

Margaret gives birth to her first son, Sam, and “[t]hey almost didn’t make it, mother and child” (217). Margaret leaves Charles and moves back in with Charlie and Ava. Ever since Charles came back from the war, he is an angry drinker, and he takes his anger out on Margaret. He tries to retrieve her from Charlie and Ava’s, but “Charlie just held [Sam] in his arms and let his daughter choose. And the dark-haired [Charles], no flowers in his arms this time, drove away alone” (217).

On Sundays, Charlie drives Ava and the girls to church, but he never goes inside with them. Charlie doesn’t consider himself religious and looks within himself to distinguish right and wrong:

[H]e lived by his own morality, which a lot of people say they do, but it doesn’t count much if your heart is black as coal dust. The good people of the foothills could call Charlie a sinner in the purest sense, because of the likker and more, and because he never talked to God (219).

However, in the middle of the night, Charlie wakes Margaret up and tells her that he found God:

‘I went to bed, but I couldn’t sleep. I kept hearing this music, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.