Little Della Jordan used to live with her family on the Flats Road, on the outskirts of Jubilee. She spent her days wandering around the swamps, catching frogs with her brother. Their life was exciting in its own rather peculiar way. The world around them seemed to be a fascinating place. Del’s parents were a strange pair. Her father had grown up on a farm in a remote village, and though he later became a farmer himself, he was not especially fond of village life. Del’s family had an unusual business, for it was still a novelty back then to grow silver foxes. Her mother, Ada, wasn’t unaccustomed to a life on a farm either. However, it didn’t suit her at all. Her true passion was science, she was fond of knowledge, and it was her one and only true God. It was no wonder that Ada was the black sheep in the family. Courtesy of Ada’s mother's religious fanaticism, she didn’t insist on her children going to the church. If Owen wasn’t bothered with it, Del wanted to get clear answers. That need to find the truth and discover the nature of God, led to long religious pursuits.
Like any other teenager, Del was undergoing a difficult and rather confusing process of coming of age, however, more often than not, she projected her inner conflicts and anxieties onto her mother. Del was especially ashamed of her mother for coming to her class to sell encyclopedias. Gradually, step by step, Del learned about death, sexuality, family life, and women’s empowerment. Death stopped being a strange concept for her during Uncle Craig’s funeral when she saw a dead person for the first time. As she grew older, she started noticing that her parents were not as happy together as she used to think and that thought frightened her. She started learning more about sexuality together with her best friend Naomi. During the preparation for an annual school operetta, she even developed a small crush on her classmate and leading singer. Later on, both girls started taking special interest in the love life of Fern, who was a boarder in Della’s house.
According to the local gossip, she was in a relationship with Mr. Chamberlain, though they were not married. Back then, Dell couldn’t help but think that it was something bad, sinful. Once Mr. Chamberlain told them a story, about how fathers tried to sell their underage daughters during the war for the provision and the thought about forbidden sexuality mesmerized her. She started dreaming about him and even agreed to steal his old love letters from Fern. Dell was going to give in to him, but instead of making love with her, he masturbated in front of her. Later on, he disappeared from their lives. Unlike Naomi, who was done with school and got married, Della had a more difficult transition from childhood to adulthood. When she met Garnet French, an ex-prisoner and a Baptist, they submitted to passion and started dating. However, they broke up after the final exams. Della didn’t only do poorly; she also lost her chance for a scholarship. Not to mention that Garnet wanted to marry her and nearly drowned her in a river, trying to baptize her. She also remembered that she abandoned a novel she had been working on for a long period. In the end, Della decided to leave the town and move on.
