Summary
Balm in Gilead
Maggie rallies Essie, Sarah, Puah, and Be Auntie to help tend to Samuel and Isaiah’s injuries. Puah is directed to gather various supplies, including lavender, yarrow, weeping leaves, huckleberries, and strands of red hair. The remaining women discuss the cause of Samuel and Isaiah’s punishment: Ruth’s accusation that they looked at her sexually. None of them believe Ruth.
Puah gathers the ingredients quickly, though she is stopped briefly when two white children question what she is doing. Puah claims that she is gathering flowers on behalf of Massa Paul and Missy Ruth, and the girl allows her to pick the flowers.
Back in the barn, Sarah and Essie argue about their own roles in Samuel and Isaiah’s injuries. Sarah points out that Essie was in the wagon herself with her baby, while she risked a whipping by refusing to ride the wagon. Upon Puah’s return, the women form a broken circle around Isaiah and Samuel, and call to the ancestors to heal them. The ritual is successful, and rain begins to fall. In the aftermath, Maggie asks Essie to sing.
Romans
The seven Orishas speak again of the African past. They correct the impression of “an untroubled period in which cruelty was unthinkable,” as nature is rugged and unbiased. The voice again entreats the addressee to remember, even though “memory is not enough.”
II Kings
In Kosongo territory, a council is gathered at the royal hut. They are debating what to do with the strangers, and though an initial response leans towards killing them all, King Akusa cautions that they must be careful, not hasty. One of the eldest members of the Kosongo, Semjula, rises and says that death is the wrong answer, but that voices have told her the village is in an impossible position. She advises waiting until after Elewa and Kosii’s ceremony, and the king agrees, making an effort to be hospitable to the strangers.
Kosii prepares for his marriage ceremony to Elewa, gathering his clothing and jewelry. The ceremony begins and the two dance together as the tribe provides a rhythm for them. Semjula binds their hands together until they are joined, and the entire village celebrates enthusiastically. The intruders are allowed to partake in the celebration, and King Akusa approaches Brother Gabriel, who asks what the nature of the ceremony was. Shocked at their obliviousness, the king tells them that Kosii and Elewa were wedded, to which Brother Gabriel protests that they are two men. King Akusa laughs at his ignorance and returns to the celebrations. Little does she know, hundreds of others just like Brother Gabriel are emerging from the sea, on their way to ravage these lands and villages. King Akusa offers the strangers more food.
Timothy
Timothy paints pictures of the slaves, though his father Paul forbids him from hanging his paintings around the house, claiming that they would get the wrong idea. Timothy first picked Isaiah to sit for him as a model, and told him he was “an excellent model” for his work.
In Boston, Timothy was shocked at the strangeness of the Northerners. Upon returning to the plantation in Mississippi, Timothy is trying to learn more about Isaiah, though the insufficient records frustrate him. Another day, Timothy pulls Isaiah aside again to paint him, though Ruth tells Timothy not to let Isaiah into the house as he will “stink up the whole place.” Timothy tells Isaiah that he doesn’t have to be afraid of him, as he is “not like his family.” Timothy asks to meet Samuel, and he watches them for a while before returning to the Big House.
Later that night, Timothy returns to the barn, determined to find out more about Samuel and Isaiah. He discovers the two of them laying together, and resolves to paint Isaiah the next day, before his parents begin arranging for him to meet marriageable women. In the morning, Timothy calls for Isaiah and brings him up to his room in the Big House. Timothy tells Isaiah to come sit on his bed, and asks him to take off his clothes. Revealing that he has seen Isaiah and Samuel being intimate in the barn at night, Timothy initiates sex, claiming that he can offer protection from his father Paul.
Nebuchadnezzar
In the aftermath of his ordeal, Isaiah agonizes over what has just happened. He is conflicted by his own body’s reaction to the sex with Timothy, and how Timothy seemed to enjoy receiving pain during intercourse. He has missed an entire day’s work, and Isaiah worries about what Samuel might think, as this is the longest they have been apart.
He rushes to the barn, where Samuel asks him what has happened. Isaiah confesses that he has had sex with Timothy, and Samuel reacts badly, accusing Isaiah of hypocrisy considering his adverse reaction to Samuel having sex with Puah. Struck speechless, Isaiah surrenders the fight and reaches out to touch Samuel’s knee, but Samuel refuses the touch. Isaiah pleads with Samuel to tell him something good, and Samuel considers the ax hanging on the wall. Then Samuel reaches for Isaiah, naming the things he loves about him. The two make up and share a kiss before leaving to wash up in the river.
Analysis
After the horrifying abuse inflicted on Samuel and Isaiah in the previous chapter, the women of the plantation rally together. Maggie gathers four of the other women to help her gather supplies and heal Samuel and Isaiah, though they come with varying levels of willingness. Even in the midst of their preparations, the women argue about their own parts in Samuel and Isaiah’s suffering. They are aware of the growing animosity on the plantation towards Samuel and Isaiah, and the parts they have each played in it.
Dramatic irony is rife in 'II Kings.' The sheer atrocity of the Europeans is made clear: they come to a new land, pretending to bear good news and good will; they eat their hosts' food, are treated like honored guests, are invited to an intimate ceremony and celebration—while all the while, they are planning to invade and ravage the village.
Timothy’s chapter offers a glimpse of a different angle, as this is the first chapter from a white character's perspective so far. Timothy was sent to study in the North against Ruth's wishes, and his education has given him slight abolitionist sympathies, though he has ultimately returned to his family's plantation in the South.
Rape is complicated, as Isaiah experiences. His and Samuel's relationship is tested when Isaiah confesses the truth of Timothy's intentions, and there is foreshadowing with the ax that Samuel’s gaze keeps returning to, and the chapter ends on an ominous note about how the tools are “just within reach.”
The theme of love against all obstacles is continued, as Samuel and Isaiah’s love is tested harshly by interference from one of the slave owners who forces Isaiah to have sex with him. Their argument makes explicit the main source of tension between the two: Isaiah surrenders, desiring to be flexible, while Samuel believes that they must fight back and answer violence with violence.
