Chap­ter 4: Dodo intro­duces us to Addie Tim­blin, an elder­ly Black woman wait­ing anx­ious­ly for her hus­band Nate out­side their home in Chick­en Hill, Pottstown. Inside their home, a meet­ing of the Pottstown Asso­ci­a­tion of Negro Men takes place, where the group of men is engaged in card games and gos­sip, avoid­ing dis­cus­sions on seri­ous issues fac­ing the com­mu­ni­ty. The con­ver­sa­tion at the meet­ing reveals the ongo­ing strug­gles with­in the Black com­mu­ni­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly regard­ing job oppor­tu­ni­ties and infra­struc­ture improve­ments. While the men seem pre­oc­cu­pied with triv­ial mat­ters, the com­mu­ni­ty’s urgent need for progress is side­lined, fur­ther empha­siz­ing the dis­con­nect between the dis­cus­sions of the asso­ci­a­tion and the real chal­lenges faced by its mem­bers.

As the con­ver­sa­tion turns to the dying Miss Chona, Addie becomes frus­trat­ed with the men’s talk of tra­di­tion­al death cus­toms pro­posed by Snooks, a self-pro­claimed rev­erend. While the men joke and engage in light­heart­ed ban­ter about reli­gious prac­tices and super­sti­tions, Addie is unmoved by their friv­o­li­ty, find­ing their lack of gen­uine con­cern hyp­o­crit­i­cal. The men owe Miss Chona mon­ey but pre­tend to care for her, and Addie can’t ignore the con­tra­dic­tion between their actions and words. This hypocrisy weighs heav­i­ly on Addie, as she con­sid­ers the lack of true empa­thy in the com­mu­ni­ty. She watch­es the men, increas­ing­ly irri­tat­ed by their idle behav­ior and absence of real action.

When Nate arrives home, the mood shifts. Addie informs him that Dodo, a twelve-year-old deaf boy, has gone miss­ing, height­en­ing the anx­i­ety of the sit­u­a­tion. The com­mu­ni­ty is increas­ing­ly wor­ried, espe­cial­ly when it becomes appar­ent that Dodo may have rid­den a freight train to Philadel­phia. Addie’s rev­e­la­tion that the boys who found Dodo had no way to call for help adds to the ten­sion, and Nate’s frus­tra­tion ris­es as the urgency of the sit­u­a­tion becomes more clear. The men’s con­tin­ued focus on incon­se­quen­tial top­ics only deep­ens Addie’s frus­tra­tion, and she steps out­side to reflect on the sit­u­a­tion, real­iz­ing the lack of action could have seri­ous con­se­quences for Dodo’s safe­ty.

Addie’s wor­ry about Dodo’s safe­ty grows, as she qui­et­ly express­es how the inac­tion of the men could lead to dire out­comes. She believes that the lack of urgency from the com­mu­ni­ty might cause Dodo harm, fuel­ing her desire for action. Nate, deter­mined to find Dodo and unwill­ing to let the sit­u­a­tion esca­late fur­ther, decides to search for him him­self. The nar­ra­tive then shifts to Nate’s search, por­tray­ing his deep-root­ed con­nec­tion to the land and the com­mu­ni­ty of Chick­en Hill. As Nate search­es, he finds Dodo by the creek, where the boy is attempt­ing to build some­thing with rocks, seem­ing­ly lost in his own world.

The inter­ac­tion between Nate and Dodo high­lights the boy’s inno­cence and emo­tion­al strug­gles. Dodo presents Nate with a note about his deceased moth­er, a sym­bol of his grief and the loss he has endured. Despite Dodo’s emo­tion­al bur­den, Nate reas­sures him, offer­ing com­fort and affirm­ing his worth. Nate’s gen­tle approach dis­miss­es the note’s sig­nif­i­cance, focus­ing instead on the boy’s resilience and the val­ue of his spir­it. Through this moment, the chap­ter under­scores the chal­lenges faced by both the Black com­mu­ni­ty and indi­vid­u­als like Dodo, who car­ry heavy emo­tion­al bur­dens but also demon­strate immense strength. The nar­ra­tive weaves togeth­er humor, com­mu­ni­ty dynam­ics, and per­son­al strug­gles, reflect­ing the com­plex rela­tion­ships with­in the com­mu­ni­ty and the heavy toll these chal­lenges take on its mem­bers.

This chap­ter high­lights the resilience of the Black com­mu­ni­ty in Chick­en Hill, as well as the inter­nal con­flicts that often pre­vent mean­ing­ful progress. Moshe’s char­ac­ter is con­trast­ed with that of Nate, who is more proac­tive and involved in address­ing issues, such as Dodo’s dis­ap­pear­ance. The community’s reluc­tance to face uncom­fort­able truths—like the hypocrisy of its mem­bers and the real strug­gles they face—is evi­dent, yet there remains a pow­er­ful under­cur­rent of care and sol­i­dar­i­ty. Through Nate’s search for Dodo and the com­plex dynam­ics at play in the com­mu­ni­ty, the chap­ter por­trays the nuanced and often con­tra­dic­to­ry nature of human rela­tion­ships. The nar­ra­tive cap­tures both the heavy real­i­ties of life in Chick­en Hill and the moments of con­nec­tion and sup­port that define the community’s strength.