Chap­ter 11: Gone was a moment that for­ev­er changed Dodo’s life. The faint flick­er of the bulb in the Heav­en & Earth Gro­cery Store marked the entrance of some­one unex­pect­ed. Though the store typ­i­cal­ly had few vis­i­tors in the after­noon, this time was dif­fer­ent. As Dodo stood on the trap­door lad­der lead­ing to the base­ment, hid­den behind the butcher’s case, he wit­nessed an unset­tling scene. The moment Miss Chona moved to greet the vis­i­tor, her face betrayed fear, unlike any­thing Dodo had ever seen before. His instinc­tu­al reac­tion was to low­er him­self fur­ther into the base­ment, unsure of who was enter­ing but sens­ing the change in the air.

Miss Chona had always been a pil­lar of strength for Dodo. Despite her occa­sion­al tremors and seizures, she moved about the store, inde­pen­dent and strong-willed. Dodo had come to admire her resilience and had learned to respect her auton­o­my, often help­ing only when asked. Her love of read­ing, which she encour­aged in him, had been one of the few con­sis­tent joys in his life. Although he didn’t share her pas­sion for books, he still indulged her by pre­tend­ing to read, know­ing that it made her hap­py. But today, some­thing was dif­fer­ent. He could feel the weight of the moment in the way Miss Chona moved, and the flick­er­ing light, the unease in her actions, set the stage for what was about to unfold.

When Dodo heard the sound of the strange visitor’s foot­steps, he rec­og­nized the uneven pat­tern imme­di­ate­ly. The vibra­tions under­foot told him some­thing was wrong, but it wasn’t until he saw the man’s face that he under­stood. It was Doc Roberts, a man whose rep­u­ta­tion had long been steeped in fear for the peo­ple of the Hill. To the white com­mu­ni­ty, Doc Roberts was a benev­o­lent fig­ure, the trust­ed coun­try doc­tor. But to the black fam­i­lies in the neigh­bor­hood, he rep­re­sent­ed some­thing far more sinister—a fig­ure of night­mares, a sym­bol of mis­trust and fear. The man who had brought dread into the lives of many now stood in the store, and Dodo’s heart raced as the ten­sion between Miss Chona and Doc Roberts grew pal­pa­ble.

The argu­ment between the two esca­lat­ed quick­ly, and Dodo, still hid­den behind the butcher’s counter, could sense the change in the atmos­phere. Miss Chona’s usu­al calm demeanor had shift­ed to some­thing dark­er. Her trem­bling hand, her flushed face, and the rapid-fire words exchanged with Doc Roberts were all signs that some­thing was ter­ri­bly wrong. As Dodo watched, help­less, Miss Chona’s body began to shake uncon­trol­lably. The seizure was famil­iar to him, but this time, the urgency in the room was unlike any­thing he had expe­ri­enced before. His own body stiff­ened in response, a mix of fear and help­less­ness over­com­ing him as he real­ized that the sit­u­a­tion was far more seri­ous than he had antic­i­pat­ed.

Miss Chona’s fall to the ground, her body jerk­ing vio­lent­ly, sent a shock through Dodo’s sys­tem. He had wit­nessed her seizures before, but this one felt dif­fer­ent. The inten­si­ty of her con­vul­sions, the way her body hit the floor with a force that seemed to echo through the store, left Dodo frozen in place. For a brief moment, he felt as though he had been trans­port­ed back to the night of the explo­sion at his mother’s stove. The same sense of fear and pan­ic over­whelmed him, as though time had stood still, and the pain of loss and help­less­ness had returned. But now, there was no time to dwell on those past mem­o­ries. The present moment demand­ed his full atten­tion.

In a burst of adren­a­line, Dodo sprang into action. His instinct to pro­tect Miss Chona, to do something—anything—kicked in. He rushed to her side, but Doc Roberts was already there, doing some­thing unspeak­able. The moment felt sur­re­al, and Dodo’s emo­tions swirled in a mix of anger, fear, and con­fu­sion. He didn’t ful­ly under­stand what was hap­pen­ing, but the sight of Doc’s hands on Miss Chona in such a way made him act with­out think­ing. In a moment of raw emo­tion, Dodo shoved Doc Roberts away, knock­ing him off Miss Chona and into the shelves behind him. The impact was jar­ring, and Dodo was sur­prised by how eas­i­ly Doc had been sent fly­ing.

The scene that unfold­ed before him would stay with Dodo for the rest of his life. The chaos in the store, the way Miss Chona’s body spasmed, and the con­fronta­tion with Doc Roberts were all moments that shat­tered the life he had known. But Dodo was not the same boy who had entered the store that after­noon. The courage he found in that moment, the strength to stand up for Miss Chona, marked the begin­ning of his trans­for­ma­tion. As the sit­u­a­tion esca­lat­ed, Dodo found him­self in a bat­tle for survival—physically, emo­tion­al­ly, and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly. The sim­ple rules he had been taught—stay close, stay quiet—were now irrel­e­vant. The store, the Hill, the peo­ple he had trusted—everything had changed. The world out­side was no longer the same.

In the end, the truth of what hap­pened in the gro­cery store that day would fol­low Dodo for years to come. The strug­gle for his sur­vival, his escape from the grasp of author­i­ty, and his desire to pro­tect Miss Chona from harm became the defin­ing moments of his life. The fear of the man from the state, the one who had been men­tioned time and time again by Miss Chona and Aunt Addie, was no longer a dis­tant threat. It was real, and it was com­ing for him. But Dodo was ready, pre­pared to face what­ev­er came his way.