Chap­ter 23: Bernice’s Bible opens with Fat­ty and Big Soap work­ing on an old con­vert­ible behind the jook joint. Their focus is inter­rupt­ed when Rusty brings unex­pect­ed news: Fatty’s sis­ter, Ber­nice, has arrived. Fat­ty is imme­di­ate­ly con­fused and unset­tled by her vis­it, as he believes there is no rea­son for her to be there after their years of estrange­ment. He insists on con­tin­u­ing his work on the car, which he believes could be a valu­able Great Chad­wick Six, despite Rusty’s teas­ing about the car being noth­ing more than “junk.” Fat­ty, how­ev­er, remains hope­ful and con­vinced that luck might come his way through the car, even as his curios­i­ty about Ber­nice’s vis­it grows. Their strained rela­tion­ship, marked by years of unre­solved ten­sion over their father’s house and oth­er unre­solved griev­ances, hangs in the back­ground of his mind as he won­ders why she has decid­ed to come to him now.

When Fat­ty even­tu­al­ly finds Ber­nice sit­ting alone on the porch, he tries to engage her casu­al­ly, ask­ing if she is head­ing to a func­tion. Ber­nice, how­ev­er, imme­di­ate­ly crit­i­cizes Fatty’s lifestyle, focus­ing on what she sees as his neglect­ful behav­ior. The con­ver­sa­tion esca­lates quick­ly, reveal­ing the deep divide between them. Fat­ty express­es his dis­dain for Bernice’s choic­es, and in turn, she judges him for his refusal to change his ways. This inter­ac­tion high­lights the emo­tion­al dis­tance that has grown between them over the years. Ber­nice, in her attempt to bridge the gap, urges Fat­ty to seek sal­va­tion, hop­ing that he might find some sense of pur­pose. How­ev­er, Fat­ty dis­miss­es her con­cern, refus­ing to acknowl­edge the need for change. He accus­es her of being more inter­est­ed in mate­r­i­al wealth when she men­tions she has some­thing valu­able to give him. The under­ly­ing ten­sion is pal­pa­ble, and their exchange is charged with resent­ment, both per­son­al and root­ed in their past strug­gles, includ­ing the death of their father and the choic­es they made after­ward.

As their dis­cus­sion becomes more heat­ed, Ber­nice con­tin­ues to empha­size the impor­tance of fam­i­ly, urg­ing Fat­ty to remem­ber the val­ue of com­mu­ni­ty sup­port in times of hard­ship. How­ev­er, Fat­ty remains unmoved, firm­ly believ­ing that noth­ing ties him to his past or to his fam­i­ly. He is crit­i­cal of her attempts to con­nect, view­ing them as futile and dis­con­nect­ed from the real­i­ty of his life. Fatty’s hard­ened per­spec­tive is shaped by years of sur­vival in a world that feels unfor­giv­ing, and his sense of mis­trust is deeply root­ed in expe­ri­ences that have taught him to rely on no one. His dis­mis­sive atti­tude toward Bernice’s calls for famil­ial uni­ty and sup­port under­scores his inabil­i­ty to embrace the idea of recon­nec­tion. The con­ver­sa­tion is not only about the rift between Fat­ty and Ber­nice but also about the broad­er racial and social divides that shape their expe­ri­ences. Fatty’s bit­ter­ness toward those who helped them in the past fur­ther reflects the com­plex lay­ers of resent­ment that gov­ern his inter­ac­tions with oth­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly those from his own com­mu­ni­ty.

At the cli­max of their exchange, Ber­nice hands Fat­ty a brown enve­lope, which he ini­tial­ly dis­miss­es out of sus­pi­cion. His skep­ti­cism pre­vents him from imme­di­ate­ly acknowl­edg­ing her ges­ture, and he almost dis­re­gards it entire­ly. How­ev­er, once she leaves, Fat­ty final­ly opens the enve­lope, only to find not just a Bible but five hun­dred dol­lars, along with a note. The unex­pect­ed arrival of mon­ey brings an over­whelm­ing sense of relief and joy to Fat­ty, and for a brief moment, he feels grat­i­tude. The ges­ture is a stark reminder of the com­plex­i­ties of their fam­i­ly rela­tion­ship, where even small acts of kind­ness are laden with deep­er mean­ings. The mon­ey, while pro­vid­ing finan­cial relief, also hints at the emo­tion­al bag­gage that comes with fam­i­ly ties. The Bible, sym­bol­iz­ing faith and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, jux­ta­pos­es the mate­r­i­al gift, sug­gest­ing that despite the hard­ships, there might be some­thing of val­ue beyond the phys­i­cal.

Fatty’s brief excite­ment at the mon­ey is soon tem­pered by the real­iza­tion that he has torn the let­ter before ful­ly read­ing it. This moment serves as a sub­tle metaphor for his rela­tion­ship with Bernice—strained and incom­plete. His relief at receiv­ing the mon­ey quick­ly gives way to an unspo­ken regret, as he real­izes that he may have missed some­thing impor­tant in her mes­sage. The act of tear­ing the let­ter is a small but sig­nif­i­cant ges­ture that high­lights his ten­den­cy to reject emo­tion­al con­nec­tions or mean­ing­ful com­mu­ni­ca­tion. It also under­scores the dif­fi­cul­ty of ful­ly appre­ci­at­ing the sac­ri­fices made by those who try to reach out, even when their inten­tions are sin­cere.

The chap­ter delves into the intri­cate dynam­ics of fam­i­ly, estrange­ment, and the emo­tion­al toll of unre­solved con­flicts. Fatty’s reac­tion to Bernice’s vis­it illus­trates how past griev­ances and mis­un­der­stand­ings can shape present rela­tion­ships, often mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to recon­nect despite attempts at heal­ing. The sym­bol­ic gifts—money and the Bible—represent not just mate­r­i­al sup­port but also a deep­er long­ing for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and con­nec­tion. Bernice’s efforts to bridge the divide between them are evi­dent, but Fatty’s refusal to embrace her ges­tures reflects the emo­tion­al scars he car­ries from their past. This ten­sion between the sib­lings serves as a poignant explo­ration of how famil­ial love, once strained, can be dif­fi­cult to rekin­dle. The chap­ter ulti­mate­ly high­lights the chal­lenges of nav­i­gat­ing fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships, espe­cial­ly when past mis­takes and mis­un­der­stand­ings cloud the pos­si­bil­i­ty of heal­ing. Through this com­plex exchange, the sto­ry explores the frag­ile bal­ance between for­give­ness, sur­vival, and the endur­ing weight of fam­i­ly ties.