A Spool of Blue Thread

The narrative travels further back in time, to when Junior first meets Linnie Mae at a church function. She sits with the Moffat twins—high school girls—so he assumes Linnie Mae is also in high school. Junior finds himself drawn to her full breasts, which she oddly touches repeatedly. While walking through the church graveyard, Linnie Mae points out her grandparents’ gravestones (they were from the haughty Inman family). They then agree to meet the following day. Junior finds it strange that Linnie Mae doesn’t want him to pick her up at home but assumes she is ashamed of her house. They date for three weeks and have sex routinely, until she reveals her age unwittingly via an offhand comment about her older 14-year-old brother. Junior panics, knowing he could be arrested. Though Linnie Mae swears she hasn’t told anyone, Junior sets about ending the relationship immediately. He drops her off and lies about being busy the next day.

Junior later visits the lumberyard in town, looking for work. The Moffat twins find him there and pass him a note. In it, Linnie Mae asks him for a visit that night, and indicates that the twins, with their brother Freddy, will drive him. Her brother, Clifford, is having a graduation party, so Linnie Mae can slip out unnoticed. The suddenness of the invitation makes Junior think she is pregnant, but he accepts the ride anyway. Once at Linnie Mae’s house, she directs him into the barn to make love, despite Junior’s sincere protestations. Linnie Mae then reveals that she knows Junior is concerned about her age, and that is why she wants to talk. This revelation puts Junior at ease. Relief and lust overtake him, and the two undress. They are interrupted, however, by Linnie Mae’s father, who calls for his sons to bring guns. Naked aside from his T-shirt, Linnie Mae’s father marches Junior outside at gunpoint, in full view of all the guests, and warns him to flee the state or he’ll get the law involved. Junior makes the long, grueling trek home. By the time he reaches it, it is dawn and his feet are bleeding. Though he tries to sleep, he can’t help thinking about how much he hates Linnie Mae, with her parting phrase, “He’s half nekkid!” (384), playing repeatedly in his mind.

Junior leaves immediately for Baltimore, having been told that Trouble—a laborer skilled in woodwork—might be there. He finds him, but Trouble can’t offer Junior work. He does, however, tell Junior about work with Clyde Ward, as well as lodging at Mrs. Davies’s boardinghouse. Once settled, Junior thought neither of his family nor of Linnie Mae: “He didn’t think about Linnie Mae, either. She was a tiny, dim person buried in the back of his mind alongside that other person, his past self” (388). 

One fateful morning, Junior sneaks Linnie Mae outside and instructs her to wait for him at the café on the corner. He then goes to work, excited for the job because it might bring him more work. Given an egg sandwich from his employer, he saves half of it for Linnie Mae and then takes off early to meet up with her. When he arrives at the boardinghouse, however, he sees Linnie Mae sitting on the steps in plain view, with his warmer jacket on. The only way she could’ve retrieved the jacket was to enter his room. Linnie Mae then explains that she tried ordering hot chocolate and sipping it slowly at the café, but she was eventually asked to leave. She then walked for a long time, only to meet and old lady and join her in a breadline. She expected to be let into a warm place, but instead they were given dry sandwiches and turned away. She left the old woman, ate her sandwich, and cried while walking further.

She spent the whole day walking, got lost, and finally looked up and found herself in front of the boardinghouse. Because Junior mentioned that the maid cleaned in the morning, she went in, only to find his door locked. She fell asleep waiting near his door, and then was awakened by a black woman accusing her of being a burglar. Mrs. Davies was summoned, and though Linnie Mae thought Mrs. Davies would understand because she’s a woman, Mrs. Davies demanded she pack both their things and leave. Linnie Mae then went door-to-door asking for a room, despite half the country being out of work. To Junior’s surprise, a woman took pity on her and rented them a room.

So, Linnie Mae and Junior headed to their new abode. Linnie Mae was ecstatic, further angering Junior: “If it weren’t that she was the only one who knew where all his earthly belongings were, he would gladly have left her behind” (403).

Despite the new room’s smaller size, Junior still has to pay Cora Lee, the woman renting the room, more than at his previous boardinghouse. Though Junior wants to haggle about the price, Cora Lee’s husband just lost his job and needs the money. That night, Linnie Mae takes Junior to a small diner, again despite his protestations. Junior suggests she save her money, but Linnie Mae believes she can find a job easily. The waitress who greets them informs them that Cora Lee thinks the world of them. Linnie Mae remarks that Cora Lee reminds her of people back home, and the waitress says, “We’re all like the people back home […] We all are the people back home” (407). Junior again tries reasoning with Linnie Mae because he is running out of money and she will be soon, but she begs his trust.

Junior feels strangely at ease as they return to their new room, likening the feeling to drunkenness. At Cora Lee’s, he finally addresses their “relationship” by suggesting she return home. Linnie Mae, however, accuses him of only having been interested in her body and unconcerned with finding out her age. Not wanting to argue, Junior pulls out the sandwich he’s been saving, and Linnie Mae interprets the gesture as a sign of love.

Linnie Mae doesn’t find a job, but she and Cora Lee become good enough friends that the Lee invites Junior and Linnie Mae for supper every night. Moreover, Linnie Mae and Cora Lee begin a canning business as well. Even when Junior and Linnie Mae move into their own place once the economy improves, Linnie Mae and Cora Lee remain friends. In time, Junior is able to buy tools and hire workers for his fledgling business. Sometimes, though, Junior goes home and eats everything in sight, despite being lanky and not having a particular interest in food. It is “as if he were starving, as if he had never gotten what he really wanted” (418). There are also times when he imagines how he’d do things over again—he’d leave Linnie Mae at the station.

The chapter returns to when Junior finds the swing painted Swedish blue. He has Eugene—one of the first black workers he’s hired—take the porch swing to have the paint removed before his move-in day. He later varnishes it himself. While doing so, he imagines Linnie Mae’s face when she sees that the swing is no longer the ugly, common blue color. Though he relishes this idea, Linnie Mae won’t truly understand: “She wouldn’t fully realize all that lay behind it: his shock at what she had done and his outrage at his sense of injustice, and his hard work to repair the damage” (423). Junior considers admitting to Linnie Mae that he’s never really loved her. He simply felt sorry for her, and now there’s no turning back. Since this truth would crush her, he keeps it to himself. Ruining things between them like this would make his sacrifice for nothing. Later, he assesses the armoire he purchased from the Brills, a piece of furniture that makes him feel both fancy and embarrassed. He’d thought the armoire was called a “more,” until her heard Mrs. Brill refer to it. This revelation then leads into Junior’s disgust with the rich. Though he’s now doing better in life, there’s always something that reminds him of his place as an outsider. As he thinks about this, his eye alights on wallpaper that’s been damaged near the window.

Junior considers taking some things to the new house, but Linnie Mae suggests that he wait until they move in officially the next day. Linnie Mae refuses to look at him, which is a bad sign. She usually does this when mad. Junior speculates to himself what she might be mad about, only for her to subtly reveal she visited the house earlier. Though he wants to ask if she saw the swing, asking would reveal that he cares about what she thinks. When Linnie Mae simply mentions that the front door sticks, Junior takes offense. They circle around the issue until Junior leaves the kitchen. As they walk to a restaurant that night, Junior wishes Linnie Mae would look at him. The longest time she’s been this mad was when she wanted kids and he refused. He finally gave in, and when he broached the subject and she looked at him, it “made him feel the way a parched plant must feel when it’s finally given water” (432).

When they return home and prepare for bed, she still won’t look at him. Junior considers how she managed the trek to the new house alone, and her probable shock at seeing the swing, and suddenly feels hurt for her. He confesses that he just wants everything to be perfect. Linnie Mae turns in the dark and cups his face, and before kissing him, admits that she understands his intentions. Junior still doesn’t know, however, if she’s looking at him.

The Whitshanks leave early for the new house. Their neighbor, Doris, gives them a plant. Though Linnie Mae laments not seeing Doris again, Junior reminds her that they’re only moving two miles away. For Linnie Mae, however, things won’t be the same. If she invites old friends over and serves them nice food, they’ll think she’s lording her new life over them. If she serves the food they’re accustomed to, they’ll think she doesn’t believe they deserve anything better. They park in front of the new house because Junior wants to take it all in, but mostly because he wants to see the porch swing and prove he was right about how it should look. To his horror, there’s “a scattered explosion of blue” (438) leading from the steps to the driveway. Someone has thrown blue paint at the steps. Linnie Mae doesn’t even register the mess, which will take Junior time and effort to fix. Even if he manages to get some of the paint off, it will never be completely gone, and he’ll have to redo the mortar completely. Assessing the damage, Junior imagines that his future lies in worrying about ridding the mortar of this blue paint. Linnie Mae is the obvious culprit to him, and she’s been pulling the strings all along: “Why had he worried for one second about abandoning her at the train station? She would have done just fine without him! She would do just fine anywhere” (439). After recounting all the occurrences where Linnie Mae succeeded where most everyone else would’ve failed (or where he expected her to fail), Junior takes her hand in his, opens the door, and they walk into their new lives.