Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

This chapter is a meditation on time, history, and the nature of storytelling. History is fragile enough to be changed and skewed, and therefore it can be difficult to differentiate between stories and history. It is difficult to know what to believe when history and stories can be so similar and yet so different. There is a practice of denying history and even destroying it, by burning documents and records. It is easy to do because the dead cannot dispute or defend from beyond the grave. There is also an exploration of curiosity and the practice of collecting things. Collectors of the past risk their lives on expeditions and surround themselves with objects of the dead. Many of these objects need to be profitable, such as gold. This leads back to the notion that the past can be forced to change by its reconstruction in the present. Therefore, it requires faith to believe in history or in the stories of God, or even in other people, if a person did not witness such events firsthand.

Jeanette comes home one day to find that her mother and Mrs. White are cleaning the house and making it proper for company.