The Reckoning

Pastor Bell’s wife Jackie, urged by Errol McLeish, files a wrongful death suit against Pete’s estate.

Joel starts law school. The lawyers wrangle over the value of land that had been in the Banning family for five generations. John Wilbanks, representing the Banning family, proposes to settle the case for $20,000, but Jackie rejects the offer.

The case comes to trial. The lawyer representing Jackie Bell argues that Pastor Bell’s exemplary life was equivalent at least to the value of all Pete Banning’s assets. John Wilbanks argues that Pete’s family had nothing to do with the murder, and his children should not be punished by losing the property built and farmed by their ancestors for generations. The jury awards $100,000 in damages to Bell’s family, wiping out the entirety of the Banning family’s property and leaving Joel and Stella destitute.

The verdict of the trial will be appealed, and appeals will probably drag on for a few years. On Joel’s next visit to his mother, Dr. Hilsabeck tells him that Liza is not improving. The doctor wants to start a course of Thorazine. The doctor thinks that losing the farm would be catastrophic for Liza, who dreams of going home and resuming her life as it was before her breakdown.

Returning home, Joel asks Nineva if she has any idea what happened to trigger Liza’s breakdown, because if they can’t figure that out, Liza may never be able to get well enough to come home. Nineva claims to know nothing. She seems uneasy about Joel’s questions.

He asks how often Liza was alone with Pastor Bell and if they could have had an affair. Nineva insists that Liza and Bell were never alone together. Either she or her husband Amos or their grandson Jupe was always around. There was only a single occasion when Liza went to Memphis—ostensibly to visit her dying mother in the hospital—and Bell went with her. Returning home a few days later, Liza had spent a few days in bed feeling sick. Later, she claimed that her mother had made a miraculous recovery. Joel is convinced Nineva has not told him everything.

Chapter 41 opens with a background on the operation of the Chancery Court, which is reviewing the verdict against the Banning family in the civil court. Chancery judges did whatever they pleased and were heavily influenced by personal loyalties and biased relationships with lawyers in Clanton.

The current trial is to determine whether Pete Banning transferred his property to his children for the express purpose of protecting his property from a civil suit—which would be a fraudulent transfer under the law. The lawyers debate whether the legacy of generations of Bannings developing and farming the land outweighs Jackie Bell’s right to civil damages for the murder of her husband.

The trial ends with the verdict undetermined. Abbott Rumbold, the Chancery judge, is in no hurry to decide the case.

Joel and Stella visit their maternal grandparents. On the train ride up, Stella reads a collection of short stories by William Faulkner. Joel has frequently seen the renowned author around his college town.

They invent a ruse to question their grandmother about her medical history. They learn that she never had cancer or been hospitalized, invalidating Liza’s claim that she was visiting her mother when she went to Memphis.

On the train, returning to Clanton, Joel meets Mary Ann Malouf, the most beautiful girl he has ever seen.

Judge Rumbold has delayed a verdict on the Banning case for months. Once a week, Joel drives down to Clanton to check on the farm. Each time, he realizes anew that the thought of living there and practicing law with John Wilbanks has no appeal to him. He continues to pursue Mary Ann. On one of their dates, they find themselves in the same restaurant with William Faulkner, which allows Joel to satisfy his ambition to meet the author.

Joel thinks often of the generations of his ancestors who built the family farm. Losing the farm would be humiliating, and he and Stella have been counting on the income from the farm to support them while they established their own careers. Liza, under the influence of Thorazine, is getting better and talking about coming home.