"Private? We're not going to have any trouble today, are we? Are we, Private?"
"It's National Suicide Day!"
"Let's do it after New Years."
"OK"
IIn 1919, Shadrack, a young veteran of hardly 20, wakes up in a hospital, after returning injured from war. Then, he felt that his hands were slowly starting to grow.
"What you think you doin', gal?"
Later, Shadrack had the idea to create "National Suicide Day", since he was scared of the unexpectedness of death. On every third of January, he walked through the Bottom, which was a neighborhood in Medallion, while telling them that this was their chance to kill themselves or each other.
"No. That was your great-grandmother."
"This is your... grandmother, Nel."
Further in this chapter, a lover says to his bride-to be to wait until New Year's instead of before, since he got payed on New Year's Eve. She told him to make sure it wasn't on National Suicide Day, since she didn't want to be listening to cowbells in the middle of the wedding.
In 1920, Helene, daughter of a Creole, and her daughter, Nel, mistakenly entered a train, which was peopled by some twenty white men and women. All of a sudden, a white conductor comes towards Helene, while sticking his finger into his ear, and proceeds to call her a "gal".
Then, Helene and Nel entered Cecile Sabat's house, which was the aunt of Helene's husband, Wiley Wright. Later, a woman in a yellow dress came out of the garden and went to the bedroom in which Nel and Helene were, which turned out to be Nel's grandmother.
When Helene and Nel return to the Bottom, Nel meets a young lady named Sula, and they become really close. At first, Helene didn't support their friendship, since she didn't respect Sula's mother, Hannah, but then she got used to it.