In Edward P. Jones’ A Dark Night the not so apparent protagonist, Ida Garrett, arrives at the apartment of her neighbor, Carmena Boone, and finds another neighbor, Beatrice Atwell for whom she has been searching. Beatrice, Carmena and the two other elderly women, the two Frazier sisters are waiting for the minister, Reverend Dr. Sawyer, to arrive and hold prayer meeting.
It is a stormy and thunderous afternoon when Ida Garrett enters Carmena’s apartment. An hour and a half passes, and the minister, referred to by Ida as a “…jackleg…” telephones, and after apologizing to Carmena for his lateness adds that he can’t start his car. He won’t be coming. (p. 219)
Beatrice Atwell then relays a story of when during her childhood, and during a nighttime storm, not unlike the one the four women find themselves sitting in, lightening strikes the house of her father’s brother, leaving Beatrice’s uncle, aunt, and cousin dead. They were sitting in the very positions they held when the line of lightening plowed through the house as if “…a big fireball of barbed wired…” Only the male cousin who came to get them, the baby in the crib and the female cousin sitting to the kitchen remained alive.
(p. 223)
Ida Garrett, Carmena, the host, and the Frazier sisters between whom Beatrice is sitting stop from their knitting and sewing and slip into a long quietude remaining.
“…The Lord works in mysterious ways…” Ida breaks the silence, adding, “…For good or for bad the Lord seeks you out and finds you.” (p. 225)
Her tone is accusatory and judgmental like the comment she made to Beatrice earlier when entering Carmena’s apartment, “…surprised to see you here…thought you might be home…” and finding Beatrice present. (p. 218)
Ida Garrett is envious of Beatrice Atwell.
Ida and the three other women eat the refreshments Carmena has prepared. The first to leave Ida returns to her apartment.
Late that night, around four am the next morning, she awakes with a start as a blast of thunder sounds amid the rain and lightening. Immediately she crawls out of bed and with her cane makes her way into the hall, moves past Carmena Boone’s apartment and onto Beatrice Atwell’s–Ida’s destination at the outset of the story.
Ida lands several desperate knocks on Beatrice’s door to which Beatrice asks, “Who is it?” (p. 227)
“It’s me.”
“Why you always knocking at my door, woman?” Beatrice states from within her apartment then reminds Ida, We ain’t no friends no more, or did you forget that?”
(p. 227)
“Please Bea…Don’t leave me out here. Have some pity.”
“…You lucky.” Beatrice opens the door, and then on closing it, “I was just about ready to go in that bathroom, and you know when I go in there I don’t come out for a soul.” (p. 227)
The two women head for Beatrice’s windowless bathroom, and there they wait out the storm.
This story concerns fear—dread of being with one’s self and also that of being with another who is not afraid to be alone and with God. Ida Garrett, older than the four women, considers herself closer to God than the women. She is dismissive of there prayer meeting they are waiting for minister Sawyer conduct and critical of the minister himself.
At the conclusion of Beatrice’s story she delivers a condescending remark. But it is after the silence has descended for Ida too has been moved. The story reminds her that death resists no man or woman. And thus she is the target of her statement, “…The Lord works in mysterious ways…” “…For good or for bad [He] seeks you out…”
In the week hours of the following morning, when the thundering and lightening of the storm reaches its height—a time when many then and today believe the Almighty is conducting the heart of its craft, that of shaping and reshaping the hearts of women and men—Ida resumes her search for Beatrice, the emissary of her a message that awakens Ida’s fears, brings them to the surface–a person who, unlike Ida was made painfully aware of God’s inimitable omnipresence early in her life. And there, in not being turned away, Ida finds safety and comfort.