One Foot in Eden

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains racist language, as well as descriptions of suicide by self-immolation and death by drowning.

As a child, Isaac goes over to Mrs. Winchester’s house because she gives him candy. When Isaac is nine, Amy finds out about this and makes him promise not to go to Mrs. Winchester’s house anymore. One day, when Isaac is 18, he is alone gathering the rest of the farm’s cabbage just before Carolina Power begins flooding the valley to fill the reservoir. Sheriff Alexander arrives and tells Isaac that Mrs. Winchester is refusing to leave her house until she has spoken to Isaac. Isaac agrees to speak with her. He goes inside to his old room and takes out the Gold Star that Mrs. Winchester once gave him.

Sheriff Alexander drops Isaac off, telling him that he needs to go to his brother’s house. When Isaac enters the house, he sees Mrs. Winchester standing in the middle of the room with an empty can of kerosene. She tells Isaac that she will burn her house to the ground before she lets the lake cover it. Isaac takes her out onto the porch, away from the fumes. He tries to give her the Gold Star, but she tells him that Holland wanted him to have it.