45 pages • 1 hour read
Trampoline
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Act 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act 4: “Meatspace”
Chapter 10 Summary: “Raccoon Eyes”
Furl, the maintenance worker from Dawn’s high school, lives in a house near the crash site and comes to check on the crash. Hubert says he needs to call the police but admits that no good could come of getting law enforcement involved. While he is inside, Dawn turns Keith’s body over and finds a flask of bourbon on his body. She finishes off the bourbon. Soon, the police arrive at the scene to ask Hubert and Dawn questions. They ask Dawn who was driving, and she stammers before saying that she was. They ask if she has been drinking and she says yes. Hubert interrupts saying she doesn’t know what she is talking about, that he was the one driving. They finish questioning Hubert, then ask to take Dawn to the police station where they finish questioning her.
At the police station, a caseworker asks Dawn questions about Hubert and Momma. After she gets permission to release Dawn for the night, she tells her that she will be getting more information about the case and a likely future court date in the mail. Before leaving, she tells her: “Dawn...you’ve got yourself in a bad place” (196). She asks the woman to call Hubert, not Mamaw to pick her up.
The next morning, Dawn is at Mamaw’s, where she learns that Momma is upstairs sleeping. Momma invites Dawn to go Christmas shopping. Neither women are aware of the accident that occurred the night before. Mamaw doesn’t go shopping with them because she has to meet with the governor.
Momma tells Dawn that Hubert dropped off a wad of money to use for Christmas shopping, and Dawn figures it’s related to the accident. Dawn starts to feel sick, knowing that Keith is dead, and she blurts out that he is gone. She explains to Momma what happened with Hubert, and Momma says: “What is he thinking? He thinking if he can make me miserable with everybody else then I’ll go back with him?” (204). Instead of going shopping, Momma takes Dawn to her sister June’s house where she will be staying for a while.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Fake Marshmallows”
Dawn tries to settle in at Aunt June’s. Aunt June has lined her house with art and posters and trinkets collected from all over. It’s cozy and feels like home, a far cry from the filthy, crowded chaos she is accustomed to back in Canard. June makes her hot chocolate, and Dawn’s anger starts to boil over until June hugs her, and Dawn calms down. Dawn asks what Kingsport is like, recalling that she has heard good things from many people. In addition, it is also the town where Willett lives.
June gets ready for a party and invites Dawn along, telling her that people at the party will be excited to hear about her anti-coal work with Mamaw. She sprays glitter on her face, and Dawn lets her put some on her own face as well. June tells her Willett Bilson may be at the party.
June drives them to a party filled with hippies, artists, and professors. June wanders away, and an older man hit on Dawn. Dawn refuses to answer his questions but lets him get her a drink. He repeatedly asks her if she has a man, and Dawn keeps hoping Willett Bilson will show up, even though she isn’t sure she could call Willett her man.
Dawn tries to figure out what to do, when Decent Ferguson comes up behind her and takes her away, dumping out the drink as they walk. She takes her to her truck and pours her a new drink. Dawn and Decent talk about the accident, and how Momma is doing. Momma apparently tried to run Hubert over with her truck. Kenny Bilson, Willett’s brother who interviewed Dawn, sees her and tells her Willett won’t be there tonight. He says that Willett keeps talking about Dawn and listening to that interview over and over. He asks if there is any news on the petition, and Dawn says there are no updates. He says that if it goes through, Dawn will become a legend, like Mamaw is already, having started protesting mining even before there were federal restrictions in place.
The group splits up inside the party, and Dawn finds a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She takes them both and slips out the door. She slips outside and sits on a log. She looks over the meadow and imagines her life here with these people, living in their state of hope. June finds Dawn outside, and they talk about the chaos of Kentucky compared to the life of peace June created in Kingsport. June thinks Dawn needs to get away to grow into the person she is meant to be—to be someone who does something amazing. Dawn isn’t sure she wants that pressure. She decides she needs to return to Kentucky. She sees Decent and asks her to drop her at Mamaw’s house. On the way home, she thinks about the people and Kentucky and how they make it home. She thinks about the coal miners and knows that they are trying to protect their home in a different way than she is.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Mudhole”
When Dawn arrives at Mamaw’s, Mamaw isn’t breathing. Dawn takes her out to her car and starts to drive to the hospital. The car gets stuck in the mud on the way. A group of Keith Kelly’s friends and his sister, Blondie Kelly, surround the car and harass Dawn. Dawn tries to explain that Mamaw is dying, but they refuse to help her because Keith is already dead. A man named Johnny Ray approaches the group. He works for the coal companies and was coming up to Mamaw’s to talk to her about how the coal petition will impact their work and lives. He hooks up chains to the car and tries to get it out of the mud then drives Mamaw to the hospital. Keith’s sister tries to fight Dawn again, but Dawn explains that it was an accident, and no one was trying to kill anyone, though Keith was driving recklessly. His friends seem to agree, and Blondie lets go and asks Dawn to pray with her. They drive Dawn to the emergency room.
Dawn finds Mamaw in her room. Momma is there, as well as Hubert, having already been at the hospital when Mamaw arrived because she fell off the roof as she was trying to drop a cinder block on Hubert’s head. Momma and Hubert leave, and Mamaw tells Dawn she needs to go back to Kingsport to be with June. Dawn says she wants to help with Blue Bear Mountain, but Mamaw says someone needs to take care of June and that she would call her if any she needs her to help. Dawn asks Evie to drive her to Kingsport.
While waiting for Evie, Dawn sees Hubert’s car. Hubert is asleep in the front seat, but Momma is about to snort a line of white powder off the dashboard. Dawn backs away before Momma sees her. Evie picks her up and drives her to Willett’s house in Kingsport. When he comes to the door, he does not look how he does in the pictures he sent Dawn, instead he is chubby and unkempt. Dawn is shocked and disappointed and calls him a fake before running out the door. She leaves Willett’s neighborhood and heads to June’s. She tells June what happened, and she is sympathetic and gives Dawn supper.
Dawn is in bed cutting out magazine pictures to use in a collage. June joins her and asks her more about Willett. She tells him he is a good boy from a good family and that Dawn should think about what she really wants before dismissing him completely. Dawn thinks that she wants more than a good boy. She wants stability and resents him for starting out on a lie. Later, she looks at one of the pictures he sent and sees him off to the side, realizing that he wasn’t trying to deceive her.
Act 4 Analysis
Tension mounts both in Canard County, where Mamaw keeps pushing her anti-coal petition, as well as in Tennessee, where Dawn envisions a brighter future for herself. In Act 4, Dawn finds herself at a crossroads: should she stay in Canard County, where she can continue to fight for Blue Bear Mountain and also protect her family, or should she escape to Tennessee to live with June. Dawn knows Kingsport would be a better place for her growth, but she also feels loyal to Kentucky. Moreover, she isn’t sure she fits in with the hippies.
While Dawn must decide whether to save herself or her community, Canard County faces a similar predicament: should they close the coal mines to protect a beloved mountain, or maintain the mine to preserve the economic stability of the residents? It’s a nuanced, complex issue with no clear answer. At only 15 years old, Dawn possesses a maturity that allows her to see the coal miners as more than just as her enemies, but as people trying to protect their life and the place they love, just like she is. She knows that both sides essentially have the same hope, as impossible as it may seem. In this case, one group’s success means another group’s pain. As Dawn comes of age, she learns there is no easy path or decision free of unpleasant ramifications for herself and others, regardless of obvious positive benefits.
At the same time, there is more to Canard County and its residents than tension and fighting. In a small community like Dawn’s, your enemy is also often your best friend or your family member. We have already seen how many of Dawn’s relatives work for coal companies, but in Chapter 12 Johnny Ray, a coal company employee who tries to meet with Mamaw, ends up driving her to the hospital. Mamaw and Johnny should be enemies, but Johnny represents that at the end of the day, they are all part of the same big community and have a responsibility to look after one another.
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