Stella by Starlight

On a chilly October night, eleven-year-old Stella Mills hides behind trees at the pond near her house. Across the pond, a group of nine Ku Klux Klansmen burn a tall cross. Stella recognizes their white robes and hoods. She anxiously hushes noise and questions from her younger brother JoJo, who awakened Stella to see the strange group. As Stella observes the scene, she spots the men’s skittish horses nearby; in the light of the fire, “One of the harnesses seemed to sparkle in the darkness. Or was it just a stray ember from the flames?” (3). When the men begin an intelligible chant, Stella prompts JoJo to flee, and the two run for home.

Stella and JoJo sit at the table with their parents. Papa went to see the Klansmen for himself; now returned, he reprimands Stella and JoJo for leaving the house and asks repeatedly if the men saw them. The children reassure Papa that no one saw them. Mama brings up Billy Odom, and Papa verifies that Mr. Odom’s suspicious lumber mill accident was probably the KKK: “He was gettin’ ready to start his own blacksmith shop. Klan made it clear that weren’t gonna happen” (7).

Stella hesitantly mentions how one horse’s harness glittered in the firelight, and Mama makes the connection: “Doc Packard dresses his horses real fine” (8).