Ursa learns that her father, Martin, worked at a restaurant across the street from the depot, where Mama used to have lunch. Mama was very shy and would not respond to Martin when he asked her about herself. One day, Mama had dinner at the restaurant too, and Martin offered to ride the bus with her. They stopped by his house to get his jacket, and Mama went upstairs with him. After Ursa was conceived, Mama was surprised by her own actions and stopped speaking to Martin. When Martin sent Mama money awhile later, Mama returned the money to him. At his house in Cincinnati, Martin beat Mama, claiming that she used him to get pregnant. In the present, Ursa and Mama begin walking back to the bus station. Mama then describes the brief time that she was married to Martin before he left. Great Gram had begged him to marry Mama, and they lived in the house of the Corregidora women together. While Mama did not talk to Martin about Corregidora much, he could hear Great Gram and Gram remembering their trauma. Mama was not having sex with Martin, and after a fishing trip, Gram caught Martin watching her powder her breasts. Gram and Martin cursed at one another, and Martin started walking outside the house to get to the front room. After their conversation, Ursa gets on the bus and heads back into the city. The third section opens with Ursa remembering the suicide of the Melrose woman and her childhood friend, May Alice. May Alice was older than Ursa and taught Ursa what penises and periods were. In high school, May Alice started having sex with a boy from school, Harold, and became pregnant. After Mama told Ursa not to hang around May Alice anymore, Ursa did not see her until she had her baby and once more before she moved. Mary Alice asked Ursa why she didn't like her any longer and called Ursa a child for not telling her. Then, Ursa remembers how Mama did not like her singing the blues, which led her to move to the city and apply at Happy's. Ursa remembers meeting Mutt at Happy's, sitting with him after her performance and talking about the blues. After this, Ursa and Mutt began talking in Ursa's dressing room, where Ursa learned that Mutt's great-grandfather bought his and his wife's freedom. When his great-grandfather got into debt, they took his wife, and he went crazy. That night, Mutt made a sexual advance, but Ursa turned him down, remembering the Corregidora women.