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Chapter 13 Summary
Tea Cake's old boss in the railroad stops in Jacksonville promises him a job, so he sends for Janie, who takes the early train in a pretty blue dress, with only a few of the townspeople out yet to bear witness. At Phoeby's advice, she pins two hundred dollars inside her shirt and does not tell Tea Cake about it, just in case. Just off the train, she marries him, and they spend the night together in the room he has rented. The next morning, she sends him out to get some fish before she is ready to get up. A little while later, she rises, finding that the two hundred dollars is gone. Janie waits all day and all night, thinking of the ugly widow Annie Tyler, who took up with all kinds of young boys until she finally left town with Who Flung, a good-for-nothing who took all her money and left her after only two days.
Tea Cake returns at dawn strumming a real guitar. He spins a wild story about having found the two hundred dollars and deciding to see what it was like to be rich. He went out near the railroad shops and threw a party, got in a fight, left, and bought a guitar. Janie complains that she would have liked to have some fun, too, but Tea Cake admits he was worried she would leave him if he brought her around the low railroad workers. He had made up his mind before they were married that he would never let her see any commonness in him. Janie tells him if he ever leaves without her again, she will kill him.
Tea Cake agrees, and then says he might as well tell her that she married one of the best gamblers God ever made. He has twelve dollars left, and he plans to use it to win back her two hundred and then some. Janie figures that no matter what the hypocrites back home might think, Tea Cake is not hurting anyone and has a right to make some money if he wants. All day, he practices throwing dice and cutting cards, and on Saturday, he sets off for the game.
Again, Janie waits through the night. Finally, Tea Cake reappears, but he has been cut in the back with a razor blade. As Janie fixes him up, he tells her he won her money back, plus everything the others had, but one accused him of cheating and cut him. Tea Cake had his knife and defended himself. Seeing Janie's tears, he tells her it is the other guy's wife who ought to be crying, not her. He gives her the money he won—three hundred and twenty-two dollars—and tells her to put her two hundred back in her shirt. Janie decides then to tell her about the twelve hundred she has in the bank, but Tea Cake only tells her to add the two hundred to it—anything she needs, he will provide, and if he cannot provide it, she will not have it. Janie is fine with this. Tea Cake promises her that when he has healed, he is going to take her on a crazy adventure in the Everglades, and as he drifts off to sleep, she feels her soul finally crawling back out from hiding.
Chapter 13 Analysis
This chapter functions to test Janie, who, having risked everything to follow her heart, now finds Tea Cake gone with her two hundred dollars. The figure of Annie Tyler represents the worst-case scenario, and the very real possibility that Janie has made another mistake. Worse than losing her money is the prospect of having her dreams destroyed for the last time by the one man she truly loves. When Tea Cake reappears and then repays her money, Janie agrees to accept him as he is, regardless of what the "hypocrites" back home might think of his gambling. Tea Cake returns the favor by promising to include Janie in everything he does, thus elevating her permanently to the status of his equal. Certain now that she can trust Tea Cake, and believing that she has finally found someone with whom she can share all that life has to offer, Janie's soul begins to heal.
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