Color Purple, The - Alice Walker [17]
Daddy coming? she ast.
Naw, say Sofia.
How come daddy ain't coming? another one ast.
Daddy need to stay here and take care of the house. Look after Dilsey, Coco and Boo.
The child come stand in front of his daddy and just look at him real good.
You not coming? he say.
Harpo say, Naw.
Child go whisper to the baby crawling round on the floor, Daddy not coming with us, what you think of that.
Baby sit real still, strain real hard, fart.
Us all laugh, but it sad too. Harpo pick it up, finger the daidie, and get her ready for a change.
I don't think she wet, say Sofia. Just gas.
But he change her anyway. Him and the baby over in a corner of the little porch out of the way of traffic. He use the old dry daidie to wipe his eyes.
At the last, he hand Sofia the baby and she sling it up side her hip, sling a sack of daidies and food over her shoulder, corral all the little ones together, tell 'em to Say Good-bye to Daddy. Then she hug me best she can what with the baby and all, and she clam up on the wagon. Every sister just about got a child tween her knees, cept the two driving the mules, and they all quiet as they leave Sofia and Harpo yard and drive on up past the house.
Sofia gone six months, Harpo act like a different man. Used to be a homebody, now all the time in the road.
I ast him what going on. He say, Miss Celie, I done learned a few things.
One thing he learned is that he cute. Another that he smart. Plus, he can make money. He don't say who the teacher is.
I hadn't heard so much hammering since before Sofia left, but every evening after he leave the field, he knocking down and nailing up. Sometime his friend Swain come by to help. The two of them work all into the night. Mr.??? have to call down to tell them to shut up the racket.
What you building? I ast.
Jukejoint, he say.
Way back here?
No further back than any of the others.
I don't know nothing bout no others, only bout the Lucky Star.
Jukejoint sposed to be back in the woods, say Harpo.
Nobody be bothered by the loud music. The dancing. Hie fights.
Swain say, the killings.
Harpo say, and the polices don't know where to look.
What Sofia gon say bout what you doing to her house? I ast. Spose she and the children come back. Where they gon sleep.
They ain't coming back, say Harpo, nailing together planks for a counter.
How you know? I ast.
He don't answer. He keep working, doing every thing with Swain.
The first week, nobody come. Second week, three or four. Third week, one. Harpo sit behind his little counter listening to Swain pick his box.
He got cold drinks, he got barbecue, he 'got chit-lins, got store bought bread. He got a sign saying Harpo's tacked up on the side of the house and another one out on the road. But he ain't got no customers.
I go down the path to the yard, stand outside, look in. Harpo look out and wave.
Come on in, Miss Celie, he say.
I say, Naw thank you.
Mr.??? sometime walk down, have a cold drink, listen to Swain. Miss Shug walk down too, every once in a while. She still wearing her little shifts, and I still cornrow her hair, but it getting long now and she say soon she want it press.
Harpo puzzle by Shug. One reason is she say whatever come to mind, forgit about polite. Sometime I see him staring at her real hard when he don't think I'm looking.
One day he say, Nobody coming way out here just to hear Swain. Wonder could I get the Queen Honeybee?
I don't know, I said. She a lot better now, always humming or singing something. She probably be glad to git back to work. Why don't you ask her?
Shug say his place not much compared to what she used to, but she think maybe she might grace it with a song.
Harpo and Swain got Mr,??? to give 'em some of Shug old announcements from out the trunk. Crossed out The Lucky Star of Coalman Road, put in Harpo's of ___ plantation. Stuck 'em on trees tween the turn off to our road and town. The first Saturday night so many folks come they couldn't git in.
Shug, Shug baby, us thought you was dead.
Five out of a dozen say hello to Shug like that.
And come