Color Purple, The - Alice Walker [21]
Then Squeak start banging on Harpo leg with her shoe.
You git that bitch out a here, she cry, blood and slobber running down her chin.
Harpo and Sofia stand side by side looking down at Squeak, but I don't think they hear her. Harpo still holding Sofia arm. Maybe half a minute go by. Finally he turn loose her arm, reach down and cradle poor little Squeak in his arms. He coo and coo at her like she a baby.
Sofia come over and git the prizefighter. They go out the door and don't look back. Then us hear a car motor start.
Harpo mope. Wipe the counter, light a cigarette, look outdoors, walk up and down. Little Squeak run long all up under him trying to git his tension. Baby this, she say, Baby that. Harpo look through her head, blow smoke.
Squeak come over to the corner where me and Mr.??? at. She got two bright gold teef in the side of her mouth, generally grin all the time. Now she cry. Miss Celie, she say, What the matter with Harpo?
Sofia in jail, I say.
In jail? She look like I say Sofia on the moon.
What she in jail for? she ast.
Sassing the mayor's wife, I say.
Squeak pull up a chair. Look down my throat.
What your real name? I ast her. She say, Mary Agnes.
Make Harpo call you by your real name, I say. Then maybe he see you even when he trouble.
She look at me puzzle. I let it go. I tell her what one of Sofia sister tell me and Mr.???.
Sofia and the prizefighter and all the children got in the prizefighter car and went to town. Clam out on the street looking like somebody. Just then the mayor and his wife come by.
All these children, say the mayor's wife, digging in her pocketbook. Cute as little buttons though, she say. She stop, put her hand on one of the children head. Say, and such strong white teef.
Sofia and the prizefighter don't say nothing. Wait for her to pass. Mayor wait too, stand back and tap his foot, watch her with a little smile. Now Millie, he say. Always going on over colored. Miss Millie finger the children some more, finally look at Sofia and the prizefighter. She look at the prizefighter car. She eye Sofia wristwatch. She say to Sofia, All your children so clean, she say, would you like to work for me, be my maid?
Sofia say, Hell no.
She say, What you say?
Sofia say, Hell no.
Mayor look at Sofia, push his wife out the way. Stick out his chest. Girl, what you say to Miss Millie?
Sofia say, I say, Hell no.
He slap her.
I stop telling it right there.
Squeak on the edge of her seat. She wait. Look down my throat some more.
No need to say no more, Mr.??? say. You know what happen if somebody slap Sofia.
Squeak go white as a sheet. Now, she say.
Naw nothing, I say. Sofia knock the man down.
The polices come, start slinging the children off the mayor, bang they heads together. Sofia really start to fight. They drag her to the ground.
This far as I can go with it, look like. My eyes git full of water and my throat close.
Poor Squeak all scrunch down in her chair, trembling.
They beat Sofia, Mr.??? say.
Squeak fly up like she sprung, run over hind the counter to Harpo, put her arms round him. They hang together a long time, cry.
What the prizefighter do in all this? I ast Sofia sister, Odessa.
He want to jump in, she say. Sofia say No, take the children home.
Polices have they guns on him anyway. One move, he dead. Six of them, you know.
Mr.??? go plead with the sheriff to let us see Sofia. Bub be in so much trouble, look so much like the sheriff, he and Mr.??? almost on family terms. Just long as Mr.??? know he colored.
Sheriff say, She a crazy woman, your boy's wife. You know that?
Mr.??? say, Yassur, us do know it. Been trying to tell Harpo she crazy for twelve years. Since way before they marry. Sofia come from crazy peoples, Mr.??? say, it not all her fault. And then again, the sheriff know how womens is, anyhow.
Sheriff think bout the women he know,