Color Purple, The - Alice Walker [26]
But fifteen minutes later, Marion says, That white lady still out there.
Maybe she going to wait to take you back, say Jack.
Maybe she sick, say Odessa. You always say how sickly they is.
I go out to the car, say Sofia, and guess what the matter is? The matter is, she don't know how to do nothing but go forward, and Jack and Odessa's yard too full of trees for that.
Sofia, she say, How you back this thing up?
I lean over the car window and try to show her which way to move the gears. But she flustered and all the children and Odessa and Jack all standing round the porch watching her.
I go round on the other side. Try to explain with my head poked through that window. She stripping gears aplenty by now. Plus her nose red and she look mad and frustrate both.
I clam in the back seat, lean over the back of the front, steady trying to show her how to operate the gears. Nothing happen. Finally the car stop making any sound. Engine dead.
Don't worry, I say, Odessa's husband Jack will drive you home. That's his pick-up right there.
Oh, she say, I couldn't ride in a pick-up with a strange colored man.
I'll ask Odessa to squeeze in too, I say. That would give me a chance to spend a little time with the 111 children, I thought. But she say, No, I don't know her neither.
So it end up with me and Jack driving her back home in the pick-up, then Jack driving me to town to git a mechanic, and at five o'clock I was driving Miz Millie's car back to her house.
I spent fifteen minutes with my children.
And she been going on for months bout how ungrateful I is.
White folks is a miracle of affliction, say Sofia.
Shug write she got a big surprise, and she intend to bring it home for Christmas.
What it is? us wonder.
Mr.??? think it a car for him. Shug making big money now, dress in furs all the time. Silk and satin too, and hats made out of gold.
Christmas morning us hear this motor outside the door. Us look out.
Hot diggidy dog, say Mr.??? throwing on his pants. He rush to the door. I stand in front the glass trying to make something out my hair. It too short to be long, too long to be short. Too nappy to be kinky, too kinky to be nappy. No set color to it either.
I give up, tie on a headrag.
I hear Shug cry, Oh, Albert. He say, Shug .1know they hugging. Then I don't hear nothing.
I run out the door. Shug, I say, and put out my arms. But before I know anything a skinny big toof man wearing red suspenders is all up in my face. Fore I can wonder whose dog he is, he hugging me.
Miss Celie, he say. Aw, Miss Celie. I heard so much about you. Feel like we old Mends.
Shug standing back with a big grin.
This Grady, she say. This my husband.
The minute she say it I know I don't like Grady. I don't like his shape, I don't like his teef, I don't like his clothes. Seem like to me he smell.
Us been driving all night, she say. Nowhere to stop, you know. But here us is. She come over to Grady and put her arms round him, look up at him like he cute and he lean down and give her a kiss.
I glance round at Mr.???. He look like the end of the world. I know I don't look no better.
And this my wedding present to us, say Shug. The car big and dark blue and say Packard on the front. Brand new, she say. She look at Mr.???, take his arm, give it a little squeeze. While we here, Albert, she say, I want you to learn how to drive. She laugh.
Grady drive like a fool, she say. I thought the polices was gonna catch us for sure.
Finally Shug really seem to notice me. She come over and hug me a long time. Us two married ladies now, she say. Two married ladies.
And hungry, she say. What us got to eat?
Mr.??? drink all through Christmas. Him and Grady. Me and Shug cook, talk, clean the house, talk, fix up the tree, talk, wake up in the morning, talk.
She singing all over the country these days. Everybody know her name. She know everybody, too. Know Sophie Tucker,