Color Purple, The - Alice Walker [4]
Mr.??? children all bright but they mean. They say Celie, I want dis. Celie, I want dat. Our Mama let us have it. He don't say nothing. They try to get his tention, he hide hind a puff of smoke.
Don't let them run over you, Nettie say. You got to let them know who got the upper hand.
They got it, I say.
But she keep on. You got to fight. You got to fight.
But I don't know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.
That's a real pretty dress you got on, he say to Nettie.
She say, Thank you.
Them shoes look just right.
She say, Thank you.
Your skin. Your hair; Your teefs. Everyday it something else to make miration over.
Fust she smile a little. Then she frown. Then she don't look no special way at all. She just stick close to me. She tell me, Your skin. Your hair, Your teefs. He try to give her a compliment, she pass it on to me. After while I git to feeling pretty cute.
Soon he stop. He say one night in bed, Well, us done help Nettie all we can. Now she got to go.
Where she gon go? I ast.
I don't care, he say.
I tell Nettie the next morning. Stead of being mad, she glad to go. Say she hate to leave me is all. Us fall on each other neck When she say that.
I sure hate to leave you here with these rotten children, she say. Not to mention with Mr.???. It's like seeing you buried, she say.
It's worse than that, I think. If I was buried, I wouldn't have to work. But I just say, Never mine, never mine, long as I can spell G-o-d I got somebody along.
But I only got one thing to give her, the name of Reverend Mr.???. I tell her to ast for his wife. That maybe she would help.
She the only woman I even seen with money.
I say, Write.
She say, What?
I say, Write.
She say, Nothing but death can keep me from it.
She never write.
G-o-d,
Two of his sister come to visit. They dress all up. Celie, they say. One thing is for sure. You keep a clean house. It not nice to speak ill of the dead, one say, but the truth never can beill. Annie Julia was a nasty 'oman bout the house.
She never want to be here in the first place, say the other.
Where she want to be? I ast.
At home. She say.
Well that's no excuse, say the first one, Her name Carrie, other one name Kate. When a woman marry she spose to keep a decent house and a clean family. Why, wasn't nothing to come here in the winter time and all these children have colds, they have flue, they have direar, they have newmonya, they have worms, they have the chill and fever. They hungry. They hair ain't comb. They too nasty to touch.
I touch 'em. Say Kate.
And cook. She wouldn't cook. She act like she never seen a kitchen.
Was a scandal, say Carrie.
He sure was, say Kate.
What you mean? say Carrie.
I mean he just brought her here, dropped her, and kept right on running after Shug Avery. That what I mean. Nobody to talk to, nobody to visit. He be gone for days. Then she start having babies. And she young and pretty.
Not so pretty, say Carrie, looking in the looking glass. Just that head of hair. She too black.
Well, brother must like black. Shug Avery black as my shoe.
Shug Avery, Shug Avery, Carrie say. I'm sick of her. Somebody say she going round trying to sing. Umph, what she got to sing about.
Say she wearing dresses all up her leg and headpieces with little balls and tassles hanging down, look like window dressing.
My ears perk up when they mention Shug Avery. I feel like I want to talk about her my own self. They hush.
I'm sick of her too, say Kate, letting out her breath. And you right about Celie, here. Good housekeeper, good with children, good cook. Brother couldn't have done better if he tried.
I think about how he tried.
This time Kate come by herself. She maybe twenty-five. Old-maid. She look younger than me. Healthy. Eyes bright. Tongue sharp.
Buy Celie some clothes. She say to Mr.???.
She need clothes? he ast.
Well look at her.
He look at me. It