The Color Purple - Alice Walker [14]
Old Mr. _____ clear his throat. Well, this my house.
This my land. Your boy Harpo in one of my houses, on my land. Weeds come up on my land, I chop ’em up. Trash blow over it I burn it. He rise to go. Hand me his glass. Next time he come I put a little Shug Avery pee in his glass. See how he like that.
Celie, he say, you have my sympathy. Not many women let they husband whore lay up in they house.
But he not saying to me, he saying it to Mr. _____.
Mr. ____look up at me, our eyes meet. This the closest us ever felt.
He say, Hand Pa his hat, Celie.
And I do. Mr. _____ don’t move from his chair by the railing. I stand in the door. Us watch Old Mr. _____ begin harrumping and harrumping down the road home.
Next one come visit, his brother Tobias. He real fat and tall, look like a big yellow bear. Mr. _____ small like his daddy, his brother stand way taller.
Where she at? he ast, grinning. Where the Queen Honeybee? Got something for her, he say. He put little box of chocolate on the railing.
She sleeping, I say. Didn’t sleep much last night.
How you doing there, Albert, he say, dragging up a chair. He run his hand over his slicked back hair and try to feel if there’s a bugga in his nose. Wipe his hand on his pants. Shake out the crease.
I just heard Shug Avery was here, he say. How long you had her?
Oh, say Mr. _____, couple of months.
Hell, say Tobias, I heard she was dying. That goes to show, don’t it, that you can’t believe everything you hear. He smooth down his mustache, run his tongue out the corners of his lips.
What you know good, Miss Celie? he say.
Not much, I say.
Me and Sofia piecing another quilt together. I got bout five squares pieced, spread out on the table by my knee. My basket full of scraps on the floor.
Always busy, always busy, he say. I wish Margaret was more like you. Save me a bundle of money.
Tobias and his daddy always talk bout money like they still got a lot. Old Mr. _____ been selling off the place so that nothing much left but the houses and the fields. My and Harpo fields bring in more than anybody.
I piece on my square. Look at the colors of the cloth.
Then I hear Tobias chair fall back and he say, Shug.
Shug halfway tween sick and well. Halfway tween good and evil, too. Most days now she show me and Mr. _____ her good side. But evil all over her today. She smile, like a razor opening. Say, Well, well, look who’s here today.
She wearing a little flowery shift I made for her and nothing else. She look bout ten with her hair all cornrowed. She skinny as a bean, and her face full of eyes.
Me and Mr. _____ both look up at her. Both move to help her sit down. She don’t look at him. She pull up a chair next to me.
She pick up a random piece of cloth out the basket. Hold it up to the light. Frown. How you sew this damn thing? she say.
I hand her the square I’m working on, start another one. She sew long crooked stiches, remind me of that little crooked tune she sing.
That real good, for first try, I say. That just fine and dandy. She look at me and snort. Everything I do is fine and dandy to you, Miss Celie, she say. But that’s cause you ain’t got good sense. She laugh. I duck my head.
She got a heap more than Margaret, say Tobias. Margaret take that needle and sew your nostrils together.
All womens not alike, Tobias, she say. Believe it or not.
Oh, I believe it, he say. Just can’t prove it to the world.
First time I think about the world.
What the world got to do with anything, I think. Then I see myself sitting there quilting tween Shug Avery and Mr. ____. Us three set together gainst Tobias and his fly speck box of chocolate. For the first time in my life, I feel just right.
DEAR GOD,
Me and Sofia work on the quilt. Got it frame up on the porch. Shug Avery donate her old yellow dress for scrap, and I work in a piece every chance I get. It a nice pattern call Sister’s Choice. If the quilt turn out perfect, maybe I give it to her, if it not perfect, maybe I keep. I want it for myself, just for the little yellow pieces, look like