The Color Purple - Alice Walker [18]
DEAR GOD,
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. The 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.
DEAR GOD,
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 chitlins, 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 to find out it was you, Shug say with a big grin.
At last I git to see Shug Avery work. I git to watch her. I git to hear her.
Mr. _____ didn’t want me to come. Wives don’t go to places like that, he say.
Yeah, but Celie going, say Shug, while I press her hair. Spose I git sick while I’m singing, she say. Spose my dress come undone? She wearing a skintight red dress look like the straps made out of two pieces of thread.
Mr. _____ mutter, putting on his clothes. My wife can’t do this. My wife can’t do that. No wife of mines... He go on and on.
Shug Avery finally say, Good thing I ain’t your damn wife.
He hush then. All three of us go down to Harpo’s. Mr. _____ and me sit at the same table. Mr. _____ drink whiskey. I have a cold drink.
First Shug sing a song by somebody name Bessie Smith. She say Bessie somebody she know. Old friend. It call A Good Man Is Hard to Find. She look over at Mr. _____ a little when she sing that. I look over at him too. For such a little man, he all puff up. Look like all he can do to stay in his chair. I look at Shug and I feel my heart begin to cramp. It hurt me so, I cover it with my hand. I think I might as well be under