The Color Purple - Alice Walker [24]
What I’m gon say? she ast.
Say you living with Sofia husband and her husband say Sofia not being punish enough. Say she laugh at the fool she make of the guards. Say she gitting along just fine where she at. Happy even, long as she don’t have to be no white woman maid.
Gracious God, say Squeak, how I’m gonna tune up my mouth to say all that?
He ast you who you is, make him remember. Tell him how much that quarter he give you meant to you.
That was fifteen years ago, say Squeak, he ain’t gonna remember that.
Make him see the Hodges in you, say Odessa. He’ll remember.
Tell him you just think justice ought to be done, yourself. But make sure he know you living with Sofia husband, say Shug. Make sure you git in the part bout being happy where she at, worse thing could happen to her is to be some white lady maid.
I don’t know, say the prizefighter. This sound mighty much like some ole uncle Tomming to me.
Shug snort, Well, she say, Uncle Tom wasn’t call Uncle for nothing.
DEAR GOD,
Poor little Squeak come home with a limp. Her dress rip. Her hat missing and one of the heels come off her shoe.
What happen? us ast.
He saw the Hodges in me, she say. And he didn’t like it one bit.
Harpo come up the steps from the car. My wife beat up, my woman rape, he say. I ought to go back out there with guns, maybe set fire to the place, burn the crackers up.
Shut up, Harpo, say Squeak. I’m telling it.
And she do.
Say, the minute I walk through the door, he remembered me.
What he say? us ast.
Say, What you want? I say, I come out of the interest I haves in seeing justice is done. What you say you want? he ast again.
I say what yall told me to say. Bout Sofia not being punish enough. Say she happy in prison, strong girl like her. Her main worry is just the thought of ever being some white woman maid. That what start the fight, you know, I say. Mayor’s wife ask Sofia to be her maid. Sofia say she never going to be no white woman’s nothing, let alone maid.
That so? he ast, all the time looking me over real good.
Yessir, I say. Say, prison suit her just fine. Shoot, washing and ironing all day is all she do at home. She got six children, you know.
That a fact? he say.
He come from behind his desk, lean over my chair.
Who your folks? he ast.
I tell him my mama’s name, grandmama’s name. Grandpa’s name.
Who your daddy? he ast. Where you git them eyes?
Ain’t got no daddy, I say.
Come on now, he say. Ain’t I seen you before?
I say, Yessir. And one time bout ten years ago, when I was a little girl, you give me a quarter. I sure did preshate it, I say.
I don’t remember that, he say.
You come by the house with my mama friend, Mr. Jimmy, I say.
Squeak look round at all of us. Then take a deep breath. Mumble.
Say what? ast Odessa.
Yeah, say Shug, if you can’t tell us, who you gon tell, God?
He took my hat off, say Squeak. Told me to undo my dress. She drop her head, put her face in her hands.
My God, say Odessa, and he your uncle.
He say if he was my uncle he wouldn’t do it to me. That be a sin. But this just little fornication. Everybody guilty of that.
She turn her face up to Harpo. Harpo, she say, do you really love me, or just my color?
Harpo say, I love you, Squeak. He kneel down and try to put his arms round her waist.
She stand up. My name Mary Agnes, she say.
DEAR GOD,
6 months after Mary Agnes went to git Sofia out of prison, she begin to sing. First she sing Shug’s songs, then she begin to make up songs her own self.
She got the kind of voice you never think of trying to sing a song. It little, it high, it sort of meowing. But Mary Agnes don’t care.
Pretty soon, us git used to it. Then us like it a whole lot.
Harpo don’t know what to make of it.
It seem funny to me, he say to me and Mr. ____. So sudden. It put me in the mind of a gramaphone. Sit in the corner a year silent as the grave. Then you put a record on, it come to life.
Wonder if she still