The Color Purple - Alice Walker [61]
You smoke it much, Miss Celie? Harpo ast.
Do I look like a fool? I ast. I smoke when I want to talk to God. I smoke when I want to make love. Lately I feel like me and God make love just fine anyhow. Whether I smoke reefer or not.
Miss Celie! say Sofia. Shock.
Girl, I’m bless, I say to Sofia. God know what I mean.
Us sit round the kitchen table and light up. I show ’em how to suck in they wind. Harpo git strangle. Sofia choke.
Pretty soon Sofia say, That funny, I never heard that humming before.
What humming? Harpo ast.
Listen, she say.
Us git real quiet and listen. Sure enough, us hear ummmmmmmm.
What it coming from? ast Sofia. She git up and go look out the door. Nothing there. Sound git louder. Ummmmmmm.
Harpo go look out the window. Nothing out there, he say. Humming say UMMMMMMM.
I think I know what it is, I say.
They say, What?
I say, Everything.
Yeah, they say. That make a lots of sense.
Well, say Harpo at the funeral, here come the amazons.
Her brothers there too, I whisper back. What you call them?
I don’t know, he say. Them three always stood by they crazy sisters. Nothing yet could get ’em to budge. I wonder what they wives have to put up with.
They all march stoutly in, shaking the church, and place Sofia mother in front the pulpit.
Folks crying and fanning and trying to keep a stray eye on they children, but they don’t stare at Sofia and her sisters. They act like this the way it always done. I love folks.
Amen
DEAR NETTIE,
The first thing I notice bout Mr. _____ is how clean he is. His skin shine. His hair brush back.
When he walk by the casket to review Sofia mother’s body he stop, whisper something to her. Pat her shoulder. On his way back to his seat he look over at me. I raise my fan and look off the other way.
Us went back to Harpo’s after the funeral.
I know you won’t believe this, Miss Celie, say Sofia, but Mr. _____ act like he trying to git religion.
Big a devil as he is, I say, trying is bout all he can do.
He don’t go to church or nothing, but he not so quick to judge. He work real hard too.
What? I say. Mr. _____ work!
He sure do. He out there in the field from sunup to sundown. And clean that house just like a woman.
Even cook, say Harpo. And what more, wash the dishes when he finish.
Naw, I say. Yall must still be dope.
But he don’t talk much or be round people, Sofia say.
Sound like craziness closing in to me, I say.
Just then, Mr. _____ walk up.
How you Celie, he say.
Fine, I say. I look in his eyes and I see he feeling scared of me. Well, good, I think. Let him feel what I felt.
Shug didn’t come with you this time? he say.
Naw, I say. She have to work. Sorry bout Sofia mama though.
Anybody be sorry, he say. The woman that brought Sofia in the world brought something.
I don’t say nothing.
They put her away nice, he say.
They sure did, I say.
And so many grandchildren, he say. Well. Twelve children, all busy multiplying. Just the family enough to fill the church.
Yeah, I say. That’s the truth.
How long you here for? he say.
Maybe a week, I say.
You know Harpo and Sofia baby girl real sick? he say.
Naw, I didn’t, I say. I point to Henrietta in the crowd. There she is over there, I say. She look just fine.
Yeah, she look fine, he say, but she got some kind of blood disease. Blood sort of clot up in her veins every once in a while, make her sick as a dog. I don’t think she gon make it, he say.
Great goodness of life, I say.
Yeah, he say. It hard for Sofia. She still have to try to prop up that white gal she raise. Now her mama dead. Her health not that good either. Plus, Henrietta a hard row to hoe whether she sick or well.
Oh, she a little mess, I say. Then I think back to one of Nettie’s letters bout the sicknesses children have where she at in Africa. Seem like to me she mention something bout blood clots. I try to remember what she say African peoples do, but I can’t. Talking to Mr.