The Color Purple - Alice Walker [7]
Harpo complain bout all the plowing he have to do.
His daddy say, You gonna do it.
Harpo nearly big as his daddy. He strong in body but weak in will. He scared.
Me and him out in the field all day. Us sweat, chopping and plowing. I’m roasted coffee bean color now. He black as the inside of a chimney. His eyes be sad and thoughtful. His face begin to look like a woman face.
Why you don’t work no more? he ast his daddy.
No reason for me to. His daddy say. You here, aint you? He say this nasty. Harpos feeling be hurt.
Plus, he still in love.
DEAR GOD,
Harpo girl daddy say Harpo not good enough for her. Harpo been courting the girl a while. He say he sit in the parlor with her, the daddy sit right there in the corner till everybody feel terrible. Then he go sit on the porch in front the open door where he can hear everything. Nine o’clock come, he bring Harpo his hat.
Why I’m not good enough? Harpo ast Mr. ____.
Mr. _____ say, Your mammy.
Harpo say, What wrong with my mammy?
Mr. _____ say, Somebody kill her.
Harpo be trouble with nightmares. He see his mama running cross the pasture trying to git home. Mr. ____, the man they say her boyfriend, catch up with her. She got Harpo by the hand. They both running and running. He grab hold of her shoulder, say, You can’t quit me now. You mine. She say, No I ain’t. My place is with my children. He say, Whore, you ain’t got no place. He shoot her in the stomach. She fall down. The man run. Harpo grab her in his arms, put her head in his lap.
He start to call, Mama, Mama. It wake me up. The other children, too. They cry like they mama just die. Harpo come to, shaking.
I light the lamp and stand over him, patting his back.
It not her fault somebody kill her, he say. It not! It not!
Naw, I say. It not.
Everybody say how good I is to Mr. _____ children. I be good to them. But I don’t feel nothing for them. Patting Harpo back not even like patting a dog. It more like patting another piece of wood. Not a living tree, but a table, a chifferobe. Anyhow, they don’t love me neither, no matter how good I is.
They don’t mind. Cept for Harpo they won’t work. The girls face always to the road. Bub be out all times of night drinking with boys twice his age. They daddy puff on his pipe.
Harpo tell me all his love business now. His mind on Sofia Butler day and night.
She pretty, he tell me. Bright.
Smart?
Naw. Bright skin. She smart too though, I think. Sometime us can git her away from her daddy.
I know right then the next thing I hear, she be big.
If she so smart how come she big? I ast.
Harpo shrug. She can’t git out the house no other way, he say. Mr. _____ won’t let us marry. Say I’m not good enough to come in his parlor. But if she big I got a right to be with her, good enough or no.
Where yall gon stay?
They got a big place, he say. When us marry I’ll be just like one of the family.
Humph, I say. Mr. _____ didn’t like you before she big, he ain’t gonna like you cause she big.
Harpo look trouble.
Talk to Mr. ____, I say. He your daddy. Maybe he got some good advice. Maybe not. I think.
Harpo bring her over to meet his daddy. Mr. _____ say he want to have a look at her. I see ’em coming way off up the road. They be just marching, hand in hand, like going to war. She in front a little. They come up on the porch, I speak and move some chairs closer to the railing. She sit down and start to fan herself with a hansker. It sure is hot, she say. Mr. _____ don’t say nothing. He just look her up and down. She bout seven or eight months pregnant, bout to bust out her dress. Harpo so black he think she bright, but she ain’t that bright. Clear medium brown skin, gleam on it like on good furniture. Hair notty but a lot of it, tied up on her head in a mass of plaits. She not quite as tall as Harpo but much bigger, and strong and ruddy looking, like her mama brought her up on pork.
She say, How you, Mr. _____?
He don’t answer the question. He say, Look like you done got yourself in trouble.
Naw suh, she say. I ain’t in no trouble. Big, though.
She smooth the wrinkles over