The Color Purple - Alice Walker [8]
Who the father? he ast.
She look surprise. Harpo, she say.
How he know that?
He know. She say.
Young womens no good these days, he say. Got they legs open to every Tom, Dick and Harry.
Harpo look at his daddy like he never seen him before. But he don’t say nothing.
Mr. _____ say, No need to think I’m gon let my boy marry you just cause you in the family way. He young and limited. Pretty gal like you could put anything over on him.
Harpo still don’t say nothing.
Sofia face git more ruddy. The skin move back on her forehead. Her ears raise.
But she laugh. She glance at Harpo sitting there with his head down and his hands tween his knees.
She say, What I need to marry Harpo for? He still living here with you. What food and clothes he git, you buy.
He say, Your daddy done throwed you out. Ready to live in the street I guess.
She say, Naw. I ain’t living in the street. I’m living with my sister and her husband. They say I can live with them for the rest of my life. She stand up, big, strong, healthy girl, and she say, Well, nice visiting. I’m going home.
Harpo get up to come too. She say, Naw, Harpo, you stay here. When you free, me and the baby be waiting.
He sort of hang there between them a while, then he sit down again. I look at her face real quick then, and seem like a shadow go cross it. Then she say to me, Mrs. ____, I’d thank you for a glass of water before I go, if you don’t mind.
The bucket on the shelf right there on the porch. I git a clean glass out the safe and dip her up some water. She drink it down, almost in one swallow. Then she run her hands over her belly again and she take off. Look like the army change direction, and she heading off to catch up.
Harpo never git up from his chair. Him and his daddy sit there and sit there and sit there. They never talk. They never move. Finally I have supper and go to bed. I git up in the morning it feel like they still sitting there. But Harpo be in the outhouse, Mr. _____ be shaving.
DEAR GOD,
Harpo went and brought Sofia and the baby home. They got married in Sofia sister house. Sister’s husband stand up with Harpo. Other sister sneak way from home to stand up with Sofia. Another sister come to hold the baby. Say he cry right through the service, his mama stop everything to nurse him. Finish saying I do with a big ole nursing boy in her arms.
Harpo fix up the little creek house for him and his family. Mr. _____ daddy used it for a shed. But it sound. Got windows now, a porch, back door. Plus it cool and green down by the creek.
He ast me to make some curtains and I make some out of flower sack. It not big, but it homey. Got a bed, a dresser, a looking glass, and some chairs. Cookstove for cooking and heating, too. Harpo daddy give him wages for working now. He say Harpo wasn’t working hard like he should. Maybe little money goose his interest.
Harpo told me, Miss Celie, I’m going on strike.
On what?
I ain’t going to work.
And he don’t. He come to the field, pull two ears of corn, let the birds and weevil eat two hundred. Us don’t make nothing much this year.
But now Sofia coming, he always busy. He chop, he hammer, he plow. He sing and whistle.
Sofia look half her size. But she still a big strong girl. Arms got muscle. Legs, too. She swing that baby about like it nothing. She got a little pot on her now and give you the feeling she all there. Solid. Like if she sit down on something, it be mash.
She tell Harpo, Hold the baby, while she come back in the house with me to git some thread. She making some sheets. He take the baby, give it a kiss, chuck it under the chin. Grin, look up on the porch at his daddy.
Mr. _____ blow smoke, look down at him, and say, Yeah, I see now she going to switch the traces on you.
DEAR GOD,
Harpo want to know what to do to make Sofia mind. He sit out on the porch with Mr. ____. He say, I tell her one thing, she do another. Never do what I say. Always backtalk.
To tell the truth, he sound a little proud of this to me.
Mr. _____ don’t say nothing. Blow smoke.
I tell