sneaking food, or stealing food for her grown children to
pay the child any attention.
So the child watched and listened and practiced read-
ing in secret. She had no mother or father of her own, but
she didn’t belong to these people.
~
The child used to listen to the old man
pontificate
as his
old man friends smoked and argued with him. She used to
bring his newspapers and dust real slow while he exclaimed
out loud to his wife who wouldn’t listen about the world
going to hell in a handbasket because Colored people had
actually started turning out to vote.
He ranted because that W. E. B. Du Bois, “with his
uppity light-skinned self,” wanted Colored people to be
worldly, and that other one, Booker T. Washington, “with
the nerve to have the name of a patriot,” wanted Coloreds
to learn a trade and get paid the same as White men.
The child figured out that what made the old man mad
was that Colored people
wanted
.
~
“It’s about time!” The mistress had composed herself when
the child returned. She was giggly and shy with the red-
haired picture-taking man as the child placed the tray on a
side table and poured tea.
100
