THE COLOR PURPLE
ALICE WALKER
PUBLISHED BY POCKET BOOKS NEW YORK
i POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230
Avenue of the Americas, New York, N. Y. 10020
Copyright © 1982 by Alice Walker Cover art courtesy Warner
Bros.
Published by arrangement with Harcourt Brace Jbvanovich
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 81-48242
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
portions thereof in any form whatsoever. fatinformation address
Harcourt Brace Jbvanovich Inc.,
1250 Sixth Avenue , San Diego , Cal. 92101
ISBN: 0-671-61702-8
First Pocket Books mass-market printing December, 1985
10 9 8 7 6
POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon. &
Schuster, Inc.
Printed in the U.S.A.
ii To the Spirit:
Without whose assistance
Neither this book
Nor I
Would have been Written.
iii Show me how to do like you Show me how to do it.
?Stevie Wonder
1 You better not never tell nobody but God. Ifd killyour. mammy.
Dear God,
I am fourteen years old. I-aa I have always been a good girl.
Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is
happening to
me.
Last spring after little Lucious come I heard them fussing. He
was pulling on her arm. She say It too soon, Fonso, I ain't well.
Finally he leave her alone. A week go by, he pulling on her arm
again. She say Naw, I ain't gonna. Can't you see I'm already half
dead, an all of these children.
She went to visit her sister doctor over Macon. Left me to see
after the others. He never had a kine word to say to.me. Just
say
You gonna do what your mammy wouldn't. First he put his thing
up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold
my titties. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. When that
2 hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and
git used to it.
But I don't never git used to it. And now I feels sick every time I
be the one to cook. My mama she fuss at me an look at me.
She
happy, cause he good to her now. But too sick to last long.
3
My mama dead. She die screaming and cussing. She scream
at me. She cuss at me. I'm big. I can't move fast enough. By
time I git
back from the well, the water be warm. By time I git the tray
ready the food be cold. By time I git all the children ready for
school it be dinner time. He don't say nothing. He set there by
the bed holding her hand an cryin, talking bout don't leave me,
don't go.
She ast me bout the first one Whose it is? I say God's. I don't
know no other man or what else to say. When I start to hurt and
then my stomach start moving and then that little baby come out
my pussy chewing on it fist you could have knock me over with
a feather.
Don't nobody come see us.
She got sicker an sicker.
Finally she ast Where it is?
I say God took it.
He took it. He took it while I was sleeping. Kilt it out there in the
woods. Kill this one too, if he can.
4
He act like he can*t stand me no more. Say I'm evil an always
up to no good. He took my other little baby, a boy this time. But
I don't think he kilt it. I think he sold it to a man an his wife over
Monticello. I got breasts full of milk running down myself.
He say Why don't you look decent? Put on something. But what
I'm sposed to put on? I don't have nothing.
I keep hoping he fine somebody to marry. I see him looking at
my little sister. She scared. But I say I'll take care of you. With
God help.
5
He come home with a girl from round Gray. She be my age but
they married. He be on her all the time. She walk round like she
don't
know what hit her. I think she thought she love him. But he got so
many of us. All needing somethin.
My little sister Nettie is got a boyfriend in the same shape
almost as Pa. His wife died. She was kilt by her boyfriend
coming
home from church. He got only three children though. He seen
Nettie in church and now every Sunday evening here come Mr.
???.
I tell Nettie to keep at her books. It be more then a notion taking
care of children ain't even yourn. And look what happen to
Ma.
6
He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church. I
may have got somethin in my eye but I didn't wink. I don't even
look
at mens. That's the truth. I look at women, tho, cause I'm not
scared of them. Maybe cause my mama cuss me you think I
kept mad
at her. But I ain't. I felt sorry for mama. Trying to believe bis story
kilt her.
Sometime he still be looking at Nettie, but I always git in his
light. Now I tell her to marry Mr. ??,? I don't tell her why.
I say Marry him, Nettie, an try to have one good year out your
life. After that, I know she be big.
But me, never again. A girl at church say you git big if you bleed
every month. I don't bleed no more.
7
Mr. ??? finally come right out an ast for Nettie hand in marriage.
But He won't let her go. He say she too young, no experience.
Say Mr. ?:?? got too many children already. Plus What about
the scandal his wife cause when somebody kill her? And what
about
all this stuff he hear bout Shug Avery? What bout that?
I ast our new mammy bout Shug Avery, What it is? I ast. She
don't know but she say she gon fine out.
She do more then that. She git a picture. The first one of a real
person I ever seen. She say Mr. ???was taking somethin out his
billfold to show Pa an it fell out an slid under the table. Shug
Avery was a woman. The most beautiful woman I ever saw. She
more
pretty then my mama. She bout ten thousand times more
prettier then me. I see her there in furs. Her face rouge. Her hair
like
somethin tail. She grinning with her foot up on somebody
motocar. Her eyes serious tho. Sad some.
I ast her to give me the picture. An all night long I stare at it. An
now when I dream, I dream of Shug Avery. She be dress to
kill, whirling and laughing.
8
I ast him to take me instead of Nettie while our new mammy
sick. But he just ast me what I'm talking bout. I tell him I can fix
myself up for him. I duck into my room and come out wearing
horsehair, feathers, and a pair of our new mammy high heel
shoes.
He beat me for dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway.
Mr. ??? come that evening. I'm in the bed crying. Nettie she
finally see the light of day, clear. Our new mammy she see it too.
She in her room crying. Nettie tend to first one, then the other.
She so scared she. go out doors and vomit. But not out front
where the two mens is.
Mr. ??? say, Well Sir, I sure hope you done change your mind.
He say, Naw, Can't say I is.
Mr. ??? say, Well, you know, my poor little ones sure could use
a mother.
Well, He say, real slow, I can't let you have Nettie. She too
young. Don't know nothing but what you tell her. Sides, I want
her
to git some more schooling. Make a schoolteacher out of her.
But I can let you have
9 Celie. She the oldest anyway. She ought to marry first. She
ain't fresh tho, but I spect you know that. She spoiled. Twice. But
you don't need a fresh woman no how. I got a fresh one in there
myself and she sick all the time. He spit, over the railing. The
children git on her nerve, she not much of a cook. And she big
already.
Mr. ??? he don't say nothing. I stop crying I'm so surprise.
She ugly. He say. But she ain't no stranger to hard work. And
she clean. And God done fixed her. You can do everything just
like
you want to and she ain't gonna make you feed it or clothe it.
Mr. ??? still don't say nothing. I take out the picture of Shug
Avery. I look into her eyes. Her eyes say Yeah, it beesthat way
sometime.
Fact is, he say, I got to git rid of her. She too old to be living
here at home. And she a bad influence on my other girls. She'd
come with her own linen. She can take that cow she raise down
there back of the crib. But Nettie you flat out can't have. Not
now. Not never.
Mr. ??? finally speak. Clearing his throat. I ain't never really look
at that one, he say.
Well, next time you come you can look at her. She ugly. Don't
even look like she kin to Nettie. But she'll make the better wife.
She ain't smart either, and I'll just be fair, you have to watch her
or she'll give away everything you own. But she can work
like a man.
Mr. ??? say How old she is? <
He say, She near twenty. And another tning?She tell lies.
10
It took him the whole spring, from March to June, to make up his
mind to take me. All I thought about was Nettie. How she could
come to me if I marry him and he be so love struck with her I
could figure out a way for us to run away. Us both be hitting
Nettie's
school-books pretty hard, cause us know we got to be smart to
git away. I know I'm not as pretty or as smart as Nettie, but
shesay
I ain't dumb.
The way you know who discover America, Nettie say, is think
bout cucumbers. That what Columbus sound like. I learned all
about
Columbus in first grade, but look like he the first thing I forgot.
She say Columbus come here in boats call the Neater, the
Peter,
and the Santomareater. Indians so nice to him he force a bunch
of 'em back home with him to wait on the queen.
But it hard to think with gitting married to Mr. ??? hanging over
my head.
The first time I got big Pa took me out of school. He never care
that I love it. Nettie stood there at the gate holding tight to
my hand. I was all dress for first day.
11 You too dumb to keep going to school, Pa say. Nettie the
clever one in this bunch.
But Pa, Nettie say, crying, Celie smart too. Even Miss Beasley
say so. Nettie dote on Miss Beasley. Think nobody like her in
the
world.
Pa say, Whoever listen to anything Addie Beasley have to say.
She run off at the mouth so much no man would have her. That
how
come she have to teach school. He never look up from cleaning
his gun. Pretty soon a bunch of white mens come walking cross
the
yard. They h'ave guns too.
Pa git up and follow 'em. The rest of the week I vomit and dress
wild game.
But Nettie never give up. Next thing I know Miss Beasley at our
house trying to talk to Pa. She say long as she been a teacher
she never know nobody want to learn bad as Nettie and me. But
when Pa call me out and she see how tight my dress is, she
stop
talking and go.
Nettie still don't understand. I don't neither. All us notice is I'm all
the time sick and fat.
I feel bad sometime Nettie done pass me in learnin. But look
like nothing she say can git in my brain and stay. She try to tell
me something bout the ground not being flat. I just say, Yeah,
tike I know it. I never tell her how flat it look to me.
Mr. ??? come finally one day looking all drug out. The woman
he had helping him done quit. His mammy done said No More.
He say, Let me see her again.
Pa call me. Celie,he say. Like it wasn't nothing. Mr. ___ want
another look at you.
I go stand in the door. The sun shine in my eyes. He's still up on
his horse. He look me up and down.
12 Pa rattle his newspaper. Move up, he won't bite, he say.
I go closer to the steps, but not too close cause I'm a little
scared of his horse.
Turn round, Pa say.
I turn round. One of my little brothers come up. I think it was
Lucious. He fat and playful, all the time munching on something.
He say, What you doing that for?
Pa say, Your sister thinking bout marriage.
Didn't mean nothing to him. He pull my dresstail and ast can he
have some blackberry jam out the safe.
I say, Yeah.
She good with children, Pa say, rattling his paper open more.
Never heard her say a hard word to nary one of them. Just give
'em
everything they ast for, is the only problem.
Mr. ?,?? say, That cow still coming?
He say, Her cow.
13
I spend my wedding day running from the oldest boy. He twelve.
His mama died in his arms and he don't want to hear nothing
bout
no new one. He pick up a rock and laid my head open. The
blood run all down tween my breasts. His daddy say Don't
dothat! But
that's all he say. He got four children, instead of three, two boys
and two girls. The girls hair ain't been comb since their
mammy died. I tell him I'll just have to shave it off. Start fresh. He
say bad hick to cut a woman hair. So after I bandage my
head best I can and cook dinner?they have a spring, not a well,
and a wood stove look like a truck?I start trying to untangle
hair. They only six and eight and they cry. They scream. They
cuse me of murder. By ten o'clock I'm done. They cry theirselves
to sleep. But I don't cry. I lay there thinking bout Nettie while he
on top of me, wonder if she safe. And then I think bout Shug
Avery. I know what he doing to me he done to Shug Avery and
maybe she like it. I put my arm around him.
14
I was in town sitting on the wagon while Mr. ???was in the dry
good store. I seen my baby girl. I knowed it was her. She look
just
like me and my daddy. Like more us then us is ourself. She be
tagging long hind a lady and they be dress just alike. They pass
the wagon and I speak. The lady speak pleasant. My little girl
she look up and sort of frown. She fretting over something. She
got my eyes just like they is today. Like everything I seen, she
seen, and she pondering it.
I think she mine. My heart say she mine. But I don't know she
mine. If she mine, her name Olivia. I embroder Olivia in the seat
of all her daidies. I embrody lot of little stars and flowers too. He
took the daidies when he took her. She was bout two month,
old. Now she bout six.
I clam down from the wagon and I follow Olivia and her new
mammy into a store. I watch her run her hand long side the
counter,
like she ain't interested in nothing. Her ma is buying cloth. She
say Don't touch nothing/ Olivia yawn.
15 That real pretty, I say, and help her mama drape a piece of
cloth close to her face.
She smile. Gonna make me an my girl some new dresses, she
say. Her daddy be so proud.
Who her daddy, I blurt out. It like at lastsomebody know.
She say Mr. ???. But that ain't my daddy name.
Mr. ___? I say. Who he?
She look like I ast something none of my bidniss.
The ReverendMr. ???, she say, then turn her face to the clerk.
He say, Girl you want that cloth or not? We got other customers
sides you.
She say, Yes sir. I want five yards, please sir.
He snatch the cloth and thump down the bolt. He don't measure.
When he think he got five yard he tare it off. That be a dollar
and thirty cent, he say. You need thread?
She say, Naw suh.
He say, You can't sew thout thread. He pick up a spool and hold
it against the cloth. That look like it bout the right color. Don't
you think.
She say, Yessuh.
He start to whistle. Take two dollars. Give her a quarter back.
He look at me. You want something gal? I say, Naw Suh.
I trail long behind them on the street.
I don't have nothing to offer and I feels poor.
She look up and down the street. He ain't here. He ain't here.
She say like she gon cry.
Who ain't? I ast.
The Reverend Mr. ???, she say. He took the wagon.
My husband wagon right here, I say.
She clam up. I thank you kindly, she say. Us sit looking at all the
folks that's come to town. I never seen
16 so many even at church. Some be dress too. Some don't hit
on much. Dust git all up the ladies dress.
She ast me Who is my husband, now I know all bout hers. She
laugh a little. I say Mr. ???. She say, Sure nuff? Like she know
all
about him. Just didn't know he was married. He a fine looking
man, she say. Not a finer looking one in the county. White or
black,
she say.
He do look all right, I say. But I don't think about it while I say it.
Most times mens look pretty much alike to me.
How long you had your little girl? I ast.
Oh, she be seven her next birthday.
When that? I ast.
She think back. Then she say, December.
I think, November.
I say, real easy, What you call her?
She say, oh, we calls her Pauline.
My heart knock.
Then she frown. But / calls her Olivia.
Why you call her Olivia if it ain't her name? I ast.
Well, just look at her, she say sort of impish, turning to look at
the child, don't she look like a Olivia to you? Look at her
eyes, for god's sake. Somebody ole would have eyes like that.
So I call her oleLivia. She chuckle. Naw. Olivia, she say, patting
the child hair. Well, here come the Reverend Mr. ???, she say. I
see a wagon and a great big man in black holding a whip. We
sure
do thank you for your hospitality. She laugh again, look at 'the
horses flicking flies off they rump, /forsepitality, she say.
And I git it and laugh. It feel like to split my face.
Mr. ???, come out the store. Clam up in the wagon. Set down.
Say real slow. What you setting here laughing like a fool fer?
17
Nettie here with us. She run way from home. She say she hate
to leave our stepma, but she had to git out, maybe fine help for
the
other little ones. The boys be alright, she say. They can stay out
his way. When they git big they gon fight him.
Maybe kill, I say.
How is it with you and Mr. ???? she ast. But she got eyes. He
still like her. In the evening he come out on the porch in his
Sunday
best. She be sitting there with me shelling peas or helping the
children with they spelling. Helping me with spelling and
everything
else she think I need to know. No matter what happen, Nettie
steady try to teach me what go on in the world. And she a good
teacher
too. It nearly kill me to think she might marry somebody like Mr.
??? or wind up in some white lady kitchen. All day she read,
she study, she practice her handwriting, and try to git us to think.
Most days I feel too tired to think. But Patient her middle
name.
Mr. ??? children all bright but they mean. They say Celie, I want
dis. Celie, I want dat. Our Mama let
18 us have it. He don't say nothing. They try to get his tention, he
hide hind a puff of smoke.
Don't let them run over you, Nettie say. You got to let them know
who got the upper hand.
They got it, I say.
But she keep on. You got to fight. You got to fight.
But I don't know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.
That's a real pretty dress you got on, he say to Nettie.
She say, Thank you.
Them shoes look just right.
She say, Thank you.
Your skin. Your hair; Your teefs. Everyday it something else to
make miration over.
Fust she smile a little. Then she frown. Then she don't look no
special way at all. She just stick close to me. She tell me, Your
skin. Your hair, Your teefs. He try to give her a compliment, she
pass it on to me. After while I git to feeling pretty cute.
Soon he stop. He say one night in bed, Well, us done help
Nettie all we can. Now she got to go.
Where she gon go? I ast.
I don't care, he say.
I tell Nettie the next morning. Stead of being mad, she glad to
go. Say she hate to leave me is all. Us fall on each other neck
When she say that.
I sure hate to leave you here with these rotten children, she say.
Not to mention with Mr. ???. It's like seeing you buried, she
say.
It's worse than that, I think. If I was buried, I wouldn't have to
work. But I just say, Never mine, never mine, long as I can
spell G-o-d I got somebody along.
19 But I only got one thing to give her, the name of Reverend Mr.
???. I tell her to ast for his wife. That maybe she would help.
She the only woman I even seen with money.
I say, Write.
She say, What?
I say, Write.
She say, Nothing but death can keep me from it.
She never write.
20 G-o-d,
Two of his sister come to visit. They dress all up. Celie, they
say. One thing is for sure. You keep a clean house. It not nice
to speak ill of the dead, one say, but the truth never can beill.
Annie Julia was a nasty 'oman bout the house.
She never want to be here in the first place, say the other.
Where she want to be? I ast.
At home. She say.
Well that's no excuse, say the first one, Her name Carrie, other
one name Kate. When a woman marry she spose to keep a
decent house
and a clean family. Why, wasn't nothing to come here in the
winter time and all these children have colds, they have flue,
they
have direar, they have newmonya, they have worms, they have
the chill and fever. They hungry. They hair ain't comb. They too
nasty
to touch.
I touch 'em. Say Kate.
And cook. She wouldn't cook. She act like she never seen a
kitchen.
21 Was a scandal, say Carrie.
He sure was, say Kate.
What you mean? say Carrie.
I mean he just brought her here, dropped her, and kept right on
running after Shug Avery. That what I mean. Nobody to talk to,
nobody to visit. He be gone for days. Then she start having
babies. And she young and pretty.
Not so pretty, say Carrie, looking in the looking glass. Just that
head of hair. She too black.
Well, brother must like black. Shug Avery black as my shoe.
Shug Avery, Shug Avery, Carrie say. I'm sick of her. Somebody
say she going round trying to sing. Umph, what she got to sing
about.
Say she wearing dresses all up her leg and headpieces with
little balls and tassles hanging down, look like window dressing.
My ears perk up when they mention Shug Avery. I feel like I want
to talk about her my own self. They hush.
I'm sick of her too, say Kate, letting out her breath. And you right
about Celie, here. Good housekeeper, good with children, good
cook. Brother couldn't have done better if he tried.
I think about how he tried.
This time Kate come by herself. She maybe twenty-five. Oldmaid. She look younger than me. Healthy. Eyes bright. Tongue
sharp.
Buy Celie some clothes. She say to Mr. ???.
She need clothes? he ast.
Well look at her.
He look at me. It like he looking at the earth. It need somethin?
his eyes say.
She go with me in the store. I think what color Shug 21
22 Avery would wear. She like a queen to me so I say to Kate,
Somethin purple, maybe little red in it too. But us look an look
and no purple. Plenty red but she say, Naw, he won't want to pay
for red. Too happy lookin. We got choice of brown, maroon or
navy blue. I say blue.
I can't remember being the first one in my own dress. Now to
have one made just for me. I try to tell Kate what it mean. I git
hot in the face and stutter.
She say. It's all right, Celie. You deserve more than this.
Maybe so. I think.
Harpo, she say. Harpo the oldest boy. Harpo, don't let Celie be
the one bring in all the water. You a big boy now. Time for you
to help out some.
Women work, he say.
What? she say.
Women work. I'm a man.
You're a trifling nigger, she say. You git that bucket and bring it
back full.
He cut his eye at me. Stumble out. I hear him mutter somethin to
Mr. ??? sitting on the porch. Mr. ??? call his sister. She stay
out on the porch talking a little while, then she come back in,
shaking.
Got to go, Celie, she say.
She so mad tears be flying every which way while she pack.
You got to fight them, Celie, she say. I can't do it for you. You got
to fight them for yourself.
I don't say nothing. I think bout Nettie, dead. She fight, she run
away. What good it do? I don't fight, I stay where I'm told.
But I'm alive.
23
Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr. ___ say, Cause she
my wife. Plus, she stubborn. All women good for?he don't finish.
He
just tuck his chin over the paper like he do. Remind me of Pa.
Harpo ast me, How come you stubborn? He don't ast How
come you his wife? Nobody ast that.
I say, Just bom that way, I reckon.
He beat me like he beat the children. Cept he don't never hardly
beat them. He say, Celie, git the belt. The children be outside
the room peeking through the cracks. It all I can do not to cry. I
make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That's
how come I know trees fear man.
Harpo say, I love Somebody.
I say, Huh?
He say, A Girl.
I say, You do?
He say, Yeah. Us plan to marry.
Marry, I say. You not old enough to marry.
I is, he say. I'm seventeen. She fifteen. Old enough.
24 What her mama say, I ast.
Ain't talk to her mama.
What her daddy say?
Ain't talk to him neither.
Well, what shesay?
Us ain't never spoke. He duck his head. He ain't so bad
looking. Tall and skinny, black like his mama, with great big bug
eyes.
Where yall see each other? I ast. I see her in church, he say.
She see me outdoors.
She like you?
I don't know. I wink at her. She act like she scared to look.
Where her daddy at while all this going on?
Amen corner, he say.
25
Shug Avery is coming to town! She coming with her orkestra.
She going to sing in the Lucky Star out on Coalman road. Mr. ?
?? going
to hear her. He dress all up in front the glass, look at himself,
then undress and dress all over again. He slick back his hair
with pomade, then wash it out again. He been spitting on his
shoes and hitting it with a quick rag.
He tell me, Wash this. Iron that. Look for this. Look for that. Find
this. Find that. He groan over holes in his sock.
I move round darning and ironing, finding hanskers. Anything
happening? I ast.
What you mean? he say, like he mad. Just trying to git some of
the hick farmer off myself. Any other woman be glad.
I'm is glad, I say.
What you mean? he ast.
You looks nice, I say. Any woman be proud.
You think so? he say.
First time he ast me. I'm so surprise, by time I say 25
26 Yeah, he out on the porch, trying to shave where the light
better.
I walk round all day with the announcement burning a hole in my
pocket. It pink. The trees tween the turn off to our road and the
store is lit up with them. He got bout five dozen in his trunk.
Shug Avery standing upside a piano, elbow crook, hand on her
hip. She wearing a hat like Indian Chiefs. Her mouth open
showing
all her teef and don't nothing seem to be troubling her mind.
Come one, come all, it say. The Queen Honeybee is back in
town.
Lord, I wants to go so bad. Not to dance. Not to drink. Not to
play card. Not even to hear Shug Avery sing. I just be thankful
to lay eyes on her.
27
Mr. ??? be gone all night Saturday, all night Sunday and most all
day Monday. Shug Avery in town for the week-end. He stagger
in,
throw himself on the bed. He tired. He sad. He weak. He cry.
Then he sleep the rest of the day and all night.
He wake up while I'm in the field. I been chopping cotton three
hours by time he come. Us don't say nothing to each other.
But I got a million question to ast. What she wear? Is she still the
same old Shug, like in my picture? How her hair is? What kind
lipstick? Wig? She stout? She skinny? She sound well? Tired?
Sick? Where you all children at while she singing all over the
place?
Do she miss 'em? Questions be running back and forth through
my mind. Peel like snakes. I pray for strength, bite the insides
of my jaws.
Mr. ??? pick up a hoe and start to chop. He chop bout three
chops then he don't chop again. He drop the hoe in the furrow,
turn
right back on his heel, walk back to the house, go git him a cool
drink of Water, git
28 his pipe, sit on the porch and stare. I follow cause I think he
sick. Then he say, You better git on back to the field. Don't
wait for me.
28
29
Harpo no better at fighting his daddy back than me. Every day
his daddy git up, sit on the porch, look out at nothing. Sometime
look at the trees out front the house. Look at a butterfly if it light
on the rail. Drink a little water in the day. A little
wine in the evening. But mostly never move.
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, ain't you? He say
this nasty. Harpos feeling be hurt.
Plus, he still in love.
30
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.
31 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.
32 Humph, I say. Mr. ??? didn't like you before she big, he ain't
gonna like you causeshe 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. Gear 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 her stomach with the flats of her
hands.
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.
33 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 1 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 catchup.
34 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.
34
35
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 hi 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.
36 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.
37
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 her she can't be all the time going to visit her sister. Us
married now, I tell her. Your place is here with the children.
She say, Til take the children with me. I say, Your place is with
me. She say, You want to come? She keep primping in front of
the glass, getting the children ready at the same time.
You ever hit her? Mr. ??? ast.
Harpo look down at his hands. Naw sub, he say low,
embarrass.
Well how you spect to make her mind? Wives is like children.
You have to let 'em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can
do that
better than a good sound beating.
He puff on bis pipe.
38 Sofia think too much of herself anyway, he say. She need to
be taken down a peg.
I like Sofia, but she don't act like me at all. If she talking when
Harpo and Mr. ??? come in the room, she keep right on. If they
ast her where something at, she say she don't know. Keep
talking.
I think bout this when Harpo ast me what he ought to do to her to
make her mind. I don't mention how happy he is now. How three
years pass and he still whistle and sing. I think bout how every
time I jump when Mr. _??? call me, she look surprise. And like
she pity me.
Beat her. I say.
Next time us see Harpo his face a mess of bruises. His lip cut.
One of his eyes shut like a fist. He walk stiff and say his teef
ache.
I say, What happen to you, Harpo?
He say, Oh, me and that mule. She fractious, you know. She
went crazy in the field the other day. By time I got her to head for
home I was all banged up. Then when I got home, I walked
smack dab into the crib door. Hit my eye and scratch my chin.
Then when
that storm come up last night I shet the window down on my
hand.
Well, I say, After all that, I don't spect you had a chance to see if
you could make Sofia mind.
Nome, he say.
But he keep trying.
39
Just when I was bout to call out that I was coming in the yard, I
hear something crash. It come from inside the house, so I run
up on the porch. The two children be making mud pies on the
edge of the creek, they don't even look up.
I open the door cautious, thinking bout robbers and murderers.
Horsethieves and hants. But it Harpo and Sofia. They fighting
like
two mens. Every piece of furniture they got is turned over. Every
plate look like it broke. The looking glass hang crooked, the
curtains torn. The bed look like the stuffing pulled out. They dont
notice. They fight. He try to slap her. What he do that for?
She reach down and grab a piece of stove wood and whack
him cross the eyes. He punch her in the stomach, she double
over groaning
but come up with both hands lock right under his privates. He
roll on the floor. He grab her dress tail and pull. She stand there
in her slip. She never blink a eye. He jump up to put a hammer
lock under her chin, she throw him over her back. He fall barnup
gainst the stove.
I don't know how long this been going on. I don't 39
40 know when they spect to conclude. I ease on back out, wave
to the children by the creek, walk back on up home.
Saturday morning early, us hear the wagon. Harpo, Sofia, the
two babies be going off for the week-end, to visit Sofia sister.
41
For over a month I have trouble1 sleeping. I stay up late as I can
before Mr. ? '.??start complaining bout the price of kerosene,
then I soak myself in a warm bath with milk and epsom salts,
then sprinkle little witch hazel on my pillow and curtain out all
the moonlight. Sometimes I git a few hours sleep. Then just
when it look like it ought to be gitting good, I wakes up.
At first I'd git up quick and drink some milk. Then I'd think bout
counting fence post. Then I'd think bout reading the Bible.
What it is? I ast myself.
A little voice say, Something you done wrong. Somebody spirit
you sin against. Maybe.
Way late one night it come to me. Sofia. I sin against Sofia
spirit.
I pray she don't find out, but she do.
Harpo told.
The minute she hear it she come marching up the path, toting a
sack. Little cut all blue and red under her eye.
42 She say, Just want you to know I looked to you for help.
Ain't I been helpful? I ast.
She open up her sack. Here your curtains, she say. Here your
thread. Here a dollar for letting me use 'em.
They yourn, I say, trying to push them back. I'm glad to help out.
Do what I can.
You told Harpo to beat me, she said.
No I didn't, I said.
Don't lie, she said.
I didn't mean it, I said.
Then what you say it for? she ast.
She standing there looking me straight in the eye. She look
tired and her jaws full of air.
I say it cause I'm a fool, I say. I say it cause I'm jealous of you. I
say it cause you do what I can't.
What that? she say.
Fight. I say.
She stand there a long time, like what I said took the wind out
her jaws. She mad before, sad now.
She say, All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to
fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles.
A girl child ain't safe in a family of men. But I never thought I'd
have to fight in my own house. She let out her breath. I loves
Harpo, she say. God knows I do. But I'll kill him dead before I let
him beat me. Now if you want a dead son-in-law you just keep
on advising him like you doing. She put her hand on her hip. I
used to hunt game with a bow and arrow, she say.
I stop the little trembling that started when I saw her coming. I'm
soshame of myself, I say. And the Lord he done whip me little
bit too.
The Lord don't like ugly, she say.
And he ain't stuck on pretty. 42
43 This open the way for our talk to turn another way.
I say, You feels sorry for me, don't you?
She think a minute. Yes ma'am, she say slow, I do.
I think I know how come, but I ast her anyhow.
She say, To tell the truth, you remind me of my mama. She
under my daddy thumb. Naw, she under my daddy foot. Anything
he say,
goes. She never say nothing back. She never stand up for
herself. Try to make a little half stand sometime for the children
but
that always backfire. More she stand up for us, the harder time
he give her. He hate children and he hate where they come
from.
Tho from all the children he got, you'd never know it.
I never know nothing bout her family. I thought, looking at her,
nobody in her family could be scared.
How many he got? I ast.
Twelve. She say.
Whew, I say. My daddy got six by my mama before she die, I
say. He got four more by the wife he got now. I don't mention the
two
he got by me.
How many girls? she ast.
Five, I say. How bout in your family?
Six boys, six girls. All the girls big and strong like me. Boys big
and strong too, but all the girls stick together. Two brothers
stick with us too, sometime. Us git in a fight, it's a sight to see.
I ain't never struck a living thing, I say. Oh, when I was at home I
tap the little ones on the behind to make 'em behave, but
not hard enough to hurt.
What you do when you git mad? she ast.
I think. I can't even remember the last time I felt mad, I say. I
used to git mad at my mammy cause she put a lot of work on
me.
Then I see how sick she is. Couldn't stay mad at her. Couldn't
be mad at my daddy cause he my daddy. Bible say, Honor
father and
44 mother no matter what. Then after while every tune I got mad,
or start to feel mad, I got sick. Felt like throwing up. Terrible
feeling. Then I start to feel nothing at all.
Sofia frown. Nothing at all?
Well, sometime Mr. ??? git on me pretty hard. I have to talk to
Old Maker. But he my husband. I shrug my shoulders. This life
soon
be over, I say. Heaven last all ways.
You ought to bash Mr. ??? head open, she say. Think bout
heaven later.
Not much funny to me. That funny. I laugh. She laugh. Then us
both laugh so hard us flop down on the step.
Let's make quilt pieces out of these messed up curtains, she
say. And I run git my pattern book.
I sleeps like a baby now.
45
Shug Avery sick and nobody in this town want to take the Queen
Honeybee in. Her mammy say She told her so. Her pappy say,
Tramp.
A woman at church say she dying?maybe two berkulosis or
some kind of nasty woman disease. What? I want to ast, but
don't. The
women at church sometime nice to me. Sometime not. They
look at me there struggling with Mr. ???children. Trying to drag
'em to
the church, trying to keep 'em quiet after us get there. They
some of the same ones used to be here both times I was big.
Sometimes
they think I don't notice, they stare at me. Puzzle.
I keep my head up, best I can. I do a right smart for the
preacher. Clean the floor and windows, make the wine, wash
the altar
linen. Make sure there's wood for the stove in wintertime. He
call me Sister Celie. Sister Celie, he say, You faithful as the
day is long.Then he talk to the other ladies and they mens. I
scurry bout, doing, this, doing that. Mr. ??? sit back by the door
gazing here and there. The womens smile in his direction every
chance they git. He never look at me or even notice.
46 Even the preacher got his mouth on Shug Avery, now she
down. He take her condition for his text. He don't call no name,
but
he don't have to. Everybody know who he mean. He talk bout a
strumpet in short skirts, smoking cigarettes, drinking gin.
Singing
for money and taking other women mens. Talk bout slut, hussy,
heifer and streetcleaner.
I cut my eyes back at Mr. ??? when he say that. Streetcleaner.
Somebody got to stand up for Shug, I think. But he don't say
nothing.
He cross his legs first to one side, then to the other. He gaze out
the window. The same women smile at him, say amen gainst
Shug.
But once us home he never stop to take off his clothes. He call
down to Harpo and Sofia house. Harpo come running.
Hitch up the wagon, he say.
Where us going? say Harpo.
Hitch up the wagon, he say again.
Harpo hitch up the wagon. They stand there and talk a few
minutes out by the barn. Then Mr. ??? drive off.
One good thing bout the way he never do any work round the
place, us never miss him when he gone.
Five days later I look way off up the road and see the wagon
coming back.' It got sort of a canopy over it now, made out of
old
blankets or something. My heart begin to beat like furry, and the
first thing I try to do is change my dress.
But too late for that. By time I git my head and arm out the old
dress, I see the wagon pull up in the yard. Plus a new dress
won't
help none with my notty head and dusty headrag, my old
everyday shoes and the way I smell.
47 I don't know what to do, I'm so beside myself. I stand there in
the middle of the kitchen. Mind whirling. I feels like Who Would
Have Thought.
Celie, Ihear Mr. ??? call. Harpo.
Istick my head and my arm back in my old dress and wipe the
sweat and dirt off my face as best I can. I come to the door.
Yessir?
I ast, and trip over the broom I was sweeping with when I first
notice the wagon.
Harpo and Sofia in the yard now, looking inside the wagon.
They faces grim.
Who this? Harpo ast.
The woman should have been your mammy, he say.
Shug Avery? Harpo ast. He look up at me.
Help me git her in the house, Mr. ??? say.
I think my heart gon fly out my mouth when I see one of her foots
come poking out.
She not lying down. She climbing down tween Harpo and Mr.
___. And she dress to kill. She got on a red wool dress and
chestful
of black beads. A shiny black hat with what look like
chickinhawk feathers curve down side one cheek, and she
carrying a little
snakeskin bag, match her shoes.
She look so stylish it like the trees all round the house draw
themself up tall for a better look. Now I see she stumble, tween
the two men. She don't seem that well acquainted with her
feets.
Close up I see all this yellow powder caked up on her face. Red
rouge. She look like she ain't long for this world but dressed
well for the next. But I know better.
Come on in, I want to cry. To shout. Come on in. With God help,
Celie going to make you well. But I don't say nothing. It not my
house. Also I ain't been told nothing.
They git halfway up the step, Mr. ??? look up at me. Celie, he
say. This here Shug Avery. Old friend of
48 the family. Fix up the spare room. Then he look down at her,
hold her in one arm, hold on to the rail with the other. Harpo
on the other side, looking sad. Sofia and the children in the
yard, watching.
I don't move at once, cause I can't. I need to see her eyes. I feel
like once I see her eyes my feets can let go the spot where
they stuck.
Git moving, he say, sharp.
And then she look up.
Under all that powder her face black as Harpo. She got a long
pointed nose and big fleshy mouth. Lips look like black plum.
Eyes
big, glossy. Feverish. And mean. Like, sick as she is, if a snake
cross her path, she kill it.
She look me over from head to foot. Then she cackle. Sound
like a death rattle. You sure is ugly, she say, like she ain't
believed
it.
49
Ain't nothing wrong with Snug Avery. She just sick. Sicker than
anybody I ever seen. She sicker than my mama was when she
die.
But she more evil than my mama and that keep her alive.
Mr. ??? be in the room with her all time of the night or day. He
don't hold her hand though. She too evil for that. Turn loose
my goddam hand, she say to Mr. _____. What the matter with
you, you crazy? I don't need no weak little boy can't say no to his
daddy hanging on me. I need me a man, she say. A man. She
look at him and roll her eyes and laugh. It not much of a laugh
but
it keep him away from the bed. He sit over in the corner away
from the lamp. Sometime she wake up in the night and don't
even
see. But he there. Sitting in the shadows chewing on his pipe.
No tobacco in it. First thing she said, I don't want to smell no
stinking blankety-blank pipe, you hear me, Albert?
Who Albert, I wonder. Then I remember Albert Mr. ??? first
name.
Mr. ___ don't smoke. Don't drink. Don't even
50 hardly eat. He just got her in that little room, watching every
breath.
What happen to her I ast?
You don't want her here, just say so, he say. Won't do no good.
But if that the way you feel... He don't finish.
I want her here, I say, too quick. He look at me like maybe I'm
planning something bad.
I just want to know what happen, I say.
I look at his face. It tired and sad and I notice his chin weak. Not
much chin there at all. I have more chin, I think. And his
clothes dirty, dirty. When he pull them off, dust rise.
Nobody fight for Shug, he say. And a little water come to his
eyes.
51
They have made three babies together but he squeamish bout
giving her a bath. Maybe he figure he start thinking bout things
he
shouldn't. But what bout me? First time I got the full sight of
Shug Avery long black body with it black plum nipples, look like
her mouth, I thought I had turned into a man.
What you staring at? she ast. Hateful. She weak as a kitten. But
her mouth just pack with claws You never seen a naked woman
before?
No ma'am, I said. I never did. Cept for Sofia, and she so plump
and ruddy and crazy she feel like my sister.
She say, Well take a good look. Even if I is just a bag of bones
now. She have the nerve to put one hand on her naked hip and
bat
her eyes at me. Then she suck her teef and roll her eyes at the
ceiling while I wash her.
I wash her body, it feel like I'm praying. My hands tremble and
my breath short.
She say, You ever have any kids?
I say, Yes ma'am.
She say, How many and don't you yes ma'am me, I ain't that old.
52 I say, two.
She ast me Where they is? I say, I don't know. She look at me
funny.
My kids with they grandma, she say. She could stand the kids, I
had to go. You miss 'em? I ast. Naw, she say. I don't miss
nothing.
53
I ast Shug Avery what she want for breakfast. She say, What yall
got? I say ham, grits, eggs, biscuits, coffee, sweet milk or butter
milk, flapjacks. Jelly and jam.
She say, Is that all? What about orange juice, grapefruit,
strawberries and cream. lea. Then she laugh.
I don't want none of your damn food, she say. Just gimme a cup
of coffee and hand me my cigarettes.
I don't argue. I git the coffee and light her cigarette. She wearing
a long white gown and her thin black hand stretching out of
it to hold the white cigarette looks just right. Something bout it,
maybe the little tender veins I see and the big ones I try
not to, make me scared. I feel like something pushing me
forward. If I don't watch out I'll have hold of her hand, tasting her
fingers in my mouth.
Can I sit in here and eat with you? I ast.
She shrug. She busy looking at a magazine. White women in it
laughing, holding they beads out on one finger, dancing on top
of
motocars. Jumping into
54 fountains. She flip the pages. Look dissatisfied. Remind me
of a child trying to git something out a toy it can't work yet.
She drink her coffee, puff on her cigarette. I bite into a big juicy
piece of home cured ham. You can smell this ham for a mile
when you cooking it, it perfume up her little room with no trouble
at all.
I lavish butter on a hot biscuit, sort of wave it about. I sop up
ham gravey and splosh my eggs in with my grits.
She blow more and more smoke. Look down in her coffee like
maybe its something solid at the bottom.
Finally she say, Celie, I believe I could drink a glass of water.
And this here by the bed ain't fresh.
She hold out her glass.
I put my plate down on the card table by the bed. I go dip her up
some water. I come back, pick up my plate. Look like a little
mouse been rabbling the biscuit, a rat run off with the ham.
She act like nothing happen. Begin to complain bout being
tired. Doze on off to sleep.
Mr. ??? ast me how I git her to eat. . I say, Nobody living can
stand to smell home cured ham without tasting it. If they dead
they got a chance. Maybe.
Mr. ??:? laugh.
I notice something crazy in his eyes.
I been scared, he say. Scared. And he cover up his eyes with
his hands.
55
Shug Avery sit up in bed a little today. I wash and comb out her
hair. She got the nottiest, shortest, kinkiest hair I ever saw,
and I loves every strand of it. The hair that come out in my comb
I kept. Maybe one day I'll get a net, make me a rat to pomp
up my own hair.
I work on her like she a doll or like she Olivia?or like she mama.
I comb and pat, comb and pat. First she say, hurry up and git
finish. Then she melt down a little and lean back gainst my
knees. That feel just right, she say. That feel like mama used to
do. Or maybe not mama. Maybe grandma. She reach for
another cigarette. Start hum a little tune.
What that song? I ast. Sound low down dirty to me. Like what
the preacher tell you its sin to hear. Not to mention sing.
She hum a little more. Something come to me, she say.
Something I made up. Something you help scratch out my head.
56
Mr. ??? daddy show up this evening. He a little short shrunk up
man with a bald head and gold spectacles. He clear his throat a
lot, like everything he say need announcement. Talk with his
head leant to the side.
He come right to the point.
Just couldn't rest till you got her in your house, could you? he
say, coming up the step.
Mr. ??? don't say nothing. Look out cross the railing at the trees,
over the top of the well. Eyes rest on the top of Harpo and
Sofia house.
Won't you have a seat? I ast, pushing him up a chair. How bout
a cool drink of water?
Through the window I hear Shug humming and humming,
practicing her little song. I sneak back to her room and shet the
window.
Old Mr. ___ say to Mr. ???, Just what is it bout this Shug Avery
anyway, he say. She black as tar, she nappy headed. She got
legs
like baseball bats.
Mr..?,? don't say nothing. I drop little spit in Old Mr. ??? water.
57 Why, say Old Mr. ???, she ain't even clean. I hear she got the
nasty woman disease.
I twirl the spit round with my finger. I think bout ground glass,
wonder how you grind it. But I don't feel mad at all. Just interest.
Mr. ??? turn his head slow, watch his daddy drink. Then say,
real sad, You ain't got it in you to understand, he say. I love Snug
Avery. Always have, always will. I should have married her when
I had the chance.
Yeah, say Old Mr. ???. And throwed your life away. (Mr. ???.
grunt right there.) And a right smart of my money with it. Old Mr.
??? clear his throat. Nobody even sure exactly who her daddy
is.
I never care who her daddy is, say Mr. ???.
And her mammy take in white people dirty clothes to this day.
Plus all her children got different daddys. It all just too trifling
and confuse.
Well, say Mr. ??? and turn full face on his daddy, All Shug Avery
children got the same daddy. I vouch for that.
Old Mr. ??? clear his throat. Well, this my house. This my land.
Your boy Harpo in one of my houses, on my land. Weeds come
up
on my land, I chop 'em up. Trash blow over it I burn it. He rise to
go. Hand me his glass. Next time he come I put a little Shug
Avery pee in his glass. See how he like that.
Celie, he say, you have my sympathy. Not many women let they
husband whore lay up in they house.
But he not saying to me, he saying it to Mr. ???.
Mr. ??? look up at me, our eyes meet. This the closest us ever
felt.
He say, Hand Pa his hat, Celie.
And I do. Mr. ??? don't move from his chair by
58 the railing. I stand in the door. Us watch Old Mr. ??? begin
harrumping and harrumping down the road home.
Next one come visit, his brother Tobias. He real fat and tall, look
like a big yellow bear. Mr. ??? small like his daddy, his brother
stand way taller.
Where she at? he ast, grinning. Where the Queen Honeybee?
Got something for her, he say. He put little box of chocolate on
the
railing.
She sleeping, I say. Didn't sleep much last night.
How you doing there, Albert, he say, dragging up a chair. He run
his hand over his slicked back hair and try to feel if there's
a bugga in his nose. Wipe his hand on his pants. Shake out the
crease.
I just heard Shug Avery was here, he say. How long you had
her?
Oh, say Mr. ???, couple of months.
Hell, say Tobias, I heard she was dying. That goes to show,
don't it, that you can't believe everything you hear. He smooth
down
his mustache, run his tongue out the coiners of his lips.
What you know good, Miss Celie? he say.
Not much, I say.
Me and Sofia piecing another quilt together. I got bout five
squares pieced, spread out on the table by my knee. My basket
full
of scraps on the floor.
Always busy, always busy, he say. I wish Margaret was more
like you. Save me a bundle of money.
Tobias and his daddy always talk bout money like they still got a
lot. Old Mr. ??_ been selling off the place so that nothing much
left but the houses and the fields. My and Harpo fields bring in
more than anybody.
59 I piece on my square. Look at the colors of the cloth.
Then I hear Tobias chair fall back and he say, Shug.
Shug halfway tween sick and well. Halfway tween good and evil,
too. Most days now she show me and Mr. ??? her good side.
But evil
all over her today. She smile, like a razor opening. Say, Well,
well, look who's here today.
She wearing a little flowery shift I made for her and nothing else.
She look bout ten with her hair all cornrowed. She skinny as
a bean, and her face full of eyes.
Me and Mr. ??? both look up at her. Both move to help her sit
down. She don't look at him. She pull up a chair next to me.
She pick up a random piece of cloth out the basket. Hold it up
to the light. Frown. How you sew this damn thing? she say.
I hand her the square I'm working on, start another one. She
sew long crooked stiches, remind me of that little crooked tune
she
sing.
That real good, for first try, I say. That just fine and dandy. She
look at me and snort. Everything I do is fine and dandy to
you, Miss Celie, she say. But that's cause you ain't got good
sense. She laugh. I duck my head.
She got a heap more than Margaret, say Tobias. Margaret take
that needle and sew your nostrils together.
All womens not alike, Tobias, she say. Believe it or not.
Oh, I believe it, he say. Just can't prove it to the world.
60 First time I think about the world.
What the world got to do with anything, I think. Then I see myself
sitting there quilting tween Shug Avery and Mr. ???. Us three
set together gainst Ibbias and his fly speck box of chocolate.
Fbr the first time hi my life, I feel just right.
61
Me and Sofia work on the quilt. Got it frame up on the porch.
Shug Avery donate her old yellow dress for scrap, and I work in
a
piece every chance I get. It a nice pattern call Sister's Choice. If
the quilt turn out perfect, maybe I give it to her, if it
not perfect, maybe I keep. I want it for myself, just for the little
yellow pieces, look like stars, but not. Mr..??? and Shug
walk up the road to the mailbox. The house quiet, cept for the
flies. They swing through every now and then, drunk from eating
and enjoying the heat, buzz enough to make me drowsy.
Sofia look like something on her mind, she just not sure what.
She bend over the frame, sew a little while, then rear back in
her
chair and look out cross the yard. Finally she rest her needle,
say, Why do people eat, Miss Celie, tell me that.
To stay alive, I say. What else? Course some folks eat cause
food taste good to 'em. Then some is gluttons. They love to feel
they
mouth work.
Them the only reasons you can think of? she ast.
62 Well, sometime it might be a case of being undernourish, I
say.
She muse. He not undernourish, she say.
Who ain't? I ast.
Harpo. She say.
Harpo?
He eating more and more every day.
Maybe he got a tape worm?
She frown. Naw, she say. I don't think it a tape worm. Tape worm
make you hungry. Harpo eat when he ain't even hungry.
What, force it down? This hard to believe, but sometime you
hear new things everyday. Not me, you understand, but some
folk do
say that.
Last night for supper he ate a whole pan of biscuits by himself.
Naw. I say.
He sure did. And had two big glasses of butter milk along with
it. This was after supper was over, too. I was giving the children
they baths, getting 'em ready for bed. He sposed to be washing
the dishes. Stead of washing plates, he cleaning 'em with his
mouth.
Well maybe he was extra hungry. Yall is been working hard.
Not that hard, she say. And this morning, for breakfast, darn if
he didn't have six eggs. After all that food he look too sick
to walk. When us got to the field I thought he was going to fault.
If Sofia say darn something wrong. Maybe he don't want to
wash dishes, I say. His daddy never wash a dish in his life.
You reckon? she say. He seem so much to love it. To tell the
truth, he love that part of housekeeping a heap more 'en me. I
rather
be out in the fields or fooling with
63 the animals. Even chopping wood. But he love cooking and
cleaning and doing little things round the house.
He sure is a good cook, I say. Big surprise to me that he knew
anything about it. He never cooked so much as a egg when he
lived
at home.
I bet he wanted to, she said. It seem so natural to him. But Mr. ?
??. You know how he is.
Oh, he all right, I say.
You feeling yourself, Miss Celie? Sofia ast.
I mean, he all right in some things, not in others.
Oh, she say. Anyway, next time he come here, notice if he eat
anything.
I notice what he eat all right. First thing, coming up the steps, I
give him a close look. He still skinny, bout half Sofia size,
but I see a little pot beginning under his overalls.
What you got to eat, Miss Celie? he say, going straight to the
warmer and a piece of fried chicken, then on to the safe for a
slice
of blackberry pie. He stand by the table and munch, munch. You
got any sweet milk? he ast.
Got clabber, I say.
He say, Well, I love clabber. And dip him out some.
Sofia must not be feeding you, I say.
Why you say that? he ast with his mouth full.
Well, it not that long after dinner and here you is hungry again.
He don't say nothing. Eat.
Course, I say, suppertime not too far off either. Bout three four
hours.
He rummage through the drawer for a spoon to eat the clabber
with. He see a slice of cornbread on the shelf back of the stove,
he grab it and crumble it into the glass.
64 Us go back out on the porch and he put his foots up on the
railing. Eat his clabber and cornbread with the glass near bout
to
his nose. Remind me of a hog at the troth.
Food tasting like food to you these days huh, I say, listening to
him chew.
He don't say nothing. Eat.
I look out cross the yard. I see Sofia dragging a ladder and then
lean it up gainst the house. She wearing a old pair of Harpo
pants. Got her head tied up in a headrag. She clam up the
ladder to the roof, begin to hammer hi nails. Sound echo cross
the yard
like shots.
Harpo eat, watch her.
Then he belch. Say, Scuse me, Miss Celie. lake the glass and
spoon back in the kitchen. Come out and say Bye.
No matter what happening now. No matter who come. No
matter what they say or do, Harpo eat through it. Food on his
mind morning,
noon and night. His belly grow and grow, but the rest of him
don't. He begin to look like he big.
When it due? us ast.
Harpo don't say nothing. Reach for another piece of pie.
65
Harpo staying with us this week-end. Friday night after Mr. ???
and Shug and me done gone to bed, I heard this somebody
crying.
Harpo sitting out on the steps, crying like his heart gon break.
Oh, boo-hoo, and boo-hoo. He got his head in his hands, tears
and snot running down his chin. I give him a hansker. He blow
his nose, look up at me out of two eyes close like fists.
What happen to your eyes? I ast.
He clam round in his mind for a story to tell, then fall back on the
truth.
Sofia, he say.
You still bothering Sofia? I ast.
She my wife, he say.
That don't mean you got to keep on bothering her, I say. Sofia
love you, she a good wife. Good to the children and good
looking.
Hardworking. God fearing and clean. Idon't know what more you
want.
Harpo sniffle.
66 I want her to do what I say, like you do for Pa.
Oh, Lord, I say.
When Pa tell you to do something, you do it, he say. When he
say not to, you don't. You don't do what he say, he beat you.
Sometime beat me anyhow, I say, whether I do what he say or
not.
That's right, say Harpo. But not Sofia. She do what she want,
don't pay me no mind at all. I try to beat her, she black my eyes.
Oh, boo-hoo, he cry. Boo-hoo-hoo.
I start to take back my hansker. Maybe push him and his black
eyes off the step. I think bout Sofia. She tickle me. I used to hunt
game with a bow and arrow, she say.
Some womens can't be beat, I say. Sofia one of them. Besides,
Sofia love you. She probably be happy to do most of what you
say
if you ast her right. She not mean, she not spiteful. She don't
hold a grudge.
He sit there hanging his head, looking retard.
Harpo, I say, giving him a shake, Sofia loveyou. You loveSofia.
He look up at me best he can out his fat little eyes. Yes ma'am?
he say.
Mr. ??? marry me to take care of his children. I marry him cause
my daddy made me. I don't love Mr. ??? and he don't love me.
But you his wife, he say, just like Sofia mine. The wife spose to
mind.
Do Shug Avery mind Mr. ???? I ast. She the woman he wanted
to marry. She call him Albert, tell him his drawers stink in a
minute.
Little as he is, when she git her weight back she can sit on him
if he try to bother her.
67 Why I mention weight. Harpo start to cry again. Then he start
to be sick. He lean over the edge of the step and vomit and
vomit.
Look like every piece of pie for the last year come up. When he
empty I put him in the bed next to Shug's little room. He fall
right off to sleep.
67
68
I go visit Sofia, she still working on the roof.
The darn thing leak, she say.
She out to the woodpile making shingles. She put a big square
piece of wood on the chopping block and chop, chop, she
make big
flat shingles. She put the ax down and ast me do I want some
lemonade.
I look at her good. Except for a bruise on her wrist, she don't
look like she got a scratch on her.
How it going with you and Harpo? I ast.
Well, she say, he stop eating so much. But maybe this just a
spell.
He trying to git as big as you, I say.
She suck in her breath. I kinda thought so, she say, and let out
her breath real slow.
All the children come running up, Mama, Mama, us want
lemonade. She pour out five glasses for them, two for us. Us sit
in a wooden
swing she made last summer and hung on the shady end of the
porch.
I'm gitting tired of Harpo, she say. All he think about since us
married is how to make me mind. He don't want a wife, he want
a dog.
69 He your husband, I say. Got to stay with him. Else, what you
gon do?
My sister husband caught in the draft, she say. They don't have
no children, Odessa love children. He left her on a little farm.
Maybe I go stay with them a while. Me and my children.
I think bout my sister Nettie. Thought so sharp it go through me
like a pain. Somebody to run to. It seem too sweet to bear.
Sofia go on, frowning at her glass.
I don't like to go to bed with him no more, she say. Used to be
when he touch me I'd go all out my head. Now when he touch
me I
just don't want to be bothered. Once he git on top of me I think
bout how that's where he always want to be. She sip her
lemonade.
I use to love that part of it, she say. I use to chase him home
from the field. Git all hot just watching him put the children
to bed. But no more. Now I feels tired all the time. No interest.
Now, now, I say. Sleep on it some, maybe it come back. But I
say this just to be saying something. I don't know nothing bout it.
Mr. ??? clam on top of me, do his business, in ten minutes us
both sleep. Only time I feel something stirring down there is
when
I think bout Shug. And that like running to the end of the road
and it turn back on itself.
You know the worst part? she say. The worst part is I don't think
he notice. He git up there and enjoy himself just the same. No
matter what I'm thinking. No matter what I feel. It just him.
Heartfeeling don't even seem to enter into it. She snort. The fact
he can do it like that make me want to kill him.
Us look up the path to the house, see Shug and Mr. ___ sitting
on the steps. He reach over and pick something out her hair.
70 I don't know, say Sofia. Maybe I won't go. Deep down I still
love Harpo, but?he just makes me realtired. She yawn. Laugh. I
need a vacation, she say. Then she go back to the woodpile,
start making some more shingles for the roof.
70
71
Sofia right about her sisters. They all big strong healthy girls,
look like amazons. They come early one morning in two wagons
to pick Sofia up. She don't have much to take, her and the
children clothes, a mattress she made last winter, a looking
glass
and a rocking chair. The children.
Harpo sit on the steps acting like he don't care. He making a
net for seining fish. He look out toward the creek every once in
a while and whistle a little tune. But it nothing compared to the
way he usually whistle. His little whistle sound like it lost
way down in a jar, and the jar in the bottom of the creek.
At the last minute I decide to give Sofia the quilt. I don't know
what her sister place be like, but we been having right smart
cold weather long in now. For all I know, she and the children
have to sleep on the floor.
You gon let her go? I ast Harpo.
He look like only a fool could ast the question. He puff back,
She made up her mind to go, he say. How I'm gon stop her? Let
her
go on, he say, cutting his eyes at her sister wagons.
72 Us sit on the steps together. All us hear from inside is the
thump, thump, thump of plump and stout feet. All Sofia sisters
moving round together at one time make the house shake.
Where us going? ast the oldest girl.
Going to visit Aunt Odessa, say Sofia.
Daddy coming? she ast.
Naw, say Sofia.
How come daddy ain't coming? another one ast.
Daddy need to stay here and take care of the house. Look after
Dilsey, Coco and Boo.
The child come stand in front of his daddy and just look at him
real good.
You not coming? he say.
Harpo say, Naw.
Child go whisper to the baby crawling round on the floor, Daddy
not coming with us, what you think of that.
Baby sit real still, strain real hard, fart.
Us all laugh, but it sad too. Harpo pick it up, finger the daidie,
and get her ready for a change.
I don't think she wet, say Sofia. Just gas.
But he change her anyway. Him and the baby over in a corner of
the little porch out of the way of traffic. He use the old dry daidie
to wipe his eyes.
At the last, he hand Sofia the baby and she sling it up side her
hip, sling a sack of daidies and food over her shoulder, corral
all the little ones together, tell 'em to Say Good-bye to Daddy.
Then she hug me best she can what with the baby and all, and
she clam up on the wagon. Every sister just about got a child
tween her knees, cept the two driving the mules, and they all
quiet
as they leave Sofia and Harpo yard and drive on up past the
house.
73
Sofia gone six months, Harpo act like a different man. Used to
be a homebody, now all the time in the road.
I ast him what going on. He say, Miss Celie, I done learned a
few things.
One thing he learned is that he cute. Another that he smart.
Plus, he can make money. He don't say who the teacher is.
I hadn't heard so much hammering since before Sofia left, but
every evening after he leave the field, he knocking down and
nailing
up. Sometime his friend Swain come by to help. The two of
them work all into the night. Mr. ??? have to call down to tell
them
to shut up the racket.
What you building? I ast.
Jukejoint, he say.
Way back here?
No further back than any of the others.
I don't know nothing bout no others, only bout the Lucky Star.
Jukejoint sposed to be back in the woods, say Harpo.
74 Nobody be bothered by the loud music. The dancing. Hie
fights.
Swain say, the killings.
Harpo say, and the polices don't know where to look.
What Sofia gon say bout what you doing to her house? I ast.
Spose she and the children come back. Where they gon sleep.
They ain't coming back, say Harpo, nailing together planks for a
counter.
How you know? I ast.
He don't answer. He keep working, doing every thing with
Swain.
75
The first week, nobody come. Second week, three or four. Third
week, one. Harpo sit behind his little counter listening to Swain
pick his box.
He got cold drinks, he got barbecue, he 'got chit-lins, got store
bought bread. He got a sign saying Harpo's tacked up on the
side
of the house and another one out on the road. But he ain't got
no customers.
I go down the path to the yard, stand outside, look in. Harpo
look out and wave.
Come on in, Miss Celie, he say.
I say, Naw thank you.
Mr. ??? sometime walk down, have a cold drink, listen to
Swain. Miss Shug walk down too, every once in a while. She
still wearing
her little shifts, and I still cornrow her hair, but it getting long now
and she say soon she want it press.
Harpo puzzle by Shug. One reason is she say whatever come
to mind, forgit about polite. Sometime I see him staring at her
real
hard when he don't think I'm looking.
76 One day he say, Nobody coming way out here just to hear
Swain. Wonder could I get the Queen Honeybee?
I don't know, I said. She a lot better now, always humming or
singing something. She probably be glad to git back to work.
Why
don't you ask her?
Shug say his place not much compared to what she used to, but
she think maybe she might grace it with a song.
Harpo and Swain got Mr, ??? to give 'em some of Shug old
announcements from out the trunk. Crossed out The Lucky Star
of Coalman
Road, put in Harpo's of ___ plantation. Stuck 'em on trees
tween the turn off to our road and town. The first Saturday night
so
many folks come they couldn't git in.
Shug, Shug baby, us thought you was dead.
Five out of a dozen say hello to Shug like that.
And come to find out it was you, Shug say with a big grin.
At last I git to see Shug Avery work. I git to watch her. I git to
hear her.
Mr. ___ didn't want me to come. Wives don't go to places like
that, he say.
Yeah, but Celie going, say Shug, while I press her hair. Spose I
git sick while I'm singing, she say. Spose my dress come
undone?
She wearing a skintight red dress look like the straps made out
of two pieces of thread.
Mr. ??? mutter, putting on his clothes. My wife can't do this. My
wife can't do that. No wife of mines ... He go on and on.
Shug Avery finally say, Good thing I ain't your damn wife.
He hush then. All three of us go down to Harpo's. Mr. ??? and
me sit at the same table. Mr. _??drink whiskey. I have a cold
drink.
77 First Shug sing a song by somebody name Bessie Smith.
She say Bessie somebody she know. Old friend. It call A Good
Man Is Hard
to Find. She look over at Mr. ??? a little when she sing that. I
look over at him too. For such a little man, he all puff up.
Look like all he can do to stay in his chair. I look at Shug and I
feel my heart begin to cramp. It hurt me so, I cover it with
my hand. I think I might as well be under the table, for all they
care. I hate the way I look, I hate the way I'm dress. Nothing
but churchgoing clothes in my chifferobe. And Mr. ??? looking at
Shug's bright black skin in her tight red dress, her feet in
little sassy red shoes. Her hair shining in waves.
Before I know it, tears meet under my chin.
And I'm confuse.
He love looking at Shug. I love looking at Shug.
But Shug don't love looking at but one of us. Him.
But that the way it spose to be. I know that. But if that so, why my
heart hurt me so?
My head droop so it near bout in my glass.
Then I hear my name.
Shug saying Celie. Miss Celie. And I look up where she at.
She say my name again. She say this song I'm bout to sing is
call Miss Celie's song. Cause she scratched it out of my head
when
I was sick.
First she hum it a little, like she do at home. Then she sing the
words.
It all about some no count man doing her wrong, again. But I
don't listen to that part. I look at her and I hum along a little
with the tune.
First time somebody made something and name it after me.
78
Pretty soon it be time for Shug to go. She sing every week-end
now at Harpo's. He make right smart money off of her, and she
make
some too. Plus she gitting strong again and stout. First night or
two her songs come out good but a little weak, now she belt
them out. Folks out in the yard hear her with no trouble. She and
Swain sound real good together. She sing, he pick his box. It
nice at Harpo's. Little tables all round the room with candles on
them that I made, lot of little tables outside too, by the creek.
Sometime I look down the path from our house and it look like a
swarm of lightening bugs all in and through Sofia house. In the
evening Shug can't wait to go down there.
One day she say to me, Well, Miss Cetie, I believe it time for
me to go.
When? I ast.
Early next month, she say. June. June a good time to go off into
the world.
I don't say nothing. Feel like I felt when Nettie left.
She come over and put her hand on my shoulder.
He beat me when you not here,. I say. 78
79 Who do, she say, Albert?
Mr. ???, I say.
I can't believe it, she say. She sit down on the bench next to me
I can't believe it, she say. She sit down on the bench next to me
real hard, like she drop.
What he beat you for? she ast.
For being me and not you.
Oh, Miss Celie, she say, and put her arms around me.
Us sit like that for maybe half a hour. Then she kiss me on the
fleshy part of my shoulder and stand .up.
I won't leave, she say, until I know Albert won't even think about
beating you.
80
Now we all know she going sometime soon, they sleep together
at night. Not every night, but almost every night, from Friday to
Monday.
He go down to Harpo's to watch her sing. And just to look at her.
Then way late they come home. They giggle and they talk and
they
rassle until morning. Then they go to bed until it time for her to
get ready to go back to work.
First time it happen, it was a accident. Feeling just carried them
away. That what Shug say. He don't say nothing.
She ast me, Tell me the truth, she say, do you mind if Albert
sleep with me?
I think, I don't care who Albert sleep with. But I don't say that.
I say, You might git big again.
She say, Naw, not with my sponge and all.
You still love him, I ast.
She say, I got what you call a passion for him. If I was ever going
to have a husband he'd a been it. But he weak, she say. Can't
make up his mind what he want.
81 And from what you tell me he a bully. Some things I love
about him though, she say. He smell right to me. He so little. He
make
me laugh.
You like to sleep with him? I ast.
Yeah, Celie she say, I have to confess, I just loveit. Don't you?
Naw, I say. Mr. ??? can tell'you, I don't like it at all. What is it
like? He git up on you, heist your nightgown round your waist,
like? He git up on you, heist your nightgown round your waist,
plunge in. Most times I pretend I ain't there. He never know the
difference. Never ast me how I feel, nothing. Just do his
business,
get off, go to sleep.
She start to laugh. Do his business, she say. Do his business.
Why, Miss Celie. You make it sound like he going to the toilet on
you.
That what it feel like, I say.
She stop laughing.
You never enjoy it at all? she ast, puzzle. Not even with your
children daddy?
Never, I say.
Why Miss Celie, she say, you still a virgin.
What? I ast..
Listen, she say, right down there in your pussy is a little button
that gits real hot when you do you know what with somebody.
It git boner and hotter and then it melt. That the good part. But
other parts good too, she say. Lot of sucking go on, here and
there, she say. Lot of finger and tongue work.
Button? Finger and tongue? My face hot enough to melt itself.
She say. Here, take this mirror and go look at yourself down
there, I bet you never seen it, have you?
Naw.
And I bet you never seen Albert down there either. 81
82 I felt him, I say.
I stand there with the mirror.
She say, What, too shame even to go off and look at yourself?
And you look so cute too, she say, laughing. All dressed up for
Harpo's,
smelling good and everything, but scared to look at your own
pussy.
You come with me while I look, I say.
And us run off to my room like two little prankish girls.
You guard the door, I say.
She giggle. Okay, she say. Nobody coming. Coast clear.
I lie back on the bed and haul up my dress. Yank down my
bloomers. Stick the looking glass tween my legs. Ugh. All that
hair. Then
my pussy lips be black. Then inside look like a wet rose.
It a lot prettier than you thought, ain't it? she say from the door.
It mine, I say. Where the button?
Right up near the top, she say. The part that stick out a little.
I look at her and touch it with my finger. A little shiver go through
me. Nothing much. But just enough to tell me this the right
button to mash. Maybe.
She say, While you looking, look at your titties too. I haul up my
dress and look at my titties. Think bout my babies sucking
them.
Remember the little shiver I felt then too. Sometimes a big
shiver. Best part about having the babies was feeding 'em.
Albert and Harpo coming, she say. And I yank up my drawers
and yank down my dress. I feel like us been doing something
wrong.
I don't care if you sleep with him, I say.
And she take me at my word. 82
83 I take me at my word too.
But when I hear them together all I can do is pull the quilt over
my head and finger my little button and titties and cry.
84
One night while Shug singing a hot one, who should come
prancing through the door of Harpo's but Sofia.
She with a big tall hefty man look like a prize fighter.
She her usual stout and bouncy self.
Oh, Miss Celie, she cry. It so good to see you again. It even
good to see Mr. ?:??, she say. She take one of his hands. Even
if
his handshake is a little weak, she say.
He act real glad to see her.
Here, pull up a chair, he say. Have a cold drink.
Gimme a shot of white lightening, she say.
Prizefighter pull up a chair, straddle it backwards, hug on Sofia
Prizefighter pull up a chair, straddle it backwards, hug on Sofia
like they at home.
I see Harpo cross the room with his little yellowskin girlfriend.
He look at Sofia like she a hant.
This Henry Broadnax, Sofia say. Everybody call him Buster.
Good friend of the family.
How you all? he say. He smile pleasant and us keep listening to
the music. Shug wearing a gold dress that show her titties near
bout to the nipple. Everybody sorta hoping something break.
But that dress strong.
85 Man oh man, say Buster. Fire department won't do.
Somebody call the Law.
Mr. ??? whisper to Sofia. Where your children at?
She whisper back, My children at home, whereyours?' \ .
He don't say nothing.
Both the girls bigged and gone. Bub hi and out of jail. If his
grandaddy wasn't the colored uncle of the sheriff who look just
like Bub, Bub be lynch by now.
I can't git over how good Sofia look.
Most women with five children look a little peaked, I say to her
cross the table when Shug finish her song. You look like you
ready
for five more.
Oh, she say, I got six children now, Miss Celie.
Six. Iam shock.
She toss her head, look over at Harpo. Life don't stop just
cause you leave home, Miss Celie. You know that.
My life stop when I left home, I think. But then I think again. It
stop with Mr. ??? maybe, but start up again with Shug.
Shug come over and she and Sofia hug.
Shug say, Girl, you look like a good time, you do.
That when I notice how Shug talk and act sometimes nice a
man. Men say stuff like that to women, Girl, you look like a good
time.
Women always talk bout hair and health. How many babies
living or dead, or got teef. Not bout how some woman they
hugging on look
like a good time.
All the men got they eyes glued to Shug's bosom. I got my eyes
glued there too. I feel my nipples harden under my dress. My
little
button sort of perk up too. Shug, I say to her hi my mind, Girl,
you looks like a real good time, the Good Lord knows you do.
86 What you doing here? ast Harpo.
Sofia say, Come to hear Miss Shug. You got a nice place here
Harpo. She look around. This and that her eyes admire.
Harpo say, It just a scandless, a woman with five children
hanging out in a jukejoint at night.
Sofia eye go cool. She look him up and down.
Since he quit stuffing himself, he gained a bunch of weight,
face, head and all, mostly from drinking home brew and eating
left-over
barbecue. By now he just about her size.
A woman need a little fun, once in a while, she say.
A woman need to be at home, he say.
She say, This is my home. Though I do think it go better as a
jukejoint.
Harpo look at the prize fighter. Prizefighter push back his chair
a little, pick up his drink.
I don't fight Sofia battle, he say. My job to love her and take her
where she want to go.
Harpo breathe some relief.
Let's dance, he say.
Sofia laugh, git up. Put both arms round his neck. They slow
drag out cross the floor.
Harpo little yellowish girlfriend sulk, hanging over the bar. She a
nice girl, friendly and everything, but she like me. She do
anything Harpo say.
He give her a little nickname, too, call her Squeak.
Pretty soon Squeak git up her nerve to try to cut. in.
Harpo try to turn Sofia so she can't see. But Squeak keep on
tapping and tapping on his shoulder.
Finally he and Sofia stop dancing. They bout two feet from our
table.
Shug say, uh-oh, and point with her chin, somethingbout to blow
right there.'
87 Who dis woman, say Squeak, in this little teenouncy voice.
You know who she is, say Harpo.
Squeak turn to Sofia. Say, You better leave him alone.
Sofia say, Fine with me. She turn round to leave.
Harpo grab her by the arm. Say, You don't have to go no where.
Hell, this your house.
Squeak say, \i^iat you mean, Dis her house? She walk out on
you. Walk away from the house. It over now, she say to Sofia.
Sofia say, Fine with me. Try to pull away from Harpo grip. He
hold her tight.
Listen Squeak, say Harpo, Can't a man dance with his own
wife?
Squeak say, Not if he my man he can't. You hear that, bitch, she
say to Sofia.
Sofia gjtting a little tired of Squeak, I can tell by her ears. They
sort of push back. But she say again, sorta end of argument
like, Hey, fine with me.
Squeak slap her up cross the head.
What she do that for. Sofia don't even deal in little ladyish things
such as slaps. She ball up her fist, draw back, and knock
two of Squeak's side teef out, Squeak hit the floor. One toof
hanging on her lip, the other one upside my cold drink glass.
Then Squeak start banging on Harpo leg with her shoe.
You git that bitch out a here, she cry, blood and slobber running
down her chin.
Harpo and Sofia stand side by side looking down at Squeak,
but I don't think they hear her. Harpo still holding Sofia arm.
Maybe
half a minute go by. Finally he turn loose her arm, reach down
and cradle poor little
88 Squeak in his arms. He coo and coo at her like she a baby.
Sofia come over and git the prizefighter. They go out the door
and don't look back. Then us hear a car motor start.
89
Harpo mope. Wipe the counter, light a cigarette, look outdoors,
walk up and down. Little Squeak run long all up under him trying
to git his tension. Baby this, she say, Baby that. Harpo look
through her head, blow smoke.
Squeak come over to the corner where me and Mr. ??? at. She
got two bright gold teef in the side of her mouth, generally grin
all
the time. Now she cry. Miss Celie, she say, What the matter with
Harpo?
Sofia in jail, I say.
In jail? She look like I say Sofia on the moon.
What she in jail for? she ast.
Sassing the mayor's wife, I say.
Squeak pull up a chair. Look down my throat.
What your real name? I ast her. She say, Mary Agnes.
Make Harpo call you by your real name, I say. Then maybe he
see you even when he trouble.
She look at me puzzle. I let it go. I tell her what one of Sofia
sister tell me and Mr. ???.
Sofia and the prizefighter and all the children got in
90 the prizefighter car and went to town. Clam out on the street
looking like somebody. Just then the mayor and his wife come
by.
All these children, say the mayor's wife, digging in her
pocketbook. Cute as little buttons though, she say. She stop,
put her
hand on one of the children head. Say, and such strong white
teef.
Sofia and the prizefighter don't say nothing. Wait for her to
pass. Mayor wait too, stand back and tap his foot, watch her
with
a little smile. Now Millie, he say. Always going on over colored.
Miss Millie finger the children some more, finally look at Sofia
and the prizefighter. She look at the prizefighter car. She eye
Sofia wristwatch. She say to Sofia, All your children so clean,
she say, would you like to work for me, be my maid?
Sofia say, Hell no.
She say, What you say?
Sofia say, Hell no.
Sofia say, Hell no.
Mayor look at Sofia, push his wife out the way. Stick out his
chest. Girl, what you say to Miss Millie?
Sofia say, I say, Hell no.
He slap her.
I stop telling it right there.
Squeak on the edge of her seat. She wait. Look down my throat
some more.
No need to say no more, Mr. ??? say. You know what happen if
somebody slap Sofia.
Squeak go white as a sheet. Now,she say.
Nawnothing, I say. Sofia knock the man down.
The polices come, start slinging the children off the mayor, bang
they heads together. Sofia really start to fight. They drag her
to the ground.
91 This far as I can go with it, look like. My eyes git full of water
and my throat close.
Poor Squeak all scrunch down in her chair, trembling.
They beat Sofia, Mr. ??? say.
Squeak fly up like she sprung, run over hind the counter to
Harpo, put her arms round him. They hang together a long time,
cry.
What the prizefighter do in all this? I ast Sofia sister, Odessa.
He want to jump in, she say. Sofia say No, take the children
home.
Polices have they guns on him anyway. One move, he dead. Six
of them, you know.
Mr. ??? go plead with the sheriff to let us see Sofia. Bub be in
so much trouble, look so much like the sheriff, he and Mr. ???
almost on family terms. Just long as Mr. ??? know he colored.
Sheriff say, She a crazy woman, your boy's wife. You know that?
Mr. ??? say, Yassur, us do know it. Been trying to tell Harpo she
crazy for twelve years. Since way before they marry. Sofia come
from crazy peoples, Mr. ???say, it not all her fault. And then
again, the sheriff know how womens is, anyhow.
Sheriff think bout the women he know, say, Yep, you right there.
Sheriff think bout the women he know, say, Yep, you right there.
Mr. ??? say, We gon tell her she crazy too, if us ever do git in to
see her.
Sheriff say, Well make sure you do. And tell her she lucky she
alive.
When I see Sofia I don't know why she still alive. They crack her
skull, they crack her ribs. They tear her nose loose on one side.
They blind her in one eye. She
92 swole from head to foot. Her tongue the size of my arm, it
stick out tween her teef like a piece of rubber. She can't talk.
And she just about the color of a eggplant.
Scare me so bad I near bout drop my grip. But I don't. I put it on
the floor of the cell, take out comb and brush, nightgown, witch
hazel and alcohol and I start to work on her. The colored tendant
bring me water to wash her with, and I start at her two little
slits for eyes.
93
They put Sofia to work in the prison laundry. All day long from
five to eight she washing clothes. Dirty convict uniforms, nasty
sheets and blankets piled way over her head. Us see her twice
a month for hah7 a hour. Her face yellow and sickly, her fingers
look like fatty sausage.
Everything nasty here, she say, even the air. Food bad enough
to kill you with it. Roaches here, mice, flies, lice and even a
snake
or two. If you say anything they strip you, make you sleep on a
cement floor without a light.
How you manage? us ast.
Every time they ast me to do something, Miss Celie, I act like
I'm you. I jump right up and do just what they say.
She look wild when she say that, and her bad eye wander round
the room.
Mr. ??? suck in his breath. Harpo groan. Miss Shug cuss. She
come from Memphis special to see Sofia.
I can't fix my mouth to say how I feel.
94 I'm a good prisoner, she say. Best convict they ever see.
They can't believe I'm the one sass the mayor's wife, knock the
mayor
down. She laugh. It sound like something from a song. The part
where everybody done gone home but you.
Twelve years a long time to be good though, she say.
Twelve years a long time to be good though, she say.
Maybe you git out on good behavior, say Harpo.
Good behavior ain't good enough for them, say Sofia. Nothing
less than sliding on your belly with your tongue on they boots
can
even git they attention. I dream of murder, she say, I dream of
murder sleep or wake.
Us don't say nothing.
How the children? she ast.
They all fine, say Harpo. Tween Odessa and Squeak, they git
by.
Say thank you to Squeak, she say. Tell Odessa I think about hen
95
Us all sit round the table after supper. Me, Shug, Mr. ???-,
Squeak, the prizefighter, Odessa and two more of Sofia sisters.
Sofia not gon last, say Mr. ___.
Yeah, say Harpo, she look little crazy to me.
And what she had to say, say Shug. My God.
Us got to do something, say Mr. ??? and be right quick about it.
What can us do? ast Squeak. She look a little haggard with all
Sofia and Harpo children sprung on her at once, but she carry
on.
Hair a little stringy, slip show, but she carry on.
Bust her out, say Harpo. Git some dynamite off the gang that's
building that big bridge down the road, blow the whole prison to
kingdom come.
Shut up,- Harpo, say Mr. ???, us trying to think.
I got it, say the prizefighter, smuggle in a gun. Well, he rub his
chin, maybe smuggle in a file.
Naw, say Odessa. They just come after her if she leave that
way.
Me and Squeak don't say nothing. I don't know what
96 she think, but I think bout angels, God coming down by
chariot, swinging down real low and carrying ole Sofia home. I
see 'em
all as clear as day. Angels all in white, white hair and white
eyes, look like albinos. God all white too, looking like some
eyes, look like albinos. God all white too, looking like some
stout
white man work at the bank. Angels strike they cymbals, one of
them blow his horn, God blow out a big breath of fire and
suddenly
Sofia free.
Who the warden's black kinfolks? say Mr. ???.
Nobody say nothing.
Finally the prizefighter speak. What his name? he ast.
Hodges, say Harpo. Bubber Hodges.
Old man Henry Hodges' boy, say Mr. ???. Used to live out on
the old Hodges' place.
Got a brother name Jimmy? ast Squeak.
Yeah, say Mr. ???. Brother name Jimmy. Married to that
Quitman girl. Daddy own the hardware. You know them?
Squeak duck her head. Mumble something.
Say what? ast Mr. ???.
Squeak cheek turn red. She mumble again.
He your what? Mr. ??? ast.
Cousin, she say.
Mr. ??? look at her.
Daddy, she say. She cut her eye at Harpo. Look at the floor.
He know anything bout it? ast Mr. ???.
Yeah, she say. He got three children by my mama. Two younger
than me.
His brother know anything bout it? ast Mr. ___.
One time he come by the house with Mr. Jimmy, he give us all
quarters, say we sure do look .like Hodges.
Mr. ??? rear back in his chair, give Squeak a good 96
97 look from head to foot. Squeak push her greasy brown hair
back from her face.
Yeah, say Mr. ???. I see the resemblance. He bring his chair
down on the floor.
Well, look like you the one to go.
Well, look like you the one to go.
Go where, ast Squeak.
Go see the warden. He your uncle.
98
Us dress Squeak like she a white woman, only her clothes
patch. She got on a starch and iron dress, high heel shoes with
scuffs,
and a old hat somebody give Shug. Us give her a old
pocketbook look like a quilt and a little black bible. Us wash her
hair and
git all the grease out, then I put it up in two plaits that cross over
her head. Us bathe her so clean she smell like a good dean
floor.
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 af 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.
99 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.
100
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.
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
101 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 ,J 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 hi 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.
102 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.
103
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 tittle, 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...
Purchase answer to see full
attachment