Coffee Will Make You Black Read Free

Mama frowned.
    Grandma ignored her again. “Your exact words was ‘I’ll never forget them so long as I know Jesus,’ you said. ‘Nobody cared about Lillie Mae, they ain’t care whether she lived or died.’ Them was your exact words, remember? My heart went out to Lillie Mae just as though I’d give birth to her.”
    Me and Mama were quiet; all you could hear was the snapping of our beans.
    â€œSomebody colored’s on TV!” Kevin yelled from the living room.
    â€œWell, I sho hope it ain’t that Stepin Fetchit fellow again,” I heard Grandma say as I followed behind her and Mama.
    I was hoping I wouldn’t end up like Lillie Mae.

chapter 2
    It was Sunday after church and Mama was standing at my bedroom door with these two girls from the other sixth-grade class. I was shocked that Denise and Gail seemed to be here to see me. It wasn’t like I had older brothers to get next to or anything. Mama looked surprised too. Denise and Gail were fast girls who wore their hair in French rolls and liked to crack their gum. Gail already had two big bumps sticking through her shell top, and they both had hips holding up their cutoffs. I knew Mama looked down on people who wore shorts before Memorial Day, even though it was warm and humid outside.
    â€œJean, didn’t you hear me calling you?”
    I shook my head. I’d been playing with my yo-yo.
    I nodded at Denise and Gail and they nodded back. I tried not to seem too surprised by their visit.
    Gail was no bigger than a minute but she had a shape. She had delicate features like a Siamese cat, and her skin was the color of an old penny. Denise had some meat on her bones, large eyes, a wide nose, full lips, and was light-skinned. Mama would call Denise “yellow-wasted.” That’s what she called light-skinned people with hair nappy enough to be straightened and/or African features.
    Mama leaned against the wall with one hand in her apron pocket. I motioned for Denise and Gail to come into my room.
    â€œWell, girls, we just got in from church not too long ago.” Mama frowned at my Sunday dress and petticoat bunched up in the chair. “Twenty minutes earlier and you wouldn’t have caught us.”
    â€œGail, you can sit on this chair,” I grabbed my dress and petticoat. “Denise, you can sit on the bed here,” I scooped up the stack of Archie comic books, and looked around my small, junky room for a place to stuff them. Denise and Gail eyed the matching white bedroom furniture that Mama and Daddy had bought at a house sale in the suburbs.
    â€œWhen did your churches let out?” Mama asked as the girls sat down.
    â€œI ain’t went to church this morning. I ain’t got up in time.” Denise answered.
    â€œI ain’t got up in time either.”
    Mama closed her eyes, and made a face like she’d just eaten something that tasted bad. “You ain’t got up in time?”
    â€œNo, my mama and them was playing cards last night, kept us all up late,” Denise explained.
    I turned away from the closet and gave Mama a look that begged her to shut up. But there was no stopping her.
    â€œGirls, listen to yourselves, you’re butchering the English language!”
    Denise and Gail looked at Mama like she had just landed here from Mars.
    I sat down on my bed and stared into the quilt Grandma had made me. I was sick of Mama. It was bad enough she had made Daddy paint my room pink. She knew blue was my favorite color.
    â€œGirls, you should have said, ‘I didn’t go to church this morning because I didn’t get up in time.’ And you shouldn’t be kept up all night because of your mother’s card playing. I hate to think some people would put card playing ahead of church services. And by the way, have you girls ever heard Dr. King speak?”
    Gail and Denise hunched their shoulders. I couldn’t tell if they were saying no or that they