It's All About The Moon When The Sun Ain't Shining Read Free Page B

wasn’t nothing.”
    â€œShe was proud,” I said. “She was proud of both of us.”
    â€œNo,” Omenita said. “She wasn’t proud. That was the happiest day of my life, and she just had to let me know that I wasn’t good enough. Always been that way with Miss Audrey. I graduate from high school and she got to let me know you the val. I go to junior college and she got to let me know you going to the university. I take a job around here so I can be close until we can be together and she got to let me know I didn’t need to go to school for no job like that. She know alright. She know just what she doing.”
    â€œNo,” I said. “It’s not like you think.”
    â€œYes, it is,” she said. “And you know it just as well as I do.”
    Omenita started crying again and I put my arms around her and pulled her close. She leaned her head on my shoulder, and my heart was aching because I could hear the hurt in her voice.
    â€œIt’s not like you think,” I said again.
    And when I said that, she buried her head into my shoulder, and her tormented body began to pulsate and the tense muscles in her back began to shake. And I could feel her warm tears seeping through my shirt, and I wanted to comfort her, but I didn’t know what to say. I pulled her closer and held her tighter and suddenly it seemed quiet again. We were in a dense haze and I could hear the birds singing and the crickets chirping and the bullfrogs calling to one another. And then, in an instance, I heard her voice, above it all, calling my name softly, tenderly.
    â€œYes,” I answered her call, and I looked down and her glazed eyes were wide, gazing out into the darkness of the night. Suddenly, she looked up at me, her face wet with tears.
    â€œWhen you graduate in a few weeks ... and find a job ... and we get married. Promise me we’ll move away from here.”
    â€œShe’ll always be my mother,” I said.
    â€œBut you won’t always be her boy,” she said, her eyes full of tears. “You’ll be my man ... and we’ll have our own family ... and we’ll have our own lives ... Promise me ... Promise me we’ll move away ... I can’t take her always downing me ... Promise me.”
    â€œI promise,” I said.
    â€œNo,” she said. “Say it like you mean it. Say it like it’s true.”
    â€œI do mean it,” I said. “It is true.”
    I looked at her as tenderly as I could, and her sad eyes grew wide, and the flesh of her brow furrowed, forming an angry frown.
    â€œHow she gon’ judge me?” she asked. “And she just a maid.”
    â€œThat’s my mama,” I said.
    â€œAnd I’m your woman.”
    â€œShe doesn’t mean any harm,” I said for the third or fourth time.
    â€œThe hell she don’t,” Omenita said, and I heard her voice trembling with a rage that seemed to have emanated from a strange place deep within her soul.
    â€œShouldn’t cuss in front of her,” I said.
    â€œSo, now it’s my fault?”
    â€œI didn’t say that,” I said.
    â€œSure sound like it to me.”
    â€œOmenita,” I said, “you know how she is.”
    â€œAnd!” she said.
    â€œYou shouldn’t give her a reason,” I said.
    â€œWhat did I do?” she asked.
    â€œYou know she’s a churchgoing woman,” I said.
    â€œSo?”
    â€œJust need to watch your mouth,” I said. “That’s all.”
    â€œNo,” she said. “You need to be a man.”
    â€œI am a man,” I said, feeling my anger rise.
    â€œNo,” she said. “A man would protect his woman. He wouldn’t duck his head and hide.”
    â€œWhat do you want me to do?” I asked.
    â€œStand up to her,” she said.
    â€œI don’t want to talk about this anymore,” I said. “I am a man.”
    In the distance, I saw