The Color of Your Skin Ain’t the Color of Your Heart Read Free Page B

supposed to belong to if it wasn’t him, and then maybe take Katie to live with him, though I had no notion where he lived.
    Just when we thought we’d saved the day by paying off Katie’s loan, it looked like our scheme was over, and our life together along with it. Without even consciously trying, my brain was working hard to brace itself for whatever changes this was going to mean, even if it meant that in a few days I’d be gone from Rosewood and might not ever see Katie again. I found myself thinking again about that job at the hotel in Oakwood.
    I fussed around outside the barn, not doing much of anything. After a while I saw Katie and her uncle walking slowly back from the graves and inside the house together. He still had his arm around her, and she was leaning against his side as she walked like it was the most natural thing in the world. And as nervous as I was about what all this might mean to us, it warmed my heart to see them together like that. Especially since I had no grown-up kin who would ever put their arm around me.
    I’ve never been much good at doing nothing, so I went inside the barn and cleaned up a bit, then out to the stables to add water to the troughs for the horses and cows and pigs. When I had work to do, my worries were never quite as bad.
    After a while I heard footsteps behind me. I turned to see Aleta.
    “Katie sent me to find you,” she said. “She asked if you’d come to the house.”
    I dropped what I was doing and followed her around the barn. When I entered the kitchen, Katie and her uncle were both seated at the table quietly talking. Katie’s eyes were red. She glanced up at me and tried to smile.
    “Hi, Mayme,” she said. Her voice was still husky from crying.
    “Hi,” I said.
    “I told him, Mayme,” she said, sniffling and trying not to start crying again. “I told him everything … I couldn’t help it. I hope you’re not mad at me.” ‘
    ‘Of course not, Katie,” I said, glancing toward her uncle. “You had to … he’s your kin.”
    As her uncle watched, he seemed moved by our obvious love for each other. But he was still looking funny at me. I was used to that. White folks always look different at blacks than they do their own kind. But something about the way Katie’s uncle did it was peculiar. It made me feel funny in a way unlike any feeling I’d ever had.
    “This is Mayme, Uncle Templeton … Mayme Jukes,” said Katie. “She’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”
    My eyes started blinking fast to hear Katie’s words. It didn’t seem like it’d do much good for both of us to start crying at a time like this. But it was all I could do to keep from it.
    “I am happy to know you, Mayme Jukes,” said Katie’s uncle. “My name is Templeton Daniels, and from what Katie has told me, I suppose I owe you my thanks—for helping look after her, for helping look after the place … and for helping bury my sister and her family.”
    I nodded and forced a smile. I didn’t know what to say.
    “And I told him about Aleta and Emma too,” Katie continued, “and—” Suddenly Katie’s eyes shot open.
    “Oh, my goodness!” she exclaimed. “Emma! Where is Emma!”
    In all the commotion we’d completely forgotten about her. All this time I’d figured she was upstairs trying to keep William quiet.
    “Aleta,” said Katie, “run upstairs and see if Emma’s in her room.”
    Aleta dashed off and was back in less than a minute. “She’s nowhere up there, Katie,” she said.
    Katie and I looked at each other as we realized where Emma had gone to hide.
    “Oh … poor Emma!” cried Katie.
    She jumped up and we hurried into the parlor. The rug was thrown back and one look would have told us where she was, but neither of us had been all the way into the house since coming back from the field, and Aleta hadn’t noticed.
    I grabbed the door latch and pulled it open.
    “Emma … Emma, are you down there!” called Katie into the cellar.
    “Dat I is, Miz