The Color Purple Read Free

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 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 I 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 ole Livia. 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. Horse pitality, 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?

DEAR GOD,
    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 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.
    First 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