The Color Purple Read Free Page B

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.

DEAR GOD,
    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 born 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.
    What her mama say, I ast.
    Ain’t talk to her mama.
    What her daddy say?
    Ain’t talk to him neither.
    Well, what she say?
    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.

DEAR GOD,
    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 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.

DEAR GOD,
    Mr. _____ be gone all night Saturday, all night Sunday and most all day Monday. Shug Avery in town for the weekend. 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. Feel like