Catching Moondrops Read Online Free

drivel.”
    Daddy unfolded it, and I watched his face for a reaction. It didn’t take long for his cheeks to light up, for his jaw to start doing that little dance it does whenever he’s riled. But he didn’t say a word. He took one good, deep breath, puffed his cheeks, and then let it out with a long sigh. The paper got squished into a tight ball again. “I ain’t goin’ to dignify this with a remark” was all he said. “Where’d you get it?”
    I nodded to the post I was leaning on. “It was tacked up to the porch.”
    He didn’t say anything, just retreated into the house, threw the leaflet into the fireplace, and struck a match.
    I watched through the window as he leaned against the fireplace and stared until every speck of paper transformed into black ash. Then he slammed his fist into the mantel so hard that Momma’s candlesticks shook.
    Gemma and I jumped at the noise of it, and Gemma turned around in her seat to look inside. “What in the world . . . ?”
    Daddy stomped off into the kitchen, where I could hear him giving Momma a whispered earful. I stopped staring through the window and slid into the other rocker. “That was Daddy takin’ his frustrations out on the fireplace.”
    â€œI knew it’d be best if he didn’t see it.”
    â€œNo, you knew he’d get upset about it; that don’t mean it weren’t best. A man ought to know what sort of nonsense is goin’ on about him. How else can he protect his family from it?”
    â€œThe more we stay out of it, the better he’ll be able to protect us.”
    â€œThat’s a coward’s way, Gemma Teague.”
    She flashed me one of her angry momma looks that always made me feel pity for her future children. “Call me a coward, call me crazy, call me whatever you want, but one thing you can’t call me is a pot stirrer. I ain’t out there just itchin’ to get white people mad at me. I know my place, and I keep it.”
    â€œOh, and your place is livin’ with a white family like kin?”
    She put her head back down to study her needlework, but I wasn’t letting up.
    â€œYou think you’d have had a good home after your momma and daddy died if we hadn’t decided you belonged with us no matter what people thought? You wish we’d decided you should ‘keep your place’ then?”
    We didn’t say anything for a few minutes until she dropped her needlework in her lap and sighed. “Won’t they ever just go away?”
    â€œWho? Men who hate colored folk? Klan? Not unless someone makes them go away. There ain’t no reason, Gemma, why a couple dozen men should be able to say what’s what when there’s a couple thousand able-bodied people out there who could come together against them.”
    â€œThere ain’t a couple thousand hereabouts who’d fight for colored folks.”
    â€œAll right, a couple hundred. Any which way, they ain’t got the right to spread this sort of nonsense on our property. You see what they’re tryin’ to do, don’t you? They ain’t never wanted nothin’ but to tell colored people what they can and cannot do, and now that there’s some talk stirrin’ about colored people havin’ more rights, they aim to shut ’em down right off.”
    I pointed through the den window in the direction of the charred remains of the leaflet. “That thing there weren’t no gentlemanly invitation. That was a threat. You think they thought in a month of Sundays we’d show up there? All they’re doin’ is bein’ heavy-handed with us, mockin’ us, and Daddy won’t stand for it.”
    She shook her head. “I done told those boys they were askin’ for trouble, tryin’ to get into whites-only places and whatnot. Malachi and his lot . . . they should’ve known