Little Black Girl Lost Read Online Free Page B

Johnnie demanded.
    â€œDeal.”
    â€œSwear, Earl.”
    â€œI swear.”
    â€œNo, Earl, say it all.”
    â€œOkay, I swear if I lose your money, I’ll either pay you back, or I’ll leave you be, okay?”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œNow, is it really that bad with me?” Earl asked anxiously.
    â€œDon’t you worry none how bad it is for me. You just worry about what you gon’ be missin’ if you lose my money.” And with that, Johnnie climbed on him, and the animal groans filled the room once more.

Chapter 8
    â€œAnything botherin’ you?”
    M arguerite came home about twenty minutes after Earl left. She had been at Shirley’s house, a friend of hers who lived two doors down. They were playing spades for a nickel a game. She waited until the game was over even though she’d seen Earl’s Cadillac pull off. Upon entering the house, Marguerite smelled the food Johnnie was preparing and walked into the kitchen, where Johnnie was sitting at the table about to eat. Marguerite pulled a chair back and sat down. She put some of the red beans, rice, and plump spicy sausage on her plate. She was just about to dig in when she noticed Johnnie had something on her mind.
    â€œWhat are you thinking about so hard?” Marguerite asked in French.
    Johnnie was quiet for a moment, trying to figure out what kind of mood her mother was in. One moment she could be friendly, and the next she would snap at her like a vicious dog.
    â€œMama,” Johnnie said, also in French. “Did you love my daddy?”
    â€œYeah, I suppose so. Why?” she asked while cutting up her sausage.
    â€œI don’t remember him. I guess I wanna know what happened between y’all to put us in this situation, Mama.”
    â€œIt’s a long story, girl,” Marguerite said gruffly. “Maybe I’ll tell you about him someday.”
    â€œYou promise?”
    â€œYeah, I promise.” Marguerite put some more food into her mouth. As if it were an afterthought, she said, “Anything botherin’ you?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI don’t know . . . I guess it’s the way people look at me now.”
    â€œThey just jealous of you, girl. Women always have been jealous of us Baptiste girls ’cause we’s pretty.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œYeah, girl. They was jealous of my mama. They was jealous of me. And they sho’ as hell gon’ be jealous of you. I remember when I was about twelve years old. My mama was attractin’ all the men, especially the white ones, and all the women got mad at her and put us outta the house. We didn’t have nowhere to go, but my mother got one of her suitors to get us a place of our own, and that’s where we lived for a while. Then I met Michael, Benny’s daddy, and like a fool I ran away with him.”
    â€œWas he colored?”
    â€œYeah, he was colored. You don’t think a white man is goin’ to marry a colored woman in the South, do you?” Marguerite didn’t bother to wait for an answer. She just continued talking after a brief pause. “Let me tell you somethin’ about white men, girl, and don’t you never ever forget it. A white man got to have his brown sugar. That’s just the way he is. It’s in his blood now. See, girl, ever since slave time, the white man has been havin’ his brown sugar. He creep his ass out to the slave quarters at night, havin’ his way with the colored women. Then he go back to the big house with his family. The same shit Earl is doin’ today.
    â€œNow, his white sugar is for show, see. They need the white woman for respectability, but what they didn’t know is, all them years of sneakin’ down to the slave quarters and sportin’ with the colored women give him what they call a predilection for us. And a lot of his offspring end up havin’ the same penchant. That’s why colored