Tulsa Burning Read Online Free Page B

until tomorrow."
    I'd been feeling pretty low already, but her saying I was good made me just plumb miserable. I stepped inside and set the
     milk jar on the kitchen table. "No, ma'am," I said. "I sure enough am not good, and I ain't Noble either, and you shouldn't
     call me that." I stepped back toward the door.
    "Noble is your name, and Noble you are," she said, and she peered at my face real close like. "I know a thing or two about
     boys, the good ones and the ones too troubled to be good. I raised one of the good ones myself." She waved her hand in the
     direction of the fireplace mantel and the big picture of Isaac. "I've taught a great many boys, many of them good and some
     of the troubled ones too. Boys are the same, white or colored. I know a good boy when I see one, and you, Noble Chase, are
     undoubtedly one of the good ones. What, I am wondering, would make you think otherwise?"
    "It's nothing, I reckon," I said. "But it ain't easy deciding what's good and what ain't." I shrugged. "The world ain't a
     very good place as I see it, awful cold and hungry."
    "Are you hungry, child? Gracious! I should have asked already. I have a big piece of ham left over from my supper, and I baked
     bread yesterday." She moved toward her small icebox.
    "No." I took another backward step toward the door. "I ain't hungry a'tall. I just had me two big bowls of stew."
    "You're sure?"
    I nodded my head, turned, and reached for the door handle. "I'm awful sorry, Mrs. Mitchell," I muttered.
    "For what?"
    For a second I couldn't answer. I couldn't tell her what I done. Then I thought of something to say. "I keep forgetting and
     saying 'ain't,' and you asked me not to use the word. I'm awful sorry."
    She smiled at me. "It's all right. I've no doubt that you will learn, Noble. I've no doubt that you will grow up to be well
     educated."
    "I don't know, but thank you, ma'am." I stepped out into the night.
    "You will be good too," Mrs. Mitchell added. "Just as you are right now."
    I didn't have nothing to say, just let on like I didn't hear her and headed off into the cold night. When last winter was
     over, I told myself I wouldn't never use them black keys again, but I didn't throw them away, just stuck them way back on
     my shelf. Finally, in the spring Pa sold a calf, and Ma got the money hid away before he could drink it up. Now I was putting
     them keys in my pocket, thinking I might use them if I had to escape from Sheriff Leonard's place.
    "Come along, son," Ma called from the next room. "Dudley will be getting impatient."
    Dudley! So Ma had taken to using the sheriff's first name. What would be next? The idea made me sick, but the name made me
     smile. Dudley! I hadn't never heard his given name before. Dudley! That was awful close to Dud. That's what I'd call him in
     my mind and under my breath. Sheriff Leonard was a Dud of a man, well known for bullying poor people, especially the colored
     folks. No wonder Mrs. Mitchell warned me to be careful.
    I rolled my clothes into a bundle with my marble jar and horseshoe in the middle of it. Then I looked around one last time
     at the little room I'd always slept in. Ma waited near the front door. "Hurry," she said. "We can't be taking advantage of
     the sheriff's kindness."
    "We sure enough cannot, because there ain't no such thing as that man's kindness." I moved toward the door. "He'll expect
     to be repaid, Ma, and you know it as sure as I do."
    That made her as mad as a wet hen, and she whirled to look back at me. "Nobe," she said, but she got interrupted by a shout
     from outside.
    "Vivian, will you get that kid of yours out here! We got to get a move on. I ain't got all day to fritter away. I got law
     work to see to."
    Ma scurried for the door. "We're coming, Dudley, right this very minute."
    Sheriff Leonard had left the front-porch rocking chair. He set behind the steering wheel of his automobile, his door still
     open. The minute I set foot on the porch, Rex come running to me. I