Perfect Peace Read Online Free Page B

jes’ make a person be what you want ’em to be! That’s sick!” She backed away from the bed slowly. “You can’t make a daughter outta no boy!”
    “Sure you can. Just think about it. You don’t know what most folks is. Not really. You ain’t seen ’em naked, is you?”
    Henrietta paused.
    “Well, is you?”
    “No, I ain’t, but . . .”
    “But what? Most folks
look
like a boy or girl, but you don’t
know
for sure what they is, do you?”
    “Come on, Emma Jean! Don’t try to justify this mess! I don’t care what you say. It ain’t right!”
    “Maybe it ain’t, but it’s what we gon’ do.”
    “We?” Henrietta hollered.
    “That’s right. Me and you. We in this together.”
    “I ain’t in nothin’ with you, Emma Jean Peace! You ain’t nothin’ but a ole connivin’, black heffa!”
    “Maybe I am, but I’m a damn good one! And, like I said, I ain’t got to explain nothin’ to you or nobody else. All you gotta do is be quiet ’bout my business.”
    Henrietta shivered. “What’s wrong with you, woman? You think ain’t nobody got good sense but you? Who gon’ believe this boy is a girl? You may as well admit you had a boy and be done with it. You can’t just turn no boy into a girl.”
    “I can do whatever the hell I want to, Miss Lady, and you gon’ keep yo’ mouth shut about it!”
    “Stop this, Emma Jean! Stop it right now!”
    The menfolks wondered why Henrietta was stomping, but they dared not enter the birthing room.
    “I know you been wantin’ a girl, but it wasn’t God’s will. You gotta take what God gives you and try to see the blessin’ in it.”
    “And sometimes you gotta make a blessin’ out of it.”
    Henrietta shook her head and breathed deeply. “You can think whatever you want to, Emma Jean, but I ain’t goin’ ’long wit’ no mess like this.” She turned to exit.
    “Oh, sure you will,” Emma Jean sassed, “unless you want folks to know ’bout Louise’s baby.”
    Like Lot’s wife, Henrietta turned and froze. “Don’t you dare! You don’t know nothin’ ’bout Louise’s baby! She ain’t got nothin’ to do with this shit you doin’!” Henrietta’s bottom lip trembled like a gospel soloist’s.
    “You right! That ain’t none o’ my business and this ain’t none o’ yours. Not really. So jes keep yo’ mouth shut and we’ll all be fine.”
    “But, Emma Jean, I ain’t ’bout to tell folks you had no girl. I can’t lie like that!”
    “Oh yes you can. Sure you can. You did it for Louise, didn’t you? Well, now you’ll have to do it again.”
    “Louise’s baby died, Emma Jean. Ain’t nothin’ else to know.”
    “Ha!” Emma Jean mocked. “That’s what most folk think, ain’t it?”
    Henrietta saw the truth in Emma Jean’s eyes and knew she couldn’t deny it any longer. She studied the crevices in the hardwood floor, then said, “Don’t do this to me, Emma Jean. Please.”
    “Do what?” Emma Jean squealed joyfully. “I ain’t doin’ nothing to you. Nothin’ at all.”
    Henrietta sat at the foot of the bed, unable to believe that Emma Jean Peace, of all people, knew what no one else in the world was supposed to know.
    “Any time you go sneakin’ ’round, thinkin’ you hidin’, I guarantee you somebody watchin’. Guarantee!”
    Henrietta sighed. Nothing to do now but set the record straight. “It ain’t what you think.”
    “I don’t think about it. And that’s what you should do about this—just don’t think about it.”
    Henrietta couldn’t yield so easily. “I wouldn’t neva blackmail nobody into doin’ somethin’ so evil. You shonuff got the devil in you, Emma Jean.”
    “Well, you musta had him in you, too, to take another woman’s child.”
    “I ain’t took nobody’s child! It didn’t happen like that.”
    “Well, however it happened, it happened. That’s yo’ business.” She lifted the baby to her bosom. “And this is mine.”
    Henrietta rose. “You gon’ answer to God for