The color purple: Alice Walker: Chapter 2 — egypttales.com

It took him the whole spring, from March to June, to make up his mind to take me. All I thought about was Nettie. How she could come to me if I marry him and he is so love-struck with her I could figure out a way for us to run away. We both be hitting Nettie’s schoolbooks pretty hard, cause we know we got to be smart to get away. I know I’m not as pretty or as be hitting Nettie’s schoolbooks pretty hard, cause we know we got to be smart to getaway. I know I’m not as pretty or as smart as Nettie, but she says I am not dumb  The way you know who discover America, Nettie says, is to think about cucumbers. That's what Columbus sounds like. I learned all about Columbus in first grade but looks like he the first thing I forgot. She says Columbus comes here in boats call the Neater, the Peter, and the Santomareater. Indians so nice to him he force a bunch of ’me back home with him to wait on the queen   But it hard to think with getting married to Mr. _____ hanging over my headThe first time I got big Pa took me out of school. He never cares that I love it. Nettie stood there at the gate holding tight to my hand. I was all dressed for the first day. You too dumb to keep going to school, Pa says. Nettie is the clever one in this bunch But Pa, Nettie say, crying, Celia smart too. Even Miss Beasley says so. Nettie dote on Miss Beasley. Think nobody like her in the worldPa says, Whoever listens to anything Addie Beasley has to say. She run off at the mouth so much no man would have herThat how come she has to teach school. He never looks up from cleaning his gun. Pretty soon a bunch of white men comes walking across the yard. They have guns too  Pa gets up and follows me. The rest of the week I vomit and dress wild gameBut Nettie never gives up. Next thing I know Miss Beasley is at our house trying to talk to Pa. She says long has she been a teacher she never knows anybody wants to learn bad as Nettie and me. But when Pa call me out and she sees how tight my dress is, she stops talking and goNettie still doesn’t understand. I don’t either. All we notice is I’m all the time sick and fat  I feel bad sometimes Nettie does pass me in learning. But look like nothing she says can get in my brain and stay. She tries to tell me something about the ground not being flat. I just say, Yeah, as I know it. I never tell her how flat it looks to meMr. Come finally one day looking all drugs outThe woman he had helping him done quit. His mammy done said No MoreHe says, Let me see her again.Pa call me. Celia, he says. Like it was nothing. Mr. _____ want another look at youI go stand at the door. The sunshine in my eyes. He’s still upon his horse. He looks me up and downPa rattles his newspaper. Move up, he won’t bite, he saysI go closer to the steps, but not too close cause I’m a little scared of his horseTurn round, Pa says I turn round. One of my little brothers come up. I think it was Luscious. He fat and playful, all the time munching on somethingHe says, What are you doing that for?Pa says, Your sister is thinking about marriage  Didn’t mean anything to him. He pulls my dress tail and asks can he have some blackberry jam out of the safeI say, YeahShe good with children, Pa says, rattling his paper open more. Never heard her say a hard word to nary one of them. Just give ’me everything they ask for, is the only problemMr. _____ say, That cow still coming?He says, Her cowI spend my wedding day running from the oldest boy. He twelve. His mama died in his arms and he doesn’t want to hear anything bout a new one. He picks up a rock and laid my head open. The blood runs all down tween my breasts. His daddy says Don’t do that! But that’s all he says. He got four children, instead of three, two boys and two girls. The girl's hair ain’t been comb since their mammy died. I tell him I’ll just have to shave it off. Start fresh.  He says bad luck to cut a woman's hair. So after I bandage my head best I can and cook dinner—they have a spring, not a well, and a wood stove looks like a truck—I start trying to untangle hair. They are only six and eight and they cry. They scream. They accuse me of murder.By ten o’clock I’m done. They cry themselves to sleep. But I don’t cry. I lay there thinking about Nettie while he was on top of me wondering if she was safe. And then I think bout Shag Avery. I know what he doing to me he has done to Shag Avery and maybe she like it. I put my arm around himI was in town sitting on the wagon while Mr. _____ was in the dry good store. I have seen my baby girl. I knew it was herShe looks just like me and my daddy. Like more us than us is yourself. She is tagging long hind a lady and they are dressed just alike. They pass the wagon and I speak. The lady speaks pleasantly. My little girl looks up and sort of frowns. She fretted over something. She got my eyes just like they are today. Like everything I have seen, she has seen, and she pondered itI think she mines. My heart says she mine. But I don’t know she mine. If she mine, her name is Olivia. I embroider Olivia in the seat of all her daddies. I embody a lot of little stars and flowers too. He took the daddies when he took her. She was about two months old. Now she is about six I clam down from the wagon and I follow Olivia and her new mammy into a store. I watch her run her hand long side the counter like she isn't interested in anything. Her ma is buying cloth. She says Don’t touch anything. Olivia yawn That real pretty, I say, and help her mama drape a piece of cloth close to her faceShe smiles. Gonna make me my girl some new dresses, she says. Her daddy be so proudWho her daddy, I blurt out. It like at last somebody knowShe says Mr. _____. But that isn't my daddy's nameMr. _____? I say. Who he?She looks like I ask something none of my badnessThe Reverend Mr. _____, she said, then turns her face to the clerk. He says, Girl, you want that cloth or not? We got other customers sides youShe says, Yes sir. I want five yards, please sirHe snatches the cloth and thumps down the bolt. He doesn’t measure. When he thinks he got five-yard he takes it off. That be a dollar and thirty cents, he says. Do you need a thread?She says, Now suhHe says You can’t sew without thread. He picks up a spool and holds it against the cloth. That look like it is bout the right colorDon’t you thinkShe says, YessuhI trail along behind them on the streetI don’t have anything to offer and I feel poorShe looks up and down the street. He isn't here. He isn't here. She says like she gon cryWho isn't? I askThe Reverend Mr. ___, she says. He took the wagonMy husband wagon right here, I sayShe clams up. I thank you kindly, she says. We sit looking at all the folks that have come to town. I had never seen so many even at church. Some be a dress too. Some don’t hit on much. Dust git all up the ladies dress  She ask me Who is my husband was, now I knew all about hers. She laughs a little. I say Mr. _____. She says, Sure Neff? Like she knows all about him. Just didn’t know he was married. He a fine-looking man, she says. Not a finer-looking one in the county. White or black, she saysHe does look all right, I say. But I don’t think about it while I say it. Most times men look pretty much alike to meHow long have you had your little girl? I askOh, she is seven her next birthdayWhen that? I askShe thinks back. Then she says, DecemberI think, NovemberI say, real easy, What do you call her?She says, oh, we call her PaulineMy heart knockThen she frowns. But I call her OliviaWhy do you call her Olivia if it isn't her name? I askWell, just look at her, she says sort of impish, turning to look at the child, doesn’t she look like Olivia to you? Look at her eyes, for god’s sake. Somebody ole would have eyes like that. So I call her ole Livia. She chuckles. Now. Olivia, she says patting the child's hair. Well, here comes the Reverend Mr. _____, she says. I see a wagon and a great big man in black holding a whip. We sure do thank you for your hospitality. She laughs again, looks at the horses flicking flies off their rumpHospitality, she says. And I get it and laugh. It feels like to split my faceMr. _____, come out of the store. Clam up in the wagonSet down. Say real slow. What are you setting here laughing like a fool for?The EndThink your friends would be interested? Share this story! Labeled Posts Blogger Widget in Tab Style  

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