Chapter 39
SOPHIA
The rumor had spread quickly across the campus of West Oak Forest Academy. All the Negro students had monkey tails, and if you got close to any of them, you’d catch a tail too.
“This is childish and bizarre, and nothing more than leftover propaganda with roots in slavery,” said Louis as the five Negro students crammed around a table in the corner of the cafeteria. “Anything to portray the Negro as something other than a person just like them.”
“Simply ridiculous.” Willa shook her lovely curls.
Sophia threaded her fingers together under the table.
In front of her sat a plate full of mashed potatoes, meat loaf, and creamed spinach.
None of which she had touched. It had been hard for her to eat anything substantial for the last few days.
Her nerves just wouldn’t settle after the incident with Patty.
She told no one but Willa what had happened in the locker room but swore her to secrecy.
The boys couldn’t know the humiliation she had suffered.
It was embarrassing. To have those girls auctioning her off like an animal, then exposing her private parts.
The one silver lining was that the secret with Willa had wiped away any residue of her initial anger at finding Sophia in Max’s arms at the telephone booth.
“Until this dies down, we move throughout campus with a buddy system. We need to have each other’s backs,” Max added.
Sophia nodded as she watched how the light from the window sparked the irises of his eyes, remembering how his chest felt pressed against hers, how the pitch in his voice soothed her.
“Well, we have study hall.” Willa tapped Sophia’s arm, interrupting her reminiscence.
“Right, we better get going.” Sophia stood and gathered her things, and when she chanced another look at Max, he was staring right back at her.
Christmas break was four days away, and Sophia was petrified that the moment Ma Deary saw her, she would chain her to her dugout room adjacent to the kitchen and forbid her to return to school.
But what choice did Sophia have? Forest would be closed for two long weeks, and although she fancied herself a survivalist, she couldn’t make it that long without food.
Not to mention what would happen to her if she got caught.
“I hate school breaks,” she mumbled under her breath.
Willa closed the lid on the jar of Pond’s cold cream and stared at her.
“You are really secretive, Sophia Clark. We’ve lived together for a full semester, and I still don’t know that much about you.
Why on earth don’t you ever want to go home?
” she demanded. Then she leaned forward. “Are you in danger?”
Sophia wrung her hands, unsure how much she could trust Willa with. “My folks didn’t approve of me coming to Forest. They wanted me to stay back and work the farm.”
“Can’t they hire people to do that?”
“Yes, hopefully, by now they have. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to them since—”
“I thought you were on the phone with your brother and that he was sick.” Willa’s eyebrows raised. “That day with Max?”
Sophia had nearly forgotten her lie. “Yes, I talked to my brothers, but not my folks.”
Willa moved from her desk to her bed. “If you are that frightened, I guess you could come home with me again.”
“Willa, you are so kind to offer, but I don’t want to impose.”
“If you can’t go home, you don’t really have a choice, now do you?”
The sad fact was Willa was right.
“Then it’s settled. My parents won’t mind.
We do it up really big for Christmas. Lights, eight-foot tree with all the trimmings, and a big feast. Oh, my mother makes a seafood gumbo on Christmas Eve that will knock your socks off.
You’ll love every moment of it. You’ll see.
” Willa moved her comforter back and slipped between the sheets.
“Don’t forget to take those pills my father prescribed for you.
Last night you were screaming like a banshee.
I’m surprised the dorm mother didn’t think that I was killing you. ”
Sophia had one last dime and pushed herself to make another call before leaving school for winter break.
As a result, she had to run to catch Willa in the pickup line.
When the shiny Cadillac Fleetwood arrived, Sophia was sweaty and out of breath.
To her dismay, it was Willa’s grandmother, Rose Pride, who again emerged from the backseat.
She was dressed in a navy and crème bouclé suit, a matching scarf tied at her neck with “Chanel” in big block letters.
Rose bristled when her eyes took in Sophia; then she turned and opened her arms to Willa and kissed both her cheeks.
“My darling Wilhelmina,” she cooed.
“Hello, Grandmother.”
Rose turned up her nose. “Sophia, I’m surprised to see you still here. I thought you’d be gone by now.”
“She’s coming home with us,” Willa said brightly.
Rose took a step back, shaking her head. “Darling, she can’t come with us. Didn’t your mother tell you? We are going to New York City to visit Uncle Teddy for the holiday.”
“Really?” Willa shrieked.
“Yes, we have it all planned, and there is simply no extra room.” Rose turned to Sophia. “I’m sorry, but is there someplace that we can drop you off along the way, dear?”
Sophia knew the feel of a cold snub when she was slapped with one, and Mrs. Pride’s was downright icy.
It was obvious in the way she eyed Sophia that she was eager to get rid of her like yesterday’s trash.
Think, she said to herself. Sophia knew only two addresses by heart, and there was no way she’d have the Prides in their fancy Cadillac drop her off at their dilapidated farmhouse.
“Yes, ma’am. I do,” she said to Rose.
“But Sophia, you said—”
“The decision is final,” Rose cut Willa off. “Please give the address to Paulie.”
Once again, Sophia rode in the front seat with Paulie, the Prides’ driver.
The Cadillac’s ride was so smooth that despite the symphony of worries playing inside her head, once they hit the highway, Sophia couldn’t stay awake.
She slept until the city traffic slowed the car.
When she opened her eyes, she recognized the Washington Monument.
They had arrived in D.C., and her stomach churned with apprehension.
Through the rearview mirror, she could see that Willa was asleep in her grandmother’s arms. Paulie took East Capitol Street and then pulled onto A Street, where Ma Deary and Unc’s mother had left them a brick home that they’d turned into a rent-by-the-week tenement.
Sophia hadn’t been to the house in over a year, but when she was younger, they had come often to collect the money on Friday afternoons.
As the car eased down the block, Sophia felt the weight of embarrassment pressing on her chest. They passed saggy porches, cracked cement stairs with missing railings, overgrown patches of weeds and grass, sidewalks littered with newspapers, shards of beer bottles, crushed soda cans, and fresh dog mess.
Two alley cats dashed across their path as the car stopped in front of the house with well-worn green synthetic turf peeling at the edges on the front porch.
Three plastic chairs pressed against the windowsill.
A man dressed in a vintage wool coat stumbled in front of the car, then peered in the window.
Paulie honked his horn, and the man continued on, clutching a brown paper bag.
Sophia’s face stung, and she couldn’t bear to look in the backseat at Willa or Mrs. Pride; no doubt both were wide awake and watching.
“Is this where you live?” Willa asked. “I thought you said you lived on a farm.”
“I do. But my family owns this house too,” Sophia said with a fake cheer that sounded hollow even to her own ears.
“See you back at school. Thanks for the ride, Mrs. Pride.” She opened the car door before Paulie could come around and do it for her.
Sophia didn’t want any more attention. She knew a big Cadillac like the Prides’ had already drawn the neighbors’ nosy eyes to the windows.
“Will you be okay for the whole break?” Willa asked, catching Sophia’s eye.
“Yes, of course.” Sophia made her lips smile. “Enjoy New York.”
Rose motioned for the driver to pull off. Sophia felt the wind from the car in her hair before she reached the top of the front stairs.
Placing her tattered train case at her feet, Sophia crossed her fingers and pushed the bell. She waited a few beats and then pressed the bell again. Finally, she heard someone shuffling toward the door.
“Who is it?” a woman screeched.
“Sophia.”
“Who?”
“Sophia.”
The front door dragged open far enough for the woman to peep her head out. “Who you?” She wore a raggedy mushroom wig that made her look like a poor rendition of a background singer.
“Is Wayon here?”
“What’s it to you?” Her red lips dipped into a frown. “Don’t come ’round here asking ’bout my man,” she snapped.
Sophia heard heavy footsteps, then Unc came around the woman and pushed the front door wide. “Rusty! Whatcha doing here, gal?” He ducked past the woman and pulled Sophia into a hug, crushing her to his wide chest. “I thought you were away at that fancy school.”
“Who the fuck is this?” the woman howled.
“Gloria, go in the house and sit down somewhere ’fore I whoop your ass. This here is my niece.”
“How I know she kin?”
“ ’Cause I just told you. Now get.” He glared.
Gloria huffed off. Sophia stepped into the vestibule. The hallway was damp and smelled of pickle juice. The dull wooden floors creaked beneath their feet as Unc led Sophia down the narrow hall and back into the kitchen.
“You hungry?” Unc asked. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and chiseled like a boxer. He carried himself like a man who got respect on the streets.
“A little.”
An off-white Formica table took up most of the room, with tan leather swivel chairs.
A stack of papers sat on one corner of the table, so Sophia sat on the other side and shrugged out of her coat.
The television blasted I Spy from the living room, and Sophia could make out Bill Cosby’s voice over Gloria mumbling to herself.
Unc ignored Gloria. “How’d you get here?
Deary know you out of school?” He turned on the pilot to the stove.
It tick-ticked, then he struck a match and fed it to the pilot until it roared with fire.
Unc put a cast-iron pan over the eyelet, tipped in what looked like bacon grease from a mason jar on the counter, and then cracked three eggs. “Fried hard?”
She smiled. “You know it.” It felt good to be with someone who knew her.
Once Unc put the plate of eggs and two pieces of jellied toast in front of her, he sat down and lit his Pall Mall. Sophia forked eggs into her mouth while Unc caught her up on the farm, the new workers, and the last time he’d seen her brothers.
Sophia ate the crust of her toast. “Unc, can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
“Where did I come from?”
Unc choked on the smoke from his cigarette, pounded his fist against his chest, and then chuckled. “What the hell kinda question is that?”
“I mean, where did I come from? I don’t remember much about my childhood. There are no pictures. Whenever I’ve asked Ma Deary, she says, ‘We the only family you need to know.’ That’s not a real answer.”
“Well, we are the only family you need to know. And we love you, girl. Stop asking stupid questions,” he said, getting up from the table with his back to her and strolling out of the room.
Sophia finished her eggs as she heard Unc and Gloria whispering in the living room. Then Unc came back wearing a double-breasted leather coat with his lapel popped.
“I gotta make a run. Wash up them dishes for me. Damn roaches think they paying the bills ’round here.”
“Where you going?”
“I gotta go see a man about a dog.” He turned to the small mirror pinned to the wall and licked his finger. Then he ran it across his mustache.
Sophia knew he wasn’t really seeing to no dog. That was Unc’s way of saying “None of your business.”
“But I’ll be back in a few hours. You gonna have to stay the night here, and I’ll drive you out to the farm tomorrow morning. I was going out there anyhow.”
“I can’t go to the farm.”
“Deary ain’t frontin’ on you no more. She knows you did what you did so you could get that education.”
Sophia looked at her empty plate, not feeling convinced.
Unc leaned against the doorframe. “You do okay up at that school?”
“I did fine.” She tried smiling but knew it fell short on her cheeks as the memory of Opal pulling down her panties flashed through her mind. She shook the image away.
“Sit tight. We have four boarders upstairs. Don’t talk to none of them. If they ask you any questions, tell them they gotta wait for me.”
“Got it.”
“Good to see you, Rusty,” he said, patting her on the head, then he pressed his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket and strolled down the hall.
Sophia could hear the click-clop of Gloria teetering on her high heels behind him. “Who did you say she was again?” the woman called to him. “She too pretty to be roaming the streets, just showing up unannounced.”
The front door closed shut, and she heard the seal of the double locks.
Sophia went to the sink. Washed her dishes and scrubbed the pan clean.
She waited a full ten minutes to make sure Unc wouldn’t double back for a forgotten item.
Then she reached up into the cabinet over the sink, pulling down the canister that said “Flour.” She reached inside past a mess of pins, clips, pencils, and buttons for the nickels, dimes, and quarters.
She put the money on the counter and dug deeper until she found what she was looking for.
A copper-colored key, the spare to the front door.
She opened her satchel bag, pulled out the white pages, studied the address, and then slipped the key and coins into her coat pocket and headed for the door.