DEAR GOD,

I ast him to take me instead of Nettie while our new mammy sick. But he just ast me what I’m talking bout. I tell him I can
fix myself up for him. I duck into my room and come out wearing horsehair, feathers, and a pair of our new mammy high
heel shoes. He beat me for dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway.
Mr. _____ come that evening. I’m in the bed crying. Nettie she finally see the light of day, clear. Our new mammy she see
it too. She in her room crying. Nettie tend to first one, then the other. She so scared she go out doors and vomit. But not
out front where the two mens is.
Mr. _____ say, Well Sir, I sure hope you done change your mind.
He say, Naw, Can’t say I is.
Mr. _____ say, Well, you know, my poor little ones sure could use a mother.
Well, He say, real slow, I can’t let you have Nettie. She too young. Don’t know nothing but what you tell her. Sides, I want
her to git some more schooling. Make a schoolteacher out of her. But I can let you have Celie. She the oldest anyway. She
ought to marry first. She ain’t fresh tho, but I spect you know that. She spoiled. Twice. But you don’t need a fresh woman
no how. I got a fresh one in there myself and she sick all the time. He spit, over the railing. The children git on her nerve,
she not much of a cook. And she big already.
Mr. _____ he don’t say nothing. I stop crying I’m so surprise.
She ugly. He say. But she ain’t no stranger to hard work. And she clean. And God done fixed her. You can do everything
just like you want to and she ain’t gonna make you feed it or clothe it.
Mr. _____ still don’t say nothing. I take out the picture of Shug Avery. I look into her eyes. Her eyes say Yeah, it bees that
way sometime.
Fact is, he say, I got to git rid of her. She too old to be living here at home. And she a bad influence on my other girls.
She’d come with her own linen. She can take that cow she raise down there back of the crib. But Nettie you flat out can’t
have. Not now. Not never.
Mr. _____ finally speak. Clearing his throat. I ain’t never really look at that one, he say.
Well, next time you come you can look at her. She ugly. Don’t even look like she kin to Nettie. But she’ll make the better
wife. She ain’t smart either, and I’ll just be fair, you have to watch her or she’ll give away everything you own. But she can
work like a man.
Mr. _____ say How old she is?
He say, She near twenty. And another thing—She tell lies.