DEAR GOD,

Harpo girl daddy say Harpo not good enough for her. Harpo been courting the girl a while. He say he sit in the parlor with
her, the daddy sit right there in the corner till everybody feel terrible. Then he go sit on the porch in front the open door
where he can hear everything. Nine o’clock come, he bring Harpo his hat.
Why I’m not good enough? Harpo ast Mr. ____.
Mr. _____ say, Your mammy.
Harpo say, What wrong with my mammy?
Mr. _____ say, Somebody kill her.
Harpo be trouble with nightmares. He see his mama running cross the pasture trying to git home. Mr. ____, the man they
say her boyfriend, catch up with her. She got Harpo by the hand. They both running and running. He grab hold of her
shoulder, say, You can’t quit me now. You mine. She say, No I ain’t. My place is with my children. He say, Whore, you ain’t
got no place. He shoot her in the stomach. She fall down. The man run. Harpo grab her in his arms, put her head in his lap.
He start to call, Mama, Mama. It wake me up. The other children, too. They cry like they mama just die. Harpo come to,
shaking.
I light the lamp and stand over him, patting his back.
It not her fault somebody kill her, he say. It not! It not!
Naw, I say. It not.
Everybody say how good I is to Mr. _____ children. I be good to them. But I don’t feel nothing for them. Patting Harpo
back not even like patting a dog. It more like patting another piece of wood. Not a living tree, but a table, a chifferobe.
Anyhow, they don’t love me neither, no matter how good I is.
They don’t mind. Cept for Harpo they won’t work. The girls face always to the road. Bub be out all times of night drinking
with boys twice his age. They daddy puff on his pipe.
Harpo tell me all his love business now. His mind on Sofia Butler day and night.
She pretty, he tell me. Bright.
Smart?
Naw. Bright skin. She smart too though, I think. Sometime us can git her away from her daddy.
I know right then the next thing I hear, she be big.
If she so smart how come she big? I ast.
Harpo shrug. She can’t git out the house no other way, he say. Mr. _____ won’t let us marry. Say I’m not good enough to
come in his parlor. But if she big I got a right to be with her, good enough or no.
Where yall gon stay?
They got a big place, he say. When us marry I’ll be just like one of the family.
Humph, I say. Mr. _____ didn’t like you before she big, he ain’t gonna like you cause she big.
Harpo look trouble.
Talk to Mr. ____, I say. He your daddy. Maybe he got some good advice. Maybe not. I think.
Harpo bring her over to meet his daddy. Mr. _____ say he want to have a look at her. I see ’em coming way off up the
road. They be just marching, hand in hand, like going to war. She in front a little. They come up on the porch, I speak and
move some chairs closer to the railing. She sit down and start to fan herself with a hansker. It sure is hot, she say. Mr.
_____ don’t say nothing. He just look her up and down. She bout seven or eight months pregnant, bout to bust out her
dress. Harpo so black he think she bright, but she ain’t that bright. Clear medium brown skin, gleam on it like on good
furniture. Hair notty but a lot of it, tied up on her head in a mass of plaits. She not quite as tall as Harpo but much bigger,
and strong and ruddy looking, like her mama brought her up on pork.
She say, How you, Mr. _____?
He don’t answer the question. He say, Look like you done got yourself in trouble.
Naw suh, she say. I ain’t in no trouble. Big, though.
She smooth the wrinkles over her stomach with the flats of her hands.
Who the father? he ast.
She look surprise. Harpo, she say.
How he know that?
He know. She say.
Young womens no good these days, he say. Got they legs open to every Tom, Dick and Harry.
Harpo look at his daddy like he never seen him before. But he don’t say nothing.
Mr. _____ say, No need to think I’m gon let my boy marry you just cause you in the family way. He young and limited.
Pretty gal like you could put anything over on him.
Harpo still don’t say nothing.
Sofia face git more ruddy. The skin move back on her forehead. Her ears raise.
But she laugh. She glance at Harpo sitting there with his head down and his hands tween his knees.
She say, What I need to marry Harpo for? He still living here with you. What food and clothes he git, you buy.
He say, Your daddy done throwed you out. Ready to live in the street I guess.
She say, Naw. I ain’t living in the street. I’m living with my sister and her husband. They say I can live with them for the
rest of my life. She stand up, big, strong, healthy girl, and she say, Well, nice visiting. I’m going home.
Harpo get up to come too. She say, Naw, Harpo, you stay here. When you free, me and the baby be waiting.
He sort of hang there between them a while, then he sit down again. I look at her face real quick then, and seem like a
shadow go cross it. Then she say to me, Mrs. ____, I’d thank you for a glass of water before I go, if you don’t mind.
The bucket on the shelf right there on the porch. I git a clean glass out the safe and dip her up some water. She drink it
down, almost in one swallow. Then she run her hands over her belly again and she take off. Look like the army change
direction, and she heading off to catch up.
Harpo never git up from his chair. Him and his daddy sit there and sit there and sit there. They never talk. They never
move. Finally I have supper and go to bed. I git up in the morning it feel like they still sitting there. But Harpo be in the
outhouse, Mr. _____ be shaving.