“You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong.”
“[…] Are you hungry?”
“No’m,” said the being-dragged boy. “I just want you to turn me loose.”
“Was I bothering you when I turned that corner?” asked the woman.
“No’m.”
“But you put yourself in contact with me,” said the woman. “If you think that contact is not going to last awhile, you got another thought coming. When I get through with you, sir, you are going to remember Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.”
“Then, Roger, you go to that sink and wash your face,” said the woman, whereupon she turned him loose — at last. Roger looked at the door — looked at the woman — looked at the door — and went to the sink.
“I believe you’re hungry — or been hungry — to try to snatch my pocketbook!”
“I want a pair of blue suede shoes,” said the boy.
The door was open. He could make a dash for it down the hall. He could run, run, run, run!
The woman was sitting on the daybed. After a while she said, “I were young once and I wanted things I could not get.”
“You thought I was going to say but, didn’t you? You thought I was going to say, but I didn’t snatch people’s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn’t going to say that.” Pause. Silence. “I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son — neither tell God, if He didn’t already know. Everybody’s got something in common. So you set down while I fix us something to eat. You might run that comb through your hair so you will look presentable.”
But the boy took care to sit on the far side of the room, away from the purse, where he thought she could easily see him out of the corner of her eye if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now.
Now here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my pocketbook nor nobody’s else’s – because shoes got by devilish ways will burn your feet.
The boy wanted to say something other than, ‘Thank you, m’am’ to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but although his lips moved, he couldn’t even say that […]
