Breaking Matthew Read Online Free PDF Page A

Miss Ruby, I hope you plan on being back here at a respectable time this evening.”
    I put both my feet on the floor and faced her, pulling my shoulders back like she expected from all the girls who rented rooms from her. I was in no mood for another lecture about how my appearance reflected onto her. “Yes, ma’am. I don’t expect to be gone long.”
    She narrowed her green eyes. “Why, you’re shaking. What’s going on?”
    I clenched my hands behind my back. “Oh nothing. Just a brisk walk home from church is all.”
    I didn’t think she believed me, but at least she didn’t press me any further. I excused myself as politely as I could and darted up the stairs to my room, closing the door firmly behind me. Only then could I concentrate on slowing my heart rate. But from behind closed lids, I kept seeing Matthew standing in front of me, his arm outstretched, my name on his lips.
    I opened my eyes and crossed the small room to my bed. Sitting on its edge, I thought of those months after Daddy died—the harsh adjustment to life as a sharecropper, my shame when Matthew and Mary first saw the shack we’d moved into, my feeble faith as I’d floundered along the path of serving others. And then I thought of Hannah and the terrible state of her home when we’d met.
    Maybe a visit with Hannah was what I needed. It had been several weeks since I’d been out to see her. Our talks always seemed to help right my perspective. And right then, putting some miles between Hanceville and me seemed like a wonderful idea.
     
    As I drove west out of town toward the Colony, each passing mile relieved my tension a little more. Dr. Fisher had seemed reluctant to allow me to drive two days in a row, but my promise it would only be a short trip to visit friends had loosened him a bit. ’Course, had he known where I was going, he would’ve said no for sure. Despite his affection for Hannah, and his care for her after the tornado struck, he adamantly opposed our continued friendship. Some kind of malarkey about my safety. So I didn’t often tell him exactly where I was going, and he’d learned not to ask too many questions.
    “Why she coming out here all the time?”
    “You got to wait on her in your own home?”
    “Ain’t you scared?”
    I laughed to myself as I pulled up into Hannah’s yard. We’d decided long ago that we preferred a world where a colored girl and white girl could be friends no matter what others thought about it, and that was the world we were building for ourselves. One day at a time. One visit at a time.
    I supposed she heard me drive up, ’cause she met me on the front porch with a big smile and a little shadow peeking out from behind her skirt. Before I’d taken two steps, Isaac darted out from behind her and came running to me. “It’s Miss Ruby, Mama!” He leapt up and threw his little tan arms around my neck, and I carried him back to the porch. When he pulled his face back, I looked into his sweet gray eyes and felt my spirits take flight again.
    I set him down and hugged Hannah while she fussed at me and loved on me at the same time. “Now, Miss Ruby, you done surprised me! I ain’t got nothin’ but a bit a cornbread and milk today, and you gone show up on my doorstep!”
    I tried to reassure her that I’d already eaten and didn’t want anything but her company, but she wouldn’t hear of it. They didn’t have much in the way of food, but she’d try to feed me whatever she did have. I followed her into the kitchen and sat down at the table, as she went to filling a bowl with cornbread. When she took a pitcher of milk out of the icebox, and I saw how little was left, I insisted she put it back.
    “I don’t care for milk with my cornbread, Hannah. I’ll just take some water.”
    She raised a finger at me and shook it. “Now don’t be telling me no stories. I seen you eat plenty a cornbread with milk.”
    “Not today though. I’m just too full.”
    She put the pitcher back and came