Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers] Read Online Free PDF Page B

the office, then I’ll be back.” The doctor placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
    Henry Ann sat down on the porch and watched him turn his car around in the middle of the road and head back for town. It was all so . . . unreal. She should be down in the garden forking up potatoes or picking beans. Instead she was sitting here, wringing her hands, waiting for her father to die. Nothing would ever be the same again. All her life she had had him to depend on. Soon she would be alone.
    Childhood memories flooded her mind.
    Swing me, Daddy. Swing me higher.
    Hold on tight, babe.
    Daddy, guess what? Miss Brown said I had a voice like a bird. She chose me to sing at the Christmas party.
    I’ve been tellin’ you that all along.
    I’m sorry I put too much salt in the corn bread.
    It’s all right, honey. Feed it to the chickens. We won’t have to salt the eggs when we cook ’em.
    Ah . . . Daddy, you’re funny.
    Not as funny as you, freckle-face.
    Thank you, Daddy, for the new shoes and the button hook. I’ll be the only girl in school with red shoes.
    The screen door slammed, jarring Henry Ann from her thoughts.
    “Is this enough peas?” Isabel held out the pan.
    “Don’t slam the door!”
    “How’d I know the old thing would slam? Is this enough peas?”
    “I guess it . . . is.” Henry Ann stood. The doctor’s car pulled to a stop in front of the house and a large woman got out. A blue cloth was tied around her head and a dark gingham granny dress hung to her ankles.
    “Thanky for the ride,” Aunt Dozie called, and came through the gate as the doctor turned his car around in the middle of the road and again headed back to town.
    Henry Ann went down the steps to meet her. Dozie dropped a bundle to the ground and opened her arms.
    “I knowed it. I knowed it. I knowed it when I saw de doctor’s car go by comin’ dis way. I said, Dozie, it’s time to gets yore body on down de road. I was comin’, chile, when Doctor turn ’round ’n’ brung me.”
    She folded Henry Ann to her ample breast and held her while, for the first time, Henry Ann gave way to tears and cried as if her heart would break. After a while she pulled away.
    “How did you know, Aunt Dozie?”
    “Honey, yo’re daddy come tol’ me a while back that ya’d be needin’ me. He told me again last week after he been to de doctor. Lawsy, I hates it, chile. But it’s God’s will, and we gots to endure.”
    “He told you that he—?”
    “He say to me, Dozie, ya took care of my babe when she was little bitty. She love ya. She gonna need ya when I’m gone. And here I is, chile, fer as long as ya want me.”
    “I want you, Aunt Dozie. You and Daddy are the dearest things in the world to me.”
    “We’s goin’ to get through dis, chile. With God’s help, we gets through it.”
    With their arms around each other they walked up onto the porch. Isabel eyed the woman’s round black face with suspicion.
    “This is Dozie Jones, Isabel. I’ve known her all my life. She took care of me when I was little.”
    “Lucky you. I took care of myself.”
    “Hello, girl. What ya got dere? Hummm . . . fresh peas. Day be mighty good eatin’ cooked with taters.”
    “Then cook ’em.” Isabel shoved the pan into Dozie’s hands.
    “Come on in, Aunt Dozie.” Henry Ann took the pan of peas from the surprised woman. “Doctor Hendricks said Daddy would sleep for a couple hours.” In the kitchen, she set the pan on the table, took Isabel’s arm, and pushed her out onto the back stoop. When they were away from the door, she spun her around and faced her. “I’m going to say this one time. If you are rude or sassy to Aunt Dozie again, I’ll put you on the bus and send you out of here so fast you’ll think you’re in a tornado. Understand?”
    Isabel jerked her arm free. “She’s colored, ain’t she? Ya can cozy up to her, if ya want. I ain’t lowerin’ myself to cuddle up to . . . no colored trash.”
    “It’s a