Sweet Song Read Online Free PDF Page B

dress, then pulled it open. Her breasts were white as a new snow. They were thick too, as thick as her body allowed.
    Leon tried to look away but couldn’t.
    “If you don’t, I’ll say you did.”
    “No,” Leon said.
    “I’m grieving and need comforting.”
    “Not by me,” he said. “Please Miss Hillary. Go see your Jacob. Go on.”
    “I’ll tell Pa you did it.”
    “No. Why you doin’ this to me. We supposed to be friends.”
    “We are friends, that’s why. No one has to know.” She pulled at the rope around his waist and then pulled her dress over her head.
    Leon’s body weakened. He tried not to do it, but his body and Hillary’s didn’t listen.
    It was quick and she started to cry afterwards. “I’m sorry Leon. I’m so sorry. I’m crazy like my ma and pa. I’m crazy and pulled you into it.”
    “Don’t be crazy,” he said. “Please, don’t be crazy. We’ll never do that again. Go see your Jacob.” He held her as she hit her fist against her thigh. He pulled her tight to his chest and rocked her. His eyes were open wide. He remembered Edna’s words. He was evil. And his evilness affected everyone around him. Hillary was next in line.
    “You got to go,” he said. “You got to be quiet.”
    She stood naked before him, bending to get her clothes. The smell of them rose with her and came putrid to Leon’s nose. A tart and sweet smell together that didn’t fit into the world quite right. Her heavy breasts hung down as she bent over and his bare penis rose again.
    Hillary noticed and said, “That’s pretty.” Then she burst into tears. “What did I make you do?”
    Thankful that she took the blame, Leon also feared who she might confide in. Her vulnerability could turn on them both.
    “You’re my brother,” she said.
    “I’m all nigger. Really, I feel it inside.”
    She shook her head.
    “No ma’am, Miss Hillary, no, I’m not your bother. Don’t think it. Please, say you know different.”
    She put on her clothes and hugged him. “I won’t tell. I know I sinned, but it’d be a bigger sin if I told.”
    “They’d lynch me,” Leon said as though they both didn’t already know it.
    “It’s a burden I’ll carry now.”
    Leon pulled his pants on. He calmed. “I got to go home.”
    “Me too,” she said.
    “I’m sorry,” he said.
    “It’s my sinning mind. It’s the sinning I was born into. My pa did it and now I did. I think Hank did it too, with a shack girl.” Hillary touched Leon’s shoulder and reassured him one last time that she’d keep quiet.
    When she was out of view, Leon ran along the creek, back into the woods, and all the way home.
     

CHAPTER 5
     
    S weat dripped from Leon as he approached the shack. He slowed to catch his breath, then entered. No one was there except Martha. She accused and judged him. He knew the look.
    “I’d a thought that white blood a made you smart, but you got nigger brains inside your white head.”
    “You right. You right.”
    “Don’t use that poor-boy talk no more. Not to me. It like you talkin’ down and I ain’t less than.”
    “I’m sorry, Martha.”
    She took her time moving across the room. “I don’t have no idea what you sorry for, boy, but I know guilt when I sees it.”
    “I done nothing.”
    She pierced his words with an outstretched finger.
    “I didn’t do anything,” Leon corrected.
    “You lie.”
    “Martha.”
    “Don’t keep lyin’ to me. Just don’t say nothin’. Just go help your pappy. And pray to the Lord.”
    Leon left the shack and searched for Big Leon. He ran into Tunny, who told him that Big Leon headed out to check the north field for varmints.
    Leon ran until he saw Big Leon standing mid-field with his head held high as he scanned the property. Big Leon’s blackness belied his relation to Leon.
    Leon watched his father for a moment and wondered whether Big Leon wanted to be alone. They both knew where Bess would be: soothing Sir’s sadness. What of Hillary now that she was