The Color of Your Skin Ain’t the Color of Your Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

having to care for you and the others is more than I can face. I am sorry about your mama. She was a good lady and I will miss her too. I know you and Mayme will be able to take care of yourselves until I figure out what’s to be done. I’m sure you can take care of yourselves better than I could anyway. I’m sorry I haven’t been a better uncle to you. Your secret is safe with me. Your uncle Templeton.”
    She stopped and brushed back a few remaining tears.
    “I don’t know why I’m so sad,” she said. “But I can’t help it.”
    “Do you think he’ll be back?” I asked.
    “I don’t know,” replied Katie. “With Uncle Templeton … you never know. And he …” she began to say, then paused and smiled sadly again, “and he took the money we had in the cigar box behind the sugar bin, just like Mama said he used to do. Why did he do that, Mayme?” she asked, looking at me with a bewildered expression. “If he’d asked, I’d have given it to him. But why did he just take it?” I didn’t have the chance to answer Katie’s question.
    I didn’t have an answer anyway. Just then we heard Aleta’s steps coming down the stairs. Emma wasn’t far behind her.
    It took us a day or two, and then Katie and I started to think again about the cotton. It was ready to be picked and we couldn’t wait forever, and her mama’s second loan had to get paid. It was still cloudy and dark and a little chilly, but the next day we prepared to resume our work in the field. We didn’t get out till the afternoon and only put in two or three hours at it. But that was enough to get back into our working routine.
    The next morning, once we’d milked the cows and tended the other animals, all four of us went back out in the field to work again. It was tedious, but we were happy to put in a full day. We worked slower and went along in rows next to each other. Katie and me worked slow enough to stay even with Aleta and Emma in their rows. We’d been working two or three hours and the weariness had begun to set in.
    “I think these rows are getting longer every time we turn around,” said Katie with a sigh.
    “That’s the way cotton is,” I laughed. “It seems like it’s never going to end!”
    “I’m tired, Katie,” said Aleta. “May we please stop?”
    “Maybe it’s time for a water break,” nodded Katie, brushing her hair back from her face and standing up straight. “And we don’t have to work as hard and fast now anyway.”
    No one argued with her. A water break sounded just fine!
    We walked toward the wagon, where William was sleeping and where we had jugs of water and milk.
    “Why we gotta keep pickin’ dis cotton, Miz Katie,” said Emma as we went, “when you already gib dat bank man his money?”
    “I only gave him some of the money, Emma,” replied Katie. “My mama owed the bank a lot of money and we still have another—”
    Katie stopped abruptly.
    I looked over at her. She was standing still as a statue. I turned around in the direction she was looking. There was a tall black man walking slowly toward us from between the long rows of cotton.
    It was Henry!
    Suddenly we forgot all about water! We just stood there stock-still as he walked toward us. I was sure that Jeremiah hadn’t told him. But there was no way around his finding out now more than we’d wanted to tell him. It seemed like our secret was suddenly spilling out all over the place—was everybody going to find out?
    He sauntered up and stopped and just looked us over one at a time. We’d been trying so hard to keep what we were doing a secret from anyone in town, I figured we were in big trouble now. And I reckon I figured that the worst of it’d come on me. Black folks are mighty protecting of their whites, and when something’s wrong they figure it must be a colored’s fault. And the few times we’d seen Henry in town, the look he’d given me felt more than a little uncomfortable.
    But Henry just stood there a few seconds.