The Color Purple Read Online Free PDF Page B

say.
    Shug Avery? Harpo ast. He look up at me.
    Help me git her in the house, Mr. _____ say.
    I think my heart gon fly out my mouth when I see one of her foots come poking out.
    She not lying down. She climbing down tween Harpo and Mr. ____. And she dress to kill. She got on a red wool dress and chestful of black beads. A shiny black hat with what look like chickinhawk feathers curve down side one cheek, and she carrying a little snakeskin bag, match her shoes.
    She look so stylish it like the trees all round the house draw themself up tall for a better look. Now I see she stumble, tween the two men. She don’t seem that well acquainted with her feets.
    Close up I see all this yellow powder caked up on her face. Red rouge. She look like she ain’t long for this world but dressed well for the next. But I know better.
    Come on in, I want to cry. To shout. Come on in. With God help, Celie going to make you well. But I don’t say nothing. It not my house. Also I ain’t been told nothing.
    They git halfway up the step, Mr. _____ look up at me.
    Celie, he say. This here Shug Avery. Old friend of the family. Fix up the spare room. Then he look down at her, hold her in one arm, hold on to the rail with the other. Harpo on the other side, looking sad. Sofia and the children in the yard, watching.
    I don’t move at once, cause I can’t. I need to see her eyes. I feel like once I see her eyes my feets can let go the spot where they stuck.
    Git moving, he say, sharp.
    And then she look up.
    Under all that powder her face black as Harpo. She got a long pointed nose and big fleshy mouth. Lips look like black plum. Eyes big, glossy. Feverish. And mean. Like, sick as she is, if a snake cross her path, she kill it.
    She look me over from head to foot. Then she cackle. Sound like a death rattle. You sure is ugly, she say, like she ain’t believed it.

DEAR GOD,
    Ain’t nothing wrong with Shug Avery. She just sick. Sicker than anybody I ever seen. She sicker than my mama was when she die. But she more evil than my mama and that keep her alive.
    Mr. _____ be in the room with her all time of the night or day. He don’t hold her hand though. She too evil for that. Turn loose my goddam hand, she say to Mr. ____. What the matter with you, you crazy? I don’t need no weak little boy can’t say no to his daddy hanging on me. I need me a man, she say. A man. She look at him and roll her eyes and laugh. It not much of a laugh but it keep him away from the bed. He sit over in the corner away from the lamp. Sometime she wake up in the night and don’t even see. But he there. Sitting in the shadows chewing on his pipe. No tobacco in it. First thing she said, I don’t want to smell no stinking blankety-blank pipe, you hear me, Albert?
    Who Albert, I wonder. Then I remember Albert Mr. ____   first name.
    Mr. _____ don’t smoke. Don’t drink. Don’t even hardly eat. He just got her in that little room, watching every breath.
    What happen to her I ast?
    You don’t want her here, just say so, he say. Won’t do no good. But if that the way you feel... He don’t finish.
    I want her here, I say, too quick. He look at me like maybe I’m planning something bad.
    I just want to know what happen, I say.
    I look at his face. It tired and sad and I notice his chin weak. Not much chin there at all. I have more chin, I think. And his clothes dirty, dirty. When he pull them off, dust rise.
    Nobody fight for Shug, he say. And a little water come to his eyes.

DEAR GOD,
    They have made three babies together but he squeamish bout giving her a bath. Maybe he figure he start thinking bout things he shouldn’t. But what bout me? First time I got the full sight of Shug Avery long black body with it black plum nipples, look like her mouth, I thought I had turned into a man.
    What you staring at? she ast. Hateful. She weak as a kitten. But her mouth just pack with claws. You never seen a naked woman before?
    No ma’am, I said. I never did. Cept for Sofia, and