Читать книгу Glorious - Bernice L. McFadden - Страница 15

CHAPTER 7

Praise the Lord if it ain’t Easter Bartlett!”

Their reintroduction took place in the colored car of the Atlantic Coast Line headed to Virginia. Easter had given the chestnut-brown woman a blank look. The eyes had seemed familiar, but the sophisticated hairstyle and dapper attire had thrown her.

“C’mon now,” the woman said as she wiggled her behind into the seat beside Easter. “It’s me, Madeline! Don’t be that way. We go too far back for you not to remember me.”

Easter looked harder.

The woman grinned, proudly patted her bobbed hair, and licked her painted lips before she curled her palm around her mouth, leaned close to Easter’s ear, and whispered, “Mattie Mae Dawkins, from down home Waycross, girl!”

Easter’s neck snapped. “For real?”

Mattie Mae Dawkins was calling herself Madeline now, and Easter supposed it was the right thing to do because she didn’t look much like the tenant farmer’s daughter Easter had known her to be.

Mattie Mae’s grin spread and she bubbled, “Sure nuff.”

“Why did you change your name?”

Madeline huffed, “Mattie Mae is country, and I’m a city girl now.”

“What city would that be?”

Madeline’s face unstitched and her fizzle went flat. “Why, New York City!” she said, as if that was the only city in the country or even the world.

“Oh.”

Madeline was returning to New York from Florida, where she’d spent two weeks with her sister and newborn nephew. She was heading back to Harlem, where she had a job in a beauty shop and a room in a row house.

Easter smiled inwardly. If she’d had any doubts about this woman being the former Mattie Mae Dawkins, the not-so-new Madeline had put them to rest. The rambling, the babbling, endless waves of words was vintage Mattie Mae. Easter was ecstatic to have her talking a mile a minute in her ear. Madeline reminded her of home and Easter was suddenly awash with nostalgia. And then the good feeling cracked when Madeline said, “Heard about your mama. Sorry …”

She didn’t mention Rlizbeth and Easter was thankful. The dead were better off than the living, so Easter knew her mother was fine. But she’d run off and left Rlizbeth in that house with that man who used to be her father and his new wife. Every day she tried not to think about that, and every day she failed.

“Thank you,” Easter said and patted Madeline’s knee.

The steel wheels of the train churned, streaking them past trees, homes, and children lined alongside the tracks, bearing teeth and pink gums as they hopped in place and waved gleefully at the passengers.

“So, where you headed?” Madeline asked.

“Richmond.”

“Richmond? I didn’t know you had people there.”

Easter didn’t have a soul there. But she’d purchased a ticket that would take her to the end of the line and the end of the line was Richmond, Virginia. Seemed as good a place as any.

“I don’t.”

Madeline frowned. “Well, why in the world you going there then? You got a job waiting for you?”

Easter shook her head.

“I don’t understand.”

She didn’t understand either. “Just some place new I guess.”

Madeline brightened. “Like an adventure?”

Easter’s brow knitted. That was the other thing about Mattie Mae—now-Madeline, she was light and airy in her head with a strong tendency toward childishness.

“Yes, something like that I suppose.”

“I love adventures,” Madeline squealed, and clapped her hands together like a four-year-old before setting off on a story: “When I first went to New York …”

Easter rested her head against the window and allowed Madeline’s words to wash over her.

The train pulled into Richmond under a heavy sky. The platform was wet and the air moist. Children ran up and down the platform stomping their feet in the puddles of water the afternoon showers had left behind. Porters buzzed busily, but kept their heads lowered, careful not to make direct eye contact with the men who’d been sent down from Detroit to recruit workers for the Ford Motor Company. Ford was paying his employees five dollars a day and Southern states found their cheap labor streaming out of their towns and cities as quickly as sand through a sieve.

Some recruiters had been abducted and beaten. But Ford just sent more in their place and so the railroad officials had begun to systematically prohibit the sale of northbound tickets to Negroes or inflate the price to such an exorbitant level that it became unaffordable.

Easter followed Madeline into the colored waiting area. She’d promised to sit with her until the train headed to New York arrived. They bought two oranges, squeezed into a space on a long, wooden bench, and quietly worked at peeling the thick skin from the fruit.

“I really think you should come with me to New York,” Madeline suggested for the umpteenth time. “I can get you a job at the hair salon and I can’t see my landlady minding you staying with me until you got your own place.”

Easter bit into the wedge of fruit and the sweet juice coated the inside of her cheek. She didn’t have an excuse not to go and couldn’t rationalize why she felt so resistant to the idea.

“Easter, it’s not like anyplace you’ve ever been before.”

Easter laughed to herself. Where had Madeline been that allowed her to make such a grand statement? Waycross, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida, that’s it.

Madeline pressed, “You ain’t got nobody here; at least in New York you’d have me and my aunt Minnie in the Bronx.”

Easter chuckled, “She still make ambrosia?”

Madeline nodded and her face brightened. She was wearing Easter down. “Oh, say you’ll come,” she whined. “If you don’t like it you can always leave.”

Easter thought about it for a moment. “Okay.”

The conductor rang his bell and hollered, “All aboard!” The whistle sounded and the train huffed great billowing clouds of steam. Easter clutched her ticket tightly in her hand. She was headed to New York. A quiet excitement percolated in her stomach and she felt a smile light on her lips. When the nose of the train edged across the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania, a young, dark porter appeared and unceremoniously removed the tin sign above the doorway that stated, COLORED.

The car exploded in applause and hearty whoops went up into the air. Couples kissed one another full on the lips. Parents grabbed hold of their children and squeezed. Easter felt something lift off of her shoulders and her leg began to bounce with anticipation.

With the Mason-Dixon line behind them, the train barreled at a reckless speed toward New York.