Sugar by Bernice McFadden Read Free Book Online Page B

from the ground and carry him up into the treetops. Pearl addressed him as “Mr. Wilks.”
    She held his small hand in hers and stared solemnly at the bald spot on his head that so perfectly reflected the sun, and said her condolences: “She was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.” Joe squeezed his shoulder and nodded in agreement. She had approached him after the funeral as he was preparing to leave. His mother’s body lay waiting inside her coffin on a wagon. He was taking her body back to Texas for burial.
    “Thank you,” he said without looking at them and walked away.
    The house had stood empty for all those years, no FOR SALE sign in the front yard, the fruits, flowers and vegetables dying from lack of love and attention.
    Pearl rose from the rocking chair, her eyes wet with the memory of loss, and turned to knock one last time. The pie was cold now and her heart had cooled along with it. A tall dark woman stood in the doorway staring directly at Pearl, an off-white towel wrapped loosely around her head and short blue robe cinched tight around her long body. Her thighs glistened wet with water.
    She looked annoyed, her face was twisted to one side with irritation and she watched Pearl through her slanted eyes.
    Pearl was startled and stumbled back, her behind hitting sharply against the banister, causing her to cry out with pain and surprise.
    “Yes?” Sugar said as she eyed the woman and at the same time reached into the breast pocket of her robe, pulling out a crumpled pack of Lucky Strikes and a book of matches. Pearl could not respond; she was staring intently at the woman’s face. She wanted to reach out and touch it, scrape away the features that weren’t Jude’s, leaving behind the ones that were.
    Sugar lit the cigarette and it dangled loosely from the corner of her mouth. She squinted her eyes against the rising smoke. “Yes?” she said, louder now, more intense.
    “I—I . . .” was all that Pearl could issue. She was stunned stupid and had forgotten her very reason for being there.
    Sugar stood back on her long mahogany legs and adjusted the towel around her head. “You just come by to use my rocker?” Sugar said. It was more an accusation than a question. She inhaled deeply on her cigarette and let the smoke out in tiny puffs of white.
    Pearl found her voice. She opened her mouth and allowed the words to spill out in a senseless jumble, hoping at the end they would combine and become something intelligent. “I’m s-sorry for rocking in your chair. I just came by to introduce myself—I mean, welcome you to Bigelow.” Pearl looked again at the glistening thighs and then down to the small puddle that was forming beneath Sugar.
    “Did I—I come at a bad time?” she said a bit too loudly. She jerked a bit at the volume of her voice and then halted her babbling, breathlessly awaiting a response.
    Sugar smirked at the short, wide woman in her starched blue dress and stiff white collar. So much perfection in one place was unsettling to her. “Yes, yes you did,” she said, her voice chilled and stiff.
    “Shoot, I sure am sorry, Miss,” Pearl uttered and shifted her eyes away from Sugar. She wanted so much to stare into her face, but pulled her eyes away from those familiar features and concentrated instead on the staircase just behind her. As an afterthought and after a short period of silent awkwardness, she shoved the pie out before her. The movement was hard and fast and it slammed into the half open door that Sugar held ajar with one hand. The impact startled Pearl and she released the plate; it went crashing to the floor, sending bits of crust and sweet potatoes across the porch.
    They stood there looking stupidly at the mess that had been made. Pearl went down effortlessly to one swollen knee, picked up the pan and began gathering up the broken pie bits, apologizing as she did.
    Sugar did not move, but continued to draw on her cigarette as she watched the old woman’s head bob up