Francie by Karen English Page A

had to wash her face.
    â€œThat from Daddy?” Prez asked, coming over to look at it.

    â€œYea, and don’t you touch it.”
    Mama finally sat down. She picked up the letter, opened it, and held it for a moment. Then she handed it to me to read. I read it aloud word for word, then raced to reread the part about him coming home. Sunday. Four days from tomorrow. Mama took it back and looked at it. “Where does it say that?”
    I pointed to the words. We all sat almost holding our breath and finding it hard to believe. It’d been over a year since Daddy had left us. He was tired of being without his family. When Mama said, “I’ma go on down and see how Auntie’s doin’,” I knew she was just trying to get away to hide her excitement. “You two go on and heat up the supper. We gonna have a lot to do between now and Sunday.”
    I knew what I was going to do. I was going to go buy Daddy a present. A pipe, God willing, because he’d look handsome smoking a pipe. I saw one at Green’s, so I wouldn’t even have to go into town to get it. I wouldn’t have to go to the place I’d been practically run out of.
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    I woke up with a buzz of planning in my head early the next morning. I went to the outhouse and met Prez on the way. He’d already made his trip.
    â€œPerry was just here. He said he came to get Mama at dawn. Auntie’s not feeling well. She’s sick. Mama wants you down there as soon as you can get dressed.”
    He looked smug with this news and I could have popped him. With Mama distracted with caretaking
Auntie, I knew he and Perry would be off to the fishing hole.
    â€œWhat about you?”
    â€œMe and Perry are workin’ over at the Early farm today.”
    Mama probably had plans to use up most of my morning, but if I hurried I could get down to Green’s by early afternoon.
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    Auntie had visitors. Nola Grandy and her daughter, Violet, were there with a potato pie and a bouquet of black-eyed Susans. Granny was there, having come with a sugar tit for Baby Janie and some catnip tea. She brought a chicken feather tied in red flannel for Auntie to hang around the baby’s neck, but Mama had stepped in—taking it from Granny and dropping it in her pocket.
    â€œI ain’t puttin’ that nasty thing around Baby Janie’s sweet little neck,” Mama whispered to me when Granny wasn’t looking.
    Auntie looked tired and pale and I knew Mama was worried about her getting childbirth fever. Women died from it all the time. Mama had tightly braided Auntie’s hair into two thick cornrows that pulled her face to show her cheekbones. She looked pretty, but it was a tired pretty. Janie nursed at her breast.
    Two loud knocks sounded on the front door. Before anyone could say anything, Miss Mabel stepped into the room.

    â€œI’m comin’ to see that new baby,” she announced. She walked straight across the room to stare down at Janie. “My, that’s a fine baby.” She scooped Janie out of Auntie’s arms just as Auntie was settling her after burping her. Before Auntie could protest, she carried Janie to the window.
    â€œMabel …” Mama said, standing.
    â€œAw, I ain’t gonna steal her.” She squinted at Janie. “Bright like her daddy’s people.” She lifted a tiny hand to the light. “But the rims around her fingers are pretty dark. She’s gonna be brown.” Mama and Auntie exchanged uneasy looks. “She got a whole lotta hair, I see. It’s gonna be kinky.”
    Mama rescued Janie out of Miss Mabel’s arms and returned her to Auntie. “You don’t know that, Mabel.”
    â€œYea, sure I do. Ain’t that right, Granny? You seen a bunch of babies and how they turn out.” Granny didn’t answer, just sat there, arms crossed.
    Miss Mabel got herself a comfortable seat at the table with the other women. “You heard