The Color of Your Skin Ain’t the Color of Your Heart by Michael Phillips Page B

to without Katie’s permission.
    Gradually we started talking.
    “What you gonna do now dat yer free?” Jeremiah asked. “You gonna keep working fer Miz Katie? You gonna work fo’ her forever?”
    “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it,” I said. “But I could never leave Katie.”
    “Why not?”
    “She’s my friend.”
    “But she’s white.”
    “She’s like a sister to me. It doesn’t matter what color she is.”
    “Seems ter me it matters. Whites an’ blacks is different, ain’t they?”
    “Not down inside,” I said. “Don’t you figure if you could open us up, our hearts’d be the same color?”
    “I don’t know. I reckon I never thought ’bout dat.”
    “What about you?” I said. “What are you going to do?”
    “I’d like ter save a little money,” said Jeremiah enthusiastically, “an’ maybe git me a livery er my own someday.”
    “That sounds like a fine idea, Jeremiah.”
    “My daddy’s happy enuff ter work fer Mr. Guiness,” he went on. “It’s all he knows. He’s pleased enuff ter hab a job an’ ter be a free black man. But now dat young folks like you an’ me is free, maybe we can do eben more—jes’ think, a black man owning something. Don’t it jes’ soun’ right fine!” His voice was excited as he thought about it.
    “You can do it, Jeremiah,” I said. “I know you will. But I’m not ambitious like that. Besides, I’m just a girl. Girls can’t do things like that.”
    “Why not? Maybe dey can … someday.”
    “Not colored girls.”
    “Why not? You’s free, ain’t you?”
    “I reckon.”
    “Ain’t nobody can tell you what you can an’ can’t do. So don’t dat mean you can do whatever you want?”
    “Maybe you’re right. I just never thought about things like that before. Although Katie gave me twenty dollars an’ that almost makes me feel like I could do anything.”
    “Twenty dollars!” exclaimed Jeremiah. “Ob yer very own … real money!”
    “Yep. It’s in the bank in town with my own name on it.”
    “Why, yer rich, Mayme!”
    I laughed. I guess it shows how used to Katie’s kindness I’d already become.
    We walked on and finally turned around. It was pretty well dark by now. It was such a nice contented feeling walking along, with the moon shining down on us, hand in hand, knowing we were really free people. Was this how it had always been for white girls when they got to this age, meeting a boy and feeling things inside and then having him take your hand and treat you like you were special?
    I found myself thinking about my mama and wondering how it had been when she’d first met my papa and wondering if she’d fallen in love slowly like I thought I might be doing right now, or if she and he’d been brought together by Master McSimmons without any choice in the matter. I hoped my mama and daddy had been in love. I hoped I was a child of love. But since they were both dead, I reckoned I’d never know.
    But then Jeremiah’s voice interrupted my thoughts, and his words were the last ones I’d expected to hear.
    “You ever think … about gittin’ married?” he asked after it had been quiet three or four minutes.
    I felt the heat immediately rising in my neck. I was glad it was dark.
    “I reckon,” I said softly. “Doesn’t everybody?” I suppose I had been thinking about it just then, since I’d been thinking about my mama and daddy.
    “But hit’s different now, you know,” Jeremiah went on. “Wiff no masters tellin’ us what we gotta do. Now we can make up our own minds who to marry an’ what we wants ter do.”
    We were coming out of the woods now and into the clearing of fields and open space. The moon made everything glow a pale silver. I don’t know what I’d have said, but I didn’t have the chance.
    Suddenly we heard voices yelling.
    “There he is!” shouted a voice. You could tell it was white.
    “Look—he’s got a nigger girl with him!” yelled another one. “Let’s get them!”
    I