but stretch her muscles and listen to the sounds of the lake and the steady chug
of the engine beneath them.
Then she saw the two snooty white women marching toward her, this time
with a man in tow. He freed his arms from their grasp, removed his hat, and bent
down to speak to Olivia.
“Is this nigger bothering you, Miss?” he asked.
“No, everything is just fine,” she replied with a smile. “He’s just serving me
my evening meal, but I appreciate your concern.”
“Are you sure?” He glanced nervously at the women on either side of him.
“Absolutely sure.”
“Well then…”
They went away, the women looking back over their shoulders and muttering
something about white trash. Mourning said nothing; he stared at the toe of his
shoe, his face a slab of stone.
“I suppose you think I should have said something more to them,” she said.
He maintained his silence.
“People like that are a waste of breath. What would an argument accomplish,
besides making a scene? I’m trying my best not to draw attention to us. I don’t
want one of those guys in the black caps coming to tell me that this section is for
coloreds and I have to go over there.” She nodded in the direction in which the
two women and their male companion had disappeared. “I’d be too scared
without you.”
He turned toward her and shrugged, but she interpreted it as a friendly shrug.
“I’m not a fighter, Mourning. I’ve never wanted to change the world. All I
want is to make my own little piece of it as nice as I can. We’ll both have a lot
more trouble doing that if all the white folks we meet get it into their heads that
we’re way too friendly for their liking. We’re going to need good relations with
our neighbors and if telling them you’re my hired man – and me bossing you like you are – will keep them from getting all rankled, well so what? It’s none of
their business anyway. And once you’ve gotten to know the colored folks in that
Backwoods place and you’ve got your own land –”
“I know.” He interrupted her. “I ain’t gonna make no argument with you ’bout
none a that. Just seem like they need to be a whole lot a people makin’ a whole
lot a scenes ’fore anything gonna change.”
“I’m sure you’re right about that.” She pressed her aching back against the
side of the boat. “But there’s more than one way to prove a point. I could go off
and march around with those suffragist ladies, shouting and carrying on about how women don’t need men taking care of them. Or I can just go ahead and do a
good job of taking care of myself. You having your own land and being a better
farmer than all the white folks will say a lot more about how smart and hard-working Negroes are than a bunch of yelling would.”
Once the sun had disappeared, the air turned cold. Before they settled in for
the night Olivia took a leisurely walk around the deck, then pulled the hood of
