As she told what happened, I could see the whole thing; she didn’t have to tell me how it happened, only what it was about. I’d lived with Tucker long enough to know just what he’d say, just how he said it, and looked saying it. And that surprised me at the time because I never realized I knew so much about him. I never thought I paid much attention to him like Dewey does.

But I knew; I could see them all sitting there, talking about things I guess college people talk about: the world situation and old teachers. And Bethrah said that colored college students always get around to the race question. Then one member of the group said he was an officer in the local chapter of the National Society for Colored Affairs and he might as well use the opportunity to drum up membership.

Bethrah told him she had let her membership lapse and she’d give him a dollar and to please send her a card. Then she looked at Tucker, who’d been very quiet, who hadn’t said a word since being introduced to them all. I could really see him when she told me that, sitting in a chair straight up, his hands folded in his lap and the party lights playing on his glasses so you couldn’t see his eyes, as little and ugly as he could be. Bethrah said, “Tucker, give him a dollar for me, will you please?”

Tucker just sat there, his face angry-looking and said, “No.”

I could see everybody, all her old friends look at him really slow and surprised, but not wanting to show it, and then darting a look at Bethrah and then away, thinking: the poor thing; she married a real cheap skate.

I blushed for her when she told me, like it had been me and I knew how embarrassed she must have felt.

Then she said to him, “Please, dear, give him a dollar. The Society needs the help and I believe in what they’re doing. I’ll pay you back when we get home.” She was thinking that it was all right that he’d worried about money. Her friends could understand that; they all had to skrimp to make ends meet and pay for their schooling.

But that wasn’t it! That wasn’t what he was talking about because he reached into his pocket and pulled out all the money he had—she said it was close to twenty dollars—and reached over and handed it to her, while all her friends were looking on, embarrassed for themselves and for her. Then he said: “I don’t want you to pay me back. Here’s all I got. But don’t give none to him for no piece of cardboard.”