Still, if we imprisoned him, forced him to move back to a place that was sixty percent black at a time when it was out of fashion to keep slaves, later it was we who set him free. When we got bad enough, when we started taking what we wanted in the world, he went on and took his too. More about that later. For now, I was packing up my new blue car and heading south to Tuscaloosa.

* * *

Irise was driving with me. I backed the car across the street and added her bags to mine. Charles William stood on the sidewalk waving and throwing kisses to us. “Don’t forget you’re coming to Homecoming,” he called to me. “I’ve got you a date picked out. He’s got the greatest body in the state of Georgia.”

“How can we leave him?” I said, turning to Irise. “God, I wish he was going with us.”

“We have to. It won’t be for long. We might get married next year, Rhoda. If his grades are good enough they’re going to let us.”

“Well, which way do we go?” I had pulled out onto the main street.

“Just find Highway Sixty-five and start driving. I’ll show you what to do. I’ve been on it a thousand times.”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this. I haven’t even told Vanderbilt I’m not coming.”

“Maybe you won’t like it and you’ll go back up there.”

“No, I’ll like it. I can’t wait. They really have parties on week nights?”

“They really do.”

“And the Chi O’s are good?”

“They’re the best, except for KD.”

Chapter

8

We arrived in Tuscaloosa in the middle of the afternoon. It was a brilliant fall day. The streets near the campus seemed gentle and familiar. I would be welcome here. I had Irise by my side and a trunk full of pretty clothes and a car. They would love me and let me be a college cheerleader or a yearbook beauty or something worthy of me. “Let’s go by the Chi O house,” Irise said. “I’ll go in with you if you want me to. They know you’re coming. Your momma said she called.”

“Would you go with me? Oh, would you do that?”