(ODELIA) “Dis is yo baby John!” (ALMA) He says (JOHN) “Bitch you know how many head o’ chillun I got–you know how many uhman I laid up wit? She jes anotha one ta me!” (ALMA) He looks at me again and walks off the porch into the yard onto the mini dirt road and then onto the tar road. Odelia runs after him (ODELIA) “Don lef’ me–Alma, Alma, she yo baby–” (ALMA) She’s running after him with her short nappy hair sticking up, her large, loose, defeated breasts swinging side to side. This tall, big, dark woman close to six feet tall. She grabs me under one arm, runs off the porch, into the yard, and onto the dirt road and then hits the tar road. Her thick, bare feet hit the tar road. The soles of her bare feet are beating against the tar road–the hot tar road. (ODELIA) “DON’T GO!” (ALMA) She drops me–drops me like a sack of potatoes or corn. She reaches him and drops to her knees (ODELIA) “Please John”–(ALMA) Grabs him around the ankles (ODELIA) “Please John!” (ALMA) He grabs her by her nappy hair and yanks her head back (JOHN) “Bitch I ain’t ga neva love you.” (ALMA) He walks down the road. I go over to her and she pushes me away. I say “Come on–let’s go back!” She pushes me away panting. She lay on the hot tar road panting–panting like a dog.

Odelia drinks heavily that night. She drinks almost an entire bottle of gin. (ODELIA) “Why ya born ta me? Why ya run John off?” (ALMA) She staggers over to me, slaps me. She makes up a “love root.” She sometimes sold love roots to women who wanted to catch men. She says to me gin-filled (ODELIA) “I ga get a root to make ya lighter. I ga put it in yo food–an EAT IT–YA BETTA EAT IT!”

EUGENE: I tell Momma what happened with Alton. She’s filled up on bourbon. (THELMA) “Vera Mae White spoke to you like that?” (EUGENE) “Yeah Momma. Why did she say that to me? I didn’t do anything.”

ALMA: (ODELIA) “EAT it–If ya was light, John woulda been heah.”

EUGENE: Momma tells Daddy (THELMA) “That tramp Vera Mae you ran with years ago attacked Eugene”–(ROBERT) “I went with her because your father wouldn’t let me date you. When people in your family didn’t want me around. She and I came from the same place. She understood–she understood things you and Eugene will never understand”–

ALMA: “It don’t taste good–it’s nasty!”–(ODELIA) “EAT IT!” (ALMA) At the end of the week, I am still the same color and the same size. That Friday night Odelia fills up on gin. She pulls me out of bed yelling (ODELIA) “Damn you! Damn you!”–