“Got it.” She kissed him one last time and then watched as the sedan pulled away from the curb.
Bert hadn’t been gone longer than two minutes when Anke cornered Ethel in the kitchen. “Can you paint my nails?” She held up a bottle of Pepto-pink polish. Her hair was frizzy and loose from her braid.
“You can’t wear nail polish to school.”
“Emily does it all the time.”
“Well, I’m not Emily’s mom. I follow the rules.” Ethel carried the Tupperware containing leftover cabbage and placed it in the fridge.
“What about my toenails?” Anke opened the bottle and sniffed. “I’ll paint yours, and then you can paint mine.”
Ethel smiled. “Come on here, girl.”
They plopped down on the sofa in the family room with Anke’s feet in Ethel’s lap. While Ethel brushed pink onto her toes, Anke caught Ethel up on the happenings in her third-grade class. “Van had his name on the board with three strikes. Sister Therese took away his recess and sent him into the hall to clap the erasers. For the rest of the day, his blue pants had chalk on them, and he couldn’t get it off.”
“Well, hopefully, he has learned his lesson.”
When Monika and Mia saw Anke getting her toenails painted, they took off their socks too. Ethel picked up the mail from the coffee table and fanned one envelope over each girl’s feet. After ten minutes of Monika’s fifth-grade gossip, Ethel declared, “All dry. Please make sure you say your prayers before bed.” She tickled Mia and sent them each upstairs with a forehead kiss.
Exhausted, Ethel moved to the recliner. She had intended to read a few pages of the December issue of the newspaperFreedom,published by Paul Robeson, but then she looked at the letters in her hand. One was from the library with a red stamp that said “Overdue,” and she racked her brain for which of the children’s books she had forgotten to return. Then a pale blue envelope, postmarked from Germany, caught her eye. Ethel grinned: It was a new letter from Julia, and she ripped it open.
CHAPTER 39West Oak Forest Academy, December 1965
SOPHIA
The rumor had spread quickly across the campus of West Oak Forest Academy. All the Negro students had monkey tails, and if you got close to any of them, you’d catch a tail too.
“This is childish and bizarre, and nothing more than leftover propaganda with roots in slavery,” said Louis as the five Negro students crammed around a table in the corner of the cafeteria. “Anything to portray the Negro as something other than a person just like them.”
“Simply ridiculous.” Willa shook her lovely curls.
Sophia threaded her fingers together under the table. In front of her sat a plate full of mashed potatoes, meat loaf, and creamed spinach. None of which she had touched. It had been hard for her to eat anything substantial for the last few days. Her nerves just wouldn’t settle after the incident with Patty. She told no one but Willa what had happened in the locker room but swore her to secrecy. The boys couldn’t know the humiliation she had suffered. It was embarrassing. To have those girls auctioning her off like an animal, then exposing her private parts. The one silver lining was that the secret with Willahad wiped away any residue of her initial anger at finding Sophia in Max’s arms at the telephone booth.
“Until this dies down, we move throughout campus with a buddy system. We need to have each other’s backs,” Max added. Sophia nodded as she watched how the light from the window sparked the irises of his eyes, remembering how his chest felt pressed against hers, how the pitch in his voice soothed her.
“Well, we have study hall.” Willa tapped Sophia’s arm, interrupting her reminiscence.
“Right, we better get going.” Sophia stood and gathered her things, and when she chanced another look at Max, he was staring right back at her.
Christmas break was four days away, and Sophia was petrified that the moment Ma Deary saw her, she would chain her to her dugout room adjacent to the kitchen and forbid her to return to school. But what choice did Sophia have? Forest would be closed for two long weeks, and although she fancied herself a survivalist, she couldn’t make it that long without food. Not to mention what would happen to her if she got caught.
“I hate school breaks,” she mumbled under her breath.
Willa closed the lid on the jar of Pond’s cold cream and stared at her. “You are really secretive, Sophia Clark. We’ve lived together for a full semester, and I still don’t know that much about you. Why on earth don’t you ever want to go home?” she demanded. Then she leaned forward. “Are you in danger?”
Sophia wrung her hands, unsure how much she could trust Willa with. “My folks didn’t approve of me coming to Forest. They wanted me to stay back and work the farm.”
“Can’t they hire people to do that?”
“Yes, hopefully, by now they have. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to them since—”
“I thought you were on the phone with your brother and that he was sick.” Willa’s eyebrows raised. “That day with Max?”
Sophia had nearly forgotten her lie. “Yes, I talked to my brothers, but not my folks.”
Willa moved from her desk to her bed. “If you are that frightened, I guess you could come home with me again.”
“Willa, you are so kind to offer, but I don’t want to impose.”
