“Yes,” answered Mary Louise. “I’ve been visiting her, up at her aunt’s place. But she didn’t come home for dinner, so I thought maybe she was here.”
“No, ma’am, she ain’t,” replied the older child. “You-all want to see Ma?”
“Yes, I should like to. If she isn’t busy.”
“Ma!” yelled both children at once, and a pleasant-faced colored woman appeared at the door of the shack. “Here’s a frien’ of Miz Elsie’s!”
The woman smiled. “Come in, Honey,” she invited.
“I just wanted to ask you whether you had seen Miss Elsie this morning,” said Mary Louise.
Mrs. Jones opened the bright-blue screen door and motioned her caller into her house. There were only two rooms in the shack, but Mary Louise could see immediately how beautifully neat they were, although the color combinations made her want to laugh out loud. A purple door curtain separated the one room from the other, and some of the chairs were red plush, some brown leather, and one a bright green. But there was mosquito netting tacked up at the windows, and the linoleum-covered floor was spotless.
“Set down, Honey,” urged the woman, and Mary Louise selected a red-plush chair. She repeated her question about Elsie.
“Yes and no,” replied Mrs. Jones indefinitely.
“What do you mean by ‘yes and no,’ Mrs. Jones?” inquired Mary Louise.