“What you want?” Tom demanded.
“You sleep,” she said. “You jus’ sleep off. I’ll watch the door. They won’t nobody get in.”
He studied her face for a moment. “O.K.,” he said, and he covered his face with the blanket again.
IN THE BEGINNING dusk Ma came back to the house. She paused on the doorstep and knocked and said, “It’s me,” so that Tom would not be worried. She opened the door and entered, carrying a bag. Tom awakened and sat up on his mattress. His wound had dried and tightened so that the unbroken skin was shiny. His left eye was drawn nearly shut. “Anybody come while we was gone?” Ma asked.
“No,” he said. “Nobody. I see they dropped the price.”
“How’d you know?”
“I heard folks talkin’ outside.” Rose of Sharon looked dully up at Ma. Tom pointed at her with his thumb. “She raised hell, Ma. Thinks all the trouble is aimed right smack at her. If I’m gonna get her upset like that I oughta go ’long.” Ma turned on Rose of Sharon. “What you doin’?” The girl said resentfully, “How’m I gonna have a nice baby with stuff like this?” Ma said, “Hush! You hush now. I know how you’re a-feelin’, an’ I know you can’t he’p it, but jus’ keep your mouth shut.”
She turned back to Tom. “Don’t pay her no mind, Tom. It’s awful hard, an’ I ’member how it is. Ever’thing is a-shootin’ right at you when you’re gonna have a baby, an’ ever’thing anybody says is a insult, an’ ever’thing against you. Don’t pay no mind. She can’t he’p it. It’s jus’ the way she feels.”
“I don’ wanta hurt her.”
“Hush! Jus’ don’ talk.” She set her bag down on the cold stove. “Didn’ hardly make nothin’,” she said. “I tol’ you, we’re gonna get outa here. Tom, try an’ wrassle me some wood. No—you can’t. Here, we got on’y this one box lef’. Break it up. I tol’ the other fellas to pick up some sticks on the way out. Gonna have mush an’ a little sugar on.”