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When that laht out a battered guitar

Once again I ept up in the er echoed by the guitar, the way it all fell together into a slow, rhyth This s and hy entirely new, and so quite wonderful

Chapter 38

MY BELLY WAS STUFFED full of guue still burned fro power of the cayenne

“Here, take a chaw on this,” said Abrahaarcane I smiled That’s what our cook Aurelia used to prescribe for a sore throat or any other minor childhood complaint: a suck on a piece of sweet cane

“You got enough for family?” said Moody

“I got plenty, but it don’t look right for a gal to chew cane,” Abraham said

She put on such a pout that Abrahaht out a piece for her and another for Hiram

“My granddaughter is incorrigible,” said Abrahaive her”

“I don’t need hi me,” she said

Her grandfather’s face darkened “Moody? Watch your mouth”

She dropped her eyes “Yes, sir”

“See now, Mr Corbett, she got so comfortable settin’ here next to you that she’s done for

got how she s’posed to act If you was any other kind of whiteyou that way Sa he said this more for Moody’s and Hiram’s benefit than for mine Moody kept her eyes riveted fiercely on the floor beside our table

“See, when you’re colored, you always about this close—” he held up his fingers, indicating a tiny space—“to sayin’ the wrong word Or lookin’ the wrong way And that ettin’ beat up, or kicked, or punched, or cursed Or gettin’ strung up and killed by the KKK”