She was a large woman with a large purse that had everything in it but hammer and nails. It had a long strap, and she carried it slung across her shoulder. It was about eleven o\u2019clock at night, and she was walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her and tried to snatch her purse. The strap broke with the single tug the boy gave it from behind. But the boy\u2019s weight and the weight of the purse combined caused him to lose his balance so, instead of taking off full blast as he had hoped, the boy fell on his back on the sidewalk, and his legs flew up. the large woman simply turned around and kicked him right square in his blue-jeaned sitter. Then she reached down, picked the boy up by his shirt front, and shook him until his teeth rattled.<\/p>\n
After that the woman said, \u201cPick up my pocketbook, boy, and give it here.\u201d She still held him. But she bent down enough to permit him to stoop and pick up her purse. Then she said, \u201cNow ain\u2019t you ashamed of yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n
Firmly gripped by his shirt front, the boy said, \u201cYes\u2019m.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman said, \u201cWhat did you want to do it for?\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy said, \u201cI didn\u2019t aim to.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said, \u201cYou a lie!\u201d<\/p>\n
By that time two or three people passed, stopped, turned to look, and some stood watching.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I turn you loose, will you run?\u201d asked the woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes\u2019m,\u201d said the boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I won\u2019t turn you loose,\u201d said the woman. She did not release him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very sorry, lady, I\u2019m sorry,\u201d whispered the boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cUm-hum! And your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your face for you. Ain\u2019t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo\u2019m,\u201d said the boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen it will get washed this evening,\u201d said the large woman starting up the street, dragging the frightened boy behind her.<\/p>\n
He looked as if he were fourteen or fifteen, frail and willow-wild, in tennis shoes and blue jeans.<\/p>\n
The woman said, \u201cYou ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo\u2019m,\u201d said the being dragged boy. \u201cI just want you to turn me loose.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas I bothering you when I turned that corner?\u201d asked the woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo\u2019m.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you put yourself in contact with me,\u201d said the woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think that that contact is not going to last awhile, you got another thought coming. When I get through with you, sir, you are going to remember Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sweat popped out on the boy\u2019s face and he began to struggle. Mrs. Jones stopped, jerked him around in front of her, put a half-nelson about his neck, and continued to drag him up the street. When she got to her door, she dragged the boy inside, down a hall, and into a large kitchenette furnished room at the rear of the house. She switched on the light and left the door open. The boy could hear other roomers laughing and talking in the large house. Some of their doors were open, too, so he knew he and the woman were not alone. The woman still had him by the neck in the middle of her room.<\/p>\n
She said, \u201cWhat is your name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRoger,\u201d answered the boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, Roger, you go to that sink and wash your face,\u201d said the woman, whereupon she turned him loose\u2014at last.<\/p>\n
Roger looked at the door\u2014looked at the woman\u2014looked at the door\u2014and went to the sink.<\/p>\n
“Let the water run until it gets warm,\u201d she said. \u201cHere\u2019s a clean towel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gonna take me to jail?\u201d asked the boy, bending over the sink.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot with that face, I would not take you nowhere,\u201d said the woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere I am trying to get home to cook me a bite to eat and you snatch my pocketbook! Maybe, you ain\u2019t been to your supper either, late as it be. Have you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nobody home at my house,\u201d said the boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we\u2019ll eat,\u201d said the woman, \u201cI believe you\u2019re hungry\u2014or been hungry\u2014to try to snatch my pocket book.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted a pair of blue suede shoes,\u201d said the boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, you didn\u2019t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some suede shoes,\u201d said Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. \u201cYou could of asked me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cM\u2019am?\u201d<\/p>\n
The water dripping from his face, the boy looked at her. There was a long pause. A very long pause. After he had dried his face and not knowing what else to do dried it again, the boy turned around, wondering what next. The door was open. He could make a dash for it down the hall. He could run, run, run, run, run<\/em>!<\/p>\n The woman was sitting on the day-bed. After a while she said, \u201cI were young once and I wanted things I could not get.\u201d<\/p>\n There was another long pause. The boy\u2019s mouth opened. Then he frowned, but not knowing he frowned.<\/p>\n The woman said, \u201cUm-hum! You thought I was going to say but, didn\u2019t you? You thought I was 3 going to say, but I didn\u2019t snatch people\u2019s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn\u2019t going to say that.\u201d Pause. Silence. \u201cI have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son\u2014neither tell God, if he didn\u2019t already know. So you set down while I fix us something to eat. You might run that comb through your hair so you will look presentable.\u201d<\/p>\n In another corner of the room behind a screen was a gas plate and an icebox. Mrs. Jones got up and went behind the screen. The woman did not watch the boy to see if he was going to run now, nor did she watch her purse which she left behind her on the day-bed. But the boy took care to sit on the far side of the room where he thought she could easily see him out of the corner of her eye, if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you need somebody to go to the store,\u201d asked the boy, \u201cmaybe to get some milk or something?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t believe I do,\u201d said the woman, \u201cunless you just want sweet milk yourself. I was going to make cocoa out of this canned milk I got here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat will be fine,\u201d said the boy.<\/p>\n She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox, made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did not ask the boy anything about where he lived, or his folks, or anything else that would embarrass him. Instead, as they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel beauty-shop that stayed open late, what the work was like, and how all kinds of women came in and out, blondes, red-heads, and Spanish. Then she cut him a half of her ten-cent cake.<\/p>\n \u201cEat some more, son,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n When they were finished eating she got up and said, \u201cNow, here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my pocketbook nor nobody else\u2019s\u2014because shoes come by devilish like that will burn your feet. I got to get my rest now. But I wish you would behave yourself, son, from here on in.\u201d<\/p>\n She led him down the hall to the front door and opened it. \u201cGood-night! Behave yourself, boy!\u201d she said, looking out into the street.<\/p>\n The boy wanted to say something else other than \u201cThank you, m\u2019am\u201d to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but he couldn\u2019t do so as he turned at the barren stoop and looked back at the large woman in the door. He barely managed to say \u201cThank you\u201d before she shut the door. And he never saw her again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Langston Hughes (USA, 1902-1967)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"