“Mama, what the hell have you done?” Mushy shouted.
“All this time you been in town and ain’t once stopped by to see me,” Mama responded calmly. “Now you gon’ step up in my house raising yo’ voice at me?”
Mushy sighed, keeping her distance from our mother. “Mama, what’d you do to these babies?” she asked.“I’m gon’ get the sheriff out here.You done went too far this time.”
“Get ’im,” Mama said.“Ain’t no law say I can’t cut my children’s hair. If there was a law against cutting hair, half the town would be in jail.”
“It ain’t right, Mama,” Mushy said.“How they gon’ go to school wit’ they heads looking like that?”
Mama did not answer. She picked up her cigarettes from the table, shook one loose from the pack and lit it. She leaned her head against the back of the chair and blew smoke toward the ceiling. We stood in silence and watched.
It was five o’clock in the morning, and we had walked from the flats to Penyon Road. I had waited on Skeeter’s porch for Richard Mackey to bring Mushy home. Although Velman wanted to know why I had returned, I would not tell him. I was too ashamed to share with him the price my defiance had cost my sisters, so I had waited for Mushy, who was nearly as much to blame.
We stood in the front room and watched our mother blow smoke rings in the air. Mushy stared at Laura and Edna; I scanned the room for the scissors and pinking shears. Finally Mushy said, “I’m going back up to Skeeter’s to pack my things, then I’m coming on home.”
Mama glanced up.“You telling me or asking me?”
“I’m asking, Mama,” Mushy mumbled. She was wearing the same gray-and-white dress she had worn the night before, only it was wrinkled now. Her eyes were bloodshot, as though she had not slept a wink, and neither comb nor brush had touched her hair.
“Awright then. I guess you can stay for a spell,” Mama said.
And it was over—like nothing had ever happened—like Laura and Edna did not resemble plucked chickens. Mushy would move in, make everything right, and we would get on with living. I suspected this peaceful scenario would fall apart at any moment.