“Are you almost ready, Opal? Papa and Mama are gonna be here any minute to pick us up,” Lucille said as she jumped on my bed. Lucille had spent the night with me so we could help each other get ready. We had laid out our clothes last night, but by this morning I was torn all over again on what I should wear. I wanted Cedric to be pleased to have me on his arm, especially since it would be a first for many of our friends and family to see us as a couple.
“Girl, you done tried them four dresses on over and over,” she said, laughing. “Make up your mind already. You look gorgeous in all of them.”
“Thank you. But I just don’t want to pick the wrong dress,” I said. Unlike Lucille’s outfits, most of my clothes were handmade. Yes, they were pretty, and no, most folks couldn’t tell they didn’t come from some Atlanta store, but I could tell, and it made me a tad bit self-conscious. Lucille always wore clothes from the stores she and Aunt Shimmy went to when they took trips to Atlanta. Today, Lucille was wearing a brand-new, orange silk, drop-waist dress with delicate pintucks across her hips. She looked like she was from some big city instead of a little ole town like Parsons.
Lucille had done my hair earlier, pinning it in a chignon at the base of my neck. She’d asked if I’d wanted makeup.
“You still have just a little bruising on the left side of your face. A little foundation and face powder could cover that right up,” she said.
I quickly told her no. Granny would have been fit to be tied. Every time Granny saw women painting their lips red or putting on rouge, she shook her head and mumbled under her breath that they looked like bawdy women with all that makeup on.
“You better not let Granny see you with makeup. How did you get it anyway?” I asked. I hoped she hadn’t bought it without permission.
“Girl, I got it when we went to Atlanta the other week,” she said. “Mama said as long as I looked natural in it, she was okay with me wearing a little.”
I shook my head. Lucille was so spoiled. Luckily, she didn’t act like it. Well, at least most times she didn’t. And, really, if the truth be known, Aunt Shimmy was pretty spoiled herself. My Uncle Lem treated them both like they were queens. If they wanted it and he could get it, it was as good as theirs. One time, Lucille had caught a glimpse of this baby doll inside the Sears, Roebuck catalog. Well, before she could finish saying, “I want,” Uncle Lem had ordered it for her. He would spoil me, too, but Granny won’t let any of the uncles do extra for me very often. She would always tell them that I was her responsibility, not theirs.
Lucille got up and went to her bag. “What you’re wearing now is pretty. Purple suits you. It’s the color of royalty. Did you know that?” she asked. “Miss Tolson told us that in school.”
I smoothed down my dress as I stared at myself critically in the mirror, wanting to catch any loose thread or stain. But everything looked good, and Lucille was right. The purple dress did look the best on me. I had made it myself, copying one of Miss Peggy’s McCall’s patterns, right down to the yellow embroidered flowers around the rounded neck that Miss Peggy had helped me with. It was a little dressy, made out of this paper-thin crepe material, but from what Lucille had said about these ballgames, the girls all came dressed like they was going to a fancy party or something.
“It’s all about catching the eye of one of them Negro ballplayers,” she had said last night when we were talking about what to wear. Uncle Lem was going to drive me, Lucille, and Aunt Shimmy to Atlanta, where the game was going to be played. Aunt Shimmy had promised she would let me sit with Cedric, as long as I stayed in her eyesight.
“You be good, though. You’re not going to make me have to explain to Birdie Pruitt that her grandbaby got spirited away by one of them handsome ballplayers,” she’d teased. Now, as I examined myself in the mirror, I didn’t know if anyone would find me attractive. I looked country. Homely. My dark skin seemed extra dark, especially in comparison to Lucille and Hazel Moody. My saving grace was my long hair, but it was pulled back so I wouldn’t get too hot. All of a sudden, my self-confidence was waning.
“I wonder about that pink dress, though,” I said, about to change again, but we heard the car honking outside. I was both excited and nervous at the same time. Lucille came over and put her arms around me.
“You just be yourself, Cousin Opal. Cedric Perkins is going to love you. Oh, and I have something for you,” she said and hurried back to her purse. When she came back, she handed me a box. I opened it, and there were some little clip-on earrings with purple stones that matched the color of my purple dress perfectly.
“I got these for you when we was up in Atlanta the other week,” she said, her smile so broad.
I laughed and hugged her tight. “You knew I would wear the purple dress.”
She laughed too. “I figured you would. It is the prettiest dress in your closet. So I took the chance and got you earrings that will match. Don’t put them on until we get past Granny, and for the Lord’s sake, take them off before you come back inside the house tonight. Granny will have my hide for getting you jewelry.”
“Thank you, Lucille,” I said. “You are too good to me.” I slipped the earrings inside my purse to put on when we got in the car.
She kissed my cheek. “You are the closest I have to a sister. Anything for you, Cousin Opal.”
Uncle Lem blew his horn again.
“Girls, Lem is blowing that horn. Y’all get on out of there and stop all that primping and carrying on,” Granny said from the door.
We grabbed our purses and ran out to the front room.
Granny wasn’t a crier, but she gave us a watery smile. “Y’all girls have become young ladies right before my eyes. How did that happen?”
We both hugged Granny, and I noticed she seemed to hang on a little longer than normal.
“Y’all be good girls. Don’t go up there to Atlanta and forget your home training,” she cautioned.
We promised her we would be good. Lucille and I walked out of the house arm in arm. It was actually a little cooler than it had been in months. This was especially strange since it was noon, usually the hottest time of the day. The sky was cloudy, but not really cloudy with rain clouds. They were just the kind of clouds where you like to lie back under a tree and watch and name all the different shapes.
“Hey, Uncle Lem and Aunt Shimmy,” I said, getting ready to open my door. But he told me and Lucille to wait. He hopped out of the car and opened the door for us both, and we giggled. It felt nice getting treated like young ladies.
Aunt Shimmy twisted around from the front seat and smiled at us both. “Girls, you look like somebody out of the movies,” she said. “Should I call you both the Colored Myrna Loy?”
We laughed. Ever since we got to go to McDonough last year and sit up in the Colored section of the movie theater and see The Thin Man, Lucille had been Myrna Loy crazy. I secretly thought Claudette Colbert was a better actress, and much prettier, but I never would have formed my lips to say such a thing. It was sweet of Aunt Shimmy to remember how much a Myrna Loy compliment would mean to Lucille.
“Well, I don’t know about nobody else, but I’m gonna be the envy of Atlanta, what with me having the three prettiest gals traveling in my car,” Uncle Lem said.
“Well, we are going to be busy dealing with those old cats being jealous that we are in the company of the finest man in Atlanta,” Aunt Shimmy said in a flirty voice. Both Lucille and I laughed. Those two were always flirting with each other. Out of all of my relatives, they always seemed like they loved each other as much now as they did when they first became a couple.
“Gonna go to the church so we can follow everybody. With that Klan mess just the other week, and with what happened to you, Opal, we all need to make sure we travel in packs,” Uncle Lem said.
“You feeling better, baby?” Aunt Shimmy asked, twisting around again in her seat.
“Yes ma’am,” I said. “I’m fine. I barely feel any pain now.”
She nodded, and a tear slid down her cheek. She reached for my hand. “We wouldn’t have been able to stand it if . . . well . . . if . . .”
“I know, Auntie,” I said and squeezed her hand. “But I’m just fine.”
She squeezed my hand again and turned around.
Lucille and I settled down in the back and started talking. Well, Lucille did most of the talking. She was determined to catch me up on everything Myrna Loy, as well as all of the local young people news. That was fine with me because all I wanted was to forget about Klan marching, blows to my head, Jimmy Earl Ketchums, and anything that didn’t amount to my feeling young and carefree. So I turned all of my attention toward my cousin and her chatter.
“I heard—” she started, and from there she was a whirlwind of information. I just settled back in my seat and halfway listened to her chatter on about everything from Myrna Loy’s next movie to Satchel Paige to what she thought everyone was going to wear today. I just said, “Mm-hmm,” when there was a lull in her prattling on and on. It was nice to have a Saturday off work. Especially a Saturday when I was going to be able to meet up with Cedric. I was determined to let go of the memory of my almost kiss with Jimmy Earl. It didn’t happen, so there was no reason for me to worry about it. Or at least that’s what I told myself.
The road to Atlanta was bumpy and loud because the windows in the car were all down, but Lucille raised her voice and talked and teased me just like we were sitting in her bedroom—something we didn’t get to do very much because I was always working.
“And girl, your old enemy, Hazel Moody, says she’s going to be at the game today and claim her prize,” Lucille said, looking at me with knowing eyes, waiting to see how I would react.
“I’m not engaged or married to Cedric Perkins. If he asked me to the game and then turns around and chooses Hazel Moody, well, then he wasn’t mine to start with, I guess,” I said. And it wasn’t that I didn’t care if Cedric liked me or not—it was just I didn’t want nobody, not even Lucille, to know just how much.
“Well, you go on, Miss Opal Pruitt,” Lucille said, a huge grin filling her face.
I decided to change the subject and get her talking about whatever she was reading. I knew she could talk us all the way to Atlanta if she was talking about a book, and sure enough, she started jabbering about some book called Wuthering Heights and how she was in love with some character called Heathcliff. I think she said he was a tortured soul, whatever that meant. So, while she went on and on about that book, I sat back in the seat and daydreamed about Cedric and me.
I dreamed about our wedding. Of course Lucille would be my maid of honor, and I would get her to do my hair, because nobody could make hair look just like the women in the magazines better than Lucille.
I would have on a long, white, silk organza dress and a veil that filled the whole length of the church aisle. Cedric would wear a tuxedo like those men wear in the movies, and his daddy would marry us, and afterward we’d take a honeymoon trip to someplace far off like California, and while I was there, I would get an autograph from Myrna Loy for Lucille. I was so deep in my dreaming, I missed the fact that Lucille had been quiet for a minute or two. She finally cleared her throat, and immediately I felt myself blush.
“I’m sorry, girl,” I said, ducking my head. “What did you say?”
She smiled. “Nothing important. Looks like you was having a pretty good daydream. Let me guess. Cedric Perkins?”
I looked away. “No. Not really.”
She laughed. “Opal Pruitt, you can keep a secret from a lot of people, but you can’t keep one from me. We’re sisters, remember? And sisters know everything about each other.”
I couldn’t tell her what I was thinking. I just couldn’t. It seemed stupid, and I knew it would feel even more stupid if I said it out loud. Dreaming about a wedding was not what I did. I might have thought in passing what it might be like to be a wife, but all of the girlish dreaming had never been what I did. So I told her I was thinking about the dresses all the women were going to be wearing, and from there she took out a stack of her magazines and showed me dresses she thought we might see.
Before we knew it, we were driving into Atlanta. I had been to Atlanta before, but every time it felt like I was landing inside of a different world. The streets were full of fancy cars, and the buildings seemed to stretch up to the heavens.
“Oh my,” I said. That’s all I could come up with. Just like the last time I had come to Atlanta, I was shocked by the many stores and restaurants and people. Everybody seemed to be moving around like they had someplace really important to go. In Parsons, you were subject to see folks just hanging around, drinking a soda, not really going anywhere or doing anything. But here, in this place, it felt like it was a city with a purpose. The streets were filled with white and Colored alike, moving with a quickness, not even slowing down enough to say howdy. That part I wasn’t sure if I liked too much. I liked the fact that everybody in Parsons and Colored Town at least said “Good morning” and “Good evening.” Nobody ever got too busy to not do that.
“What you think about Atlanta?” Uncle Lem asked. He slowed with the traffic, almost coming to a stop in places because there were so many cars and trucks out and about, not to mention people crossing the streets, hardly paying any attention to the cars. I’d be a nervous wreck walking out there. “Is it just like you remembered?”
“Yes sir, Uncle Lem,” I said. “This place is so big, though. I don’t see how folks can find their way around here.”
“It can be a challenge, for sure. We might have to park here and walk to Ponce de Leon Park,” Uncle Lem said. We hadn’t moved in a while, what with traffic being so heavy.
“That’s all right with me,” Lucille said, bouncing in her seat. “I just want to go, go, go.”
Uncle Lem laughed. “You mighty excited for a ballgame.”
“Oh, Daddy,” she said, laughing right back.
I turned away. I wondered if Lucille knew just how blessed she was to have a mama and a papa like Uncle Lem and Aunt Shimmy. I never begrudged my cousins for the love they received from my aunts and uncles, but sometimes I wished I had a little bit of it for me. Sometimes I wanted my own papa and mama to smile at me and love on me. But I didn’t have long to dwell on that because we had a ballgame to go to, and I was determined to have a good time.
Just ahead, a Colored man was directing traffic, pointing cars toward places they could park. We turned off about a block from the baseball field and parked in a grassy area underneath some trees, where an elderly Colored man sat in a lawn chair. Uncle Lem gave the man a quarter to watch his car. Then we joined the crowd of walkers, all headed toward the baseball field. Me and Lucille linked arms, giggling like little girls. I couldn’t believe all of the people. Uncle Lem said the last time the Black Crackers played there was over five thousand people there to see them. It sure looked like it was that many or more on this day. And not just Colored folks, which surprised me. There was white folks too. When I asked Uncle Lem about it, he said, “These peckerwoods always come to see us play. How else is they gonna learn the game?” he boasted. “There ain’t a white player who can outpitch Satchel Paige or outhit Josh Gibson, or any of our local boys for that matter. Naw, they come here to see what real baseball looks like.”
Today, the Atlanta Black Crackers would be playing in an exhibition game against the newly formed McDonough Brown Thrashers, whose owner, a local white man, it was said, paid a fortune for Satchel Paige to come out and pitch three innings with them. Everybody and his mama was at this game.
“Where you think Stank is?” Lucille asked. I didn’t answer her right away ’cause I was scanning the crowd looking for him myself. How in the world was I gone find him among all these people, I wondered. But I shouldn’t have worried because when we got close to the entrance, we all saw Cedric and my cousin M.J. standing there waiting for us. Cedric looked good. He was dressed in a Sunday suit, and he had on a purple shirt and a purple tie, with a purple handkerchief in his pocket.
“Look at y’all. Y’all match,” Lucille said, grinning.
“You told,” I hissed in her ear.
“Maybe,” she said, laughing out loud. “A little birdie may have told him I would get you to wear purple. Now let’s see if Hazel Moody can beat this.”
“We gone look silly,” I whispered, my cheeks feeling warm, but not from the heat.
“No, you all are going to look like a couple. Like somebody who belongs together,” Lucille said in a firm voice. “And he was happy that I told him to match up with you. He wanted to look like you two were an item.”
I couldn’t hardly pay attention to what she was saying because Cedric was now walking toward us. I noticed M.J. stayed back. Seemed like everybody was trying to help me and Cedric become a real couple. When Cedric got to us, he walked up to Uncle Lem and offered his hand.
“Good afternoon, Deacon Pruitt. It’s good to see you,” he said in his best church voice.
“Good afternoon to you, too, Stank,” Uncle Lem said. “You looking like a big shot, as they say.”
“Oh, Daddy,” Lucille said, laughing. “That’s not what anybody says anymore.”
“Well, excuse me, Miss Lady,” Uncle Lem said, laughing right along with her.
Cedric made his way down the line and spoke to my Aunt Shimmy and then Lucille, and finally, he was standing in front of me.
“Hey there, Opal. You look good,” he said, looking at me like no boy had ever looked at me before. I was so flustered I almost turned away, but I made myself not blink and not duck my head or anything silly like that. I was almost eighteen. I should know how to conduct myself in front of a boy. And anyway, I chided myself, it was just Cedric. He and I had sat and talked on my very own porch. I didn’t need to be nervous. I just needed to be myself, like Lucille kept telling me.
I took a deep breath, and then I said in a calm voice, “Hello, Cedric. Thank you. You look right handsome yourself.” I was proud of myself for not stuttering or misspeaking.
He offered me his arm, and I looked at Aunt Shimmy. She nodded her head in approval. I placed my arm through his.
“Y’all hold on. Let me give you your ticket money, Opal,” Uncle Lem said.
“That’s okay, Deacon Pruitt. I’ve got enough to cover her. Her cousin too,” he added.
Uncle Lem looked pleased. “Well, all right. You children go on. Just make sure you all stay together,” he said, putting an emphasis on the word all. “We gone wait here for everybody else to get parked.”
“We’ll all stay together, sir,” Cedric said and escorted me toward the ticket gate. Lucille made sure she walked a few steps behind us.
“I can’t believe we gone see Satchel Paige pitch today. You excited?” I asked, tightening my grip on his arm just a bit. The crowd was thick, and I didn’t want to get separated from him. “Lucille, you take Cedric’s other arm. I don’t want us getting lost from each other.”
She laughed. “Don’t worry about me none. I’m gone run ahead and stand beside M.J. Y’all just take your own sweet time. Satchel Paige won’t be coming out to pitch for a good long while.”
Before I could stop her, she ran off toward our cousin, who waved when he saw her coming toward him. Cedric turned me around so I was looking up at him.
“You look good, Opal,” he repeated, looking at me like I was the most beautiful girl in the world. “And yes, I’m excited to see Satchel Paige pitch. But seeing you show up in this pretty purple getup, well, that’s better than seeing Satchel Paige pitch a no-hitter.”
I didn’t know what to say. But before I could come up with the words, M.J. waved at us to come on. Cedric took me by my hand and led me to where they were standing.
“They say Satchel ain’t gone come out until the seventh inning, maybe the eighth,” M.J. said. It was clear he was not pleased with the news.
Cedric laughed. “That sounds about right. The old man’s not gone wear himself out for some little ole exhibition game. And anyway, if he started the game, everybody would want him to finish it. He’ll come out all fresh as a daisy and entertain the folks for three innings. Must be nice being Satchel Paige.”
We all laughed, and I walked up to the ticket booth real proud being on Cedric’s arm. I could tell he felt pretty good about himself when he bought my ticket and Lucille’s.
“And you can get all the peanuts and popcorn y’all want,” he said. “I hauled water buckets all this week to make sure I had enough money to treat you right today.”
“Thank you. I’m already having the best time ever, and I haven’t seen a lick of baseball yet,” I told him.
He laughed a deep, throaty laugh. “Come on, y’all. Let’s go get to our seats,” he said.
We all followed the crowd of Colored folks to our section. The whites sat in the best seats, but we still had a good view of everything. And anyway, me and Lucille were so busy admiring all the fancy-dressed Colored women and girls that we didn’t pay attention to where we were sitting. We were glad we’d dressed in our best clothes. We looked just as good as the other girls, even though the majority of them were from the city. My dress may have been homemade, but I was proud of every stitch of it.
When the McDonough team entered the field, we all stood and clapped and cheered. We weren’t from McDonough, but it was like they were our team, too, since we all were just a few miles from each other.
“That’s Pooch Williams pitching today,” Cedric said, pointing toward the pitcher’s mound. “And that’s his cousin Milton over on first base. I met them last year at a revival meeting at their church.”
“I bet he can’t throw as good as you,” I said in a bold voice.
“Aw, I do all right. But Pooch, he’s gone show Satchel a thing or two today. He’s got a fastball that’s wicked. But I’d say my curveball is right up there,” he said, smiling broadly. “Y’all want something to eat or drink?” He turned around to where M.J. and Lucille were sitting. “I’ll treat.”
M.J. laughed. “Well, if that’s the case, I’ll take a soda pop and some popcorn. Me and Lucille can share.”
Like he’d been doing it all his life, Cedric whistled loudly for the guy who was selling the snacks to come our way. Before long, we were eating and laughing and having the best time ever. I should have known things were going too good. Something should have told me not to let myself get so happy.
“Well, well, well. If it ain’t Stinky and his nigger gal friend,” a voice said from the end of the bleachers. We all looked at the same time. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Standing in the distance was Jimmy Earl, his cousin Skeeter, who was doing the loud talking, and Jimmy Earl’s friend Courtland.
“Don’t,” I whispered to Cedric, tightening my grip on his sleeve, but it was too late. He was already on his feet. Instantly, I knew things were about to get ugly.