The Black Rose by Tananarive Due Page B

dragged headfirst through a brier patch? You have to work with what God gave you. You hear?”
    Sarah nodded, hoping her throat would loosen enough to make a sound. “Yes’m.”
    “An’ I don’t want to hear any cryin’ or foolishness, neither. Somebody’s got to teach you or you won’t know any better.”
    “Yes’m.”
    “See there?” Miss Brown thrust a hand mirror at her, and suddenly Sarah was staring at herself face-to-face. She saw her shame-reddened eyes, her face that looked older than she remembered, and, finally, the white bows Miss Brown had tied in her hair. Although her heart was still smarting, Sarah saw herself begin to smile.
    “That’s right,” Miss Brown said. “You’ve got a pretty girl buried down there somewhere. You’re not in the cotton fields anymore, Sarah. Out here in the world, folks try to look nice. An’ even if menfolk don’t, womenfolk better .” At that, Miss Brown patted her sharply on her backside. “Now, you better get to that pressin’. An’ don’t expect to leave ’til it’s done, even if you have to stay late. I’m not givin’ you any special favors.”
    “No, ma’am,” Sarah said, smiling more widely. Her eyes were still drawn to the image of herself in the little mirror, and the bows Miss Brown herself had placed in her hair.
     
    It was after dark when Sarah got home, and she found Louvenia sitting in their room with their lamp and several candles burning, making the room bright as day. Their room at the boardinghouse wasn’t nearly as nice as any of the rooms in Miss Brown’s house, which were so scrubbed and neat, filled with store-bought furniture and rugs. The furniture in their boardinghouse was ramshackle and dreary, only a table and one chair, shelves for their clothes, and a mattress on the floor hardly big enough for both of them to share. Louvenia called their boardinghouse a chinchpad , one of the city words she’d picked up from her beau, although Sarah was glad she’d never encountered a single chinch bug in their bed the way she used to in their Delta cabin. Besides, the roof didn’t leak, their window overlooking the alleyway had glass in it, and they always had plenty of blankets when it was cold.
    “How come you got all these lights burnin’?” Sarah asked.
    Louvenia grinned, holding up a letter. “They said this was for us, from Missus Anna Burney Long!” she said. “Alex sent us twenty dollars!”
    Alex was alive! With a shout of joy, Sarah ran to her sister and gave her a tight hug that nearly pulled Louvenia out of her chair. Twenty dollars would be enough for them to buy new coats and heavy clothes for winter. Maybe even shoes, too!
    “He sent a note?” Sarah said eagerly.
    “Sho’ did. Can you read this?”
    Lou thrust the folded piece of paper into Sarah’s hands. The letter was surprisingly official-looking, written on fancy printed stationery, but the handwriting was small and difficult to make out. Sarah saw the word L-O-U at the top, along with her own name, S-A-R-A.
    “It’s to me an’ you,” Sarah said, excited.
    “Well, we know that, dummy. Who else it gon’ be for? What else it say?”
     
Your bruther Alex aksed me to write to you. He hopes this letter will find you well. He is fine. He has setled in Denver Colorado and is a porter at the Hamilton hotel which he says is bigger then any hotel you could ever beleive. Denver is very buetiful but he was sick all winter long and would have starved exept for friends. He is sorry it took him so long to find work but times are hard and he is geting on his feet at last. Pleas write back to him at the above adress and let him know if you are fine too. They say the cotton crop was not good and he sends this money to help pay rent.
Prayers and love, Alex.
     
    Sarah shook her head, frustrated, as she studied the note in her hands. There were too many words she didn’t know, and the challenge scared her even though she could pick out words here and there—