My past two weeks has been a touching journey reading The Help (by Kathryn Stockett), which finished me in tears, and I hold this story dear to me for so many reasons. I felt compelled to write something, anything, just because I don't want to forget.
“Once upon a time they was two girls," I say. "one girl had black skin, one girl had white."
Mae Mobley look up at me. She listening.
"Little colored girl say to little white girl, 'How come your skin be so pale?' White girl say, 'I don't know. How come your skin be so black? What you think that mean?'
"But neither one a them little girls knew. So little white girl say, 'Well, let's see. You got hair, I got hair.' "I gives Mae Mobley a little tousle on her head.
"Little colored girl say 'I got a nose, you got a nose.' "I gives her little snout a tweak. She got to reach up and do the same to me.
"Little white girl say, 'I got toes, you got toes.' And I do the little thing with her toes, but she can't get to mine cause I got my white work shoes on.
"'So we's the same. Just a different color', say that little colored girl. The little white girl, she agreed and they was friends. The End."
Baby Girl just look at me. Law, that was a sorry story if I ever heard one. Wasn't even no plot to it. But Mae Mobley, she smile and say, "Tell it again.”
Mae Mobley look up at me. She listening.
"Little colored girl say to little white girl, 'How come your skin be so pale?' White girl say, 'I don't know. How come your skin be so black? What you think that mean?'
"But neither one a them little girls knew. So little white girl say, 'Well, let's see. You got hair, I got hair.' "I gives Mae Mobley a little tousle on her head.
"Little colored girl say 'I got a nose, you got a nose.' "I gives her little snout a tweak. She got to reach up and do the same to me.
"Little white girl say, 'I got toes, you got toes.' And I do the little thing with her toes, but she can't get to mine cause I got my white work shoes on.
"'So we's the same. Just a different color', say that little colored girl. The little white girl, she agreed and they was friends. The End."
Baby Girl just look at me. Law, that was a sorry story if I ever heard one. Wasn't even no plot to it. But Mae Mobley, she smile and say, "Tell it again.”
It seems such a simplistic, overrated thought in a year like 2012, but it's the first time that I was really able to chew on it. Because there are no lines. We create the lines in our head. Until we become so afraid to cross them. The truth is, "We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought."
