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Authors: William L. Deandrea
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take chances.”
Then a loud bell went off, and the presses started to roar. She signaled for him to follow her out. The German company had stressed the danger of being in here too long without ear protection.
Trotter smiled and shook his head. He put his mouth close to Regina’s ear. “I’ve been waiting for this,” he screamed. She could just about hear him. “Let’s talk for a few seconds.”
Chapter Four
“D ON’T BE SILLY,” THE Reverend Mr. Nelson said. “Come as often as you like. I’m here to talk to people, you know. To help them. Or rather, to show them how to ask the Lord to help them. He doesn’t care how long it takes, you know.” He smiled in that way preachers have, to let you know one of their favorite jokes was coming up. “He hasn’t worked to a schedule since the Creation.”
Tina Bloyd laughed and thanked him again. Mr. Nelson smiled. He smiled a lot. He had the kind of smile that helped people feel good. Someone at work had told her that, said the new preacher at the Northside Church could help her, and he’d turned out to be right. Tina had thought that after that morning when she’d awakened early to find the sheet damp and her baby dead, she’d never smile again. Damn psychiatrist at the hospital didn’t know anything; even Grandma, who’d come upstate on a bus, with her arthritis and everything, wasn’t a whole lot of help.
Grandma had urged her to see a preacher, too, but she wanted her to come back home to Mount Vernon and go to her church.
No way Tina was going to go back to Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon was a town in Westchester County, New York. A lot of people had heard of the county but only about the houses and the estates and the quaint little villages. They hadn’t heard about the downtowns, where the black people lived. Grandma had always said, “BTH, BTH,” which meant Better Than Harlem. If that was true, Tina didn’t want to know about Harlem. She didn’t know much about anything Grandma said, and that had been a mistake.
Tina had been a wild one. She’d been smart in school, when she bothered to go, which was not much. She didn’t do drugs, but she did liquor, some, and boys, a lot. It took four years, but the inevitable happened at last. Tina found herself pregnant. She pretended she wouldn’t tell who the father was, but the truth was, she didn’t know.
Abortion was out. Grandma didn’t hold with abortion, and Tina was too scared to lose Grandma, now. She’d always considered Grandma a kind of handkerchief head, running off to the preacher for everything, closing her eyes and rocking back and forth over her Bible, but from behind a bulging belly, Tina could see Grandma in a whole new way. Grandma had raised a baby all by herself, and what had gone wrong had been no fault of Grandma’s, just Tina’s own damned wildness. She’d have to raise a baby single-handed, now, and the prospect terrified her. She needed that old woman more than anything.
Unless she decided just to walk away from it, put the child up for adoption, and forget it.
Forget it was right. Sure, people were desperate to adopt babies. But they wanted white babies. That meant her baby was destined for an orphanage or a series of foster homes.
No way. She wasn’t making this baby on purpose, but she wasn’t making it so it could be miserable, either.
Tina had gone to the Welfare office to see what she could get. What she got was a surprise. No apartment, and a lot less money than she wanted, but they put her in a training program, learning to set computerized type. She worked hard, found out she liked it and could do it well. She finished her training about two weeks before the baby came, and she went into the hospital in possession of the one thing in the world she never thought she’d have—a job.
Not only a job, but a job with a big company. Turned out they’d more or less sponsored the training program. When she told some of her friends she was going upstate to work for
Then a loud bell went off, and the presses started to roar. She signaled for him to follow her out. The German company had stressed the danger of being in here too long without ear protection.
Trotter smiled and shook his head. He put his mouth close to Regina’s ear. “I’ve been waiting for this,” he screamed. She could just about hear him. “Let’s talk for a few seconds.”
Chapter Four
“D ON’T BE SILLY,” THE Reverend Mr. Nelson said. “Come as often as you like. I’m here to talk to people, you know. To help them. Or rather, to show them how to ask the Lord to help them. He doesn’t care how long it takes, you know.” He smiled in that way preachers have, to let you know one of their favorite jokes was coming up. “He hasn’t worked to a schedule since the Creation.”
Tina Bloyd laughed and thanked him again. Mr. Nelson smiled. He smiled a lot. He had the kind of smile that helped people feel good. Someone at work had told her that, said the new preacher at the Northside Church could help her, and he’d turned out to be right. Tina had thought that after that morning when she’d awakened early to find the sheet damp and her baby dead, she’d never smile again. Damn psychiatrist at the hospital didn’t know anything; even Grandma, who’d come upstate on a bus, with her arthritis and everything, wasn’t a whole lot of help.
Grandma had urged her to see a preacher, too, but she wanted her to come back home to Mount Vernon and go to her church.
No way Tina was going to go back to Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon was a town in Westchester County, New York. A lot of people had heard of the county but only about the houses and the estates and the quaint little villages. They hadn’t heard about the downtowns, where the black people lived. Grandma had always said, “BTH, BTH,” which meant Better Than Harlem. If that was true, Tina didn’t want to know about Harlem. She didn’t know much about anything Grandma said, and that had been a mistake.
Tina had been a wild one. She’d been smart in school, when she bothered to go, which was not much. She didn’t do drugs, but she did liquor, some, and boys, a lot. It took four years, but the inevitable happened at last. Tina found herself pregnant. She pretended she wouldn’t tell who the father was, but the truth was, she didn’t know.
Abortion was out. Grandma didn’t hold with abortion, and Tina was too scared to lose Grandma, now. She’d always considered Grandma a kind of handkerchief head, running off to the preacher for everything, closing her eyes and rocking back and forth over her Bible, but from behind a bulging belly, Tina could see Grandma in a whole new way. Grandma had raised a baby all by herself, and what had gone wrong had been no fault of Grandma’s, just Tina’s own damned wildness. She’d have to raise a baby single-handed, now, and the prospect terrified her. She needed that old woman more than anything.
Unless she decided just to walk away from it, put the child up for adoption, and forget it.
Forget it was right. Sure, people were desperate to adopt babies. But they wanted white babies. That meant her baby was destined for an orphanage or a series of foster homes.
No way. She wasn’t making this baby on purpose, but she wasn’t making it so it could be miserable, either.
Tina had gone to the Welfare office to see what she could get. What she got was a surprise. No apartment, and a lot less money than she wanted, but they put her in a training program, learning to set computerized type. She worked hard, found out she liked it and could do it well. She finished her training about two weeks before the baby came, and she went into the hospital in possession of the one thing in the world she never thought she’d have—a job.
Not only a job, but a job with a big company. Turned out they’d more or less sponsored the training program. When she told some of her friends she was going upstate to work for
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