Read Online Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison - Free Book Online

the box and he said “Let there be light”—but she didn’t really mean it. And she said “cud” and that should have been worth the revival. But he wouldn’t tell .
    Oh, Maggie, Jiggs, and Aunt Jemima! Jadda-dadda-jing-jing! I miss those times sometimes.…
    This game of politics is fraught with fraud, Ferd said—and a kiyi yippi and a happy nappy! So praise the Lord now, Pappy, and pass the biscuits! Oh, yes, the A.G. said, give ole Razorback Bill a guitar and the room to holler “nigger” and he’ll forget about trying to pass for an intellectual.… A slow train through East Razorback on Captain Billy’s Whizbang more pious than the Pharisees.… Hell, it was easy, easy. I was working as the old gentleman’s chauffeur and he caught me in bed with his madam. He was amazed but calm. Who the hell are you, anyway? he said. And I thought fast and said, I’m a nigger; so you can forget it, it don’t count. I’m outside the game. What? he said. Yes, I said, I am—or at least I was raised for one. So what are you going to do about it? And he said, Do? Hell, first I’m going to think about it. And then I’ll decide. Was she satisfied? I don’t know, I said, but I’ve had no complaints. Well, he said, taking that into consideration you might as well continue until she does. I’m a busy man and no old fool. Meanwhile I’ll think about making you a politician. That should teach you to obey the Commandment.… So because she was years younger than the old gentleman I made a classical entry into the house. Bull-rushed the bullyraggers.… Yes, but you just wait, he said. The Spades’ll learn to play the game and use their power and the old war will be ended.…
    Oh, no! We’ll legislate the hell against them. Sure, they must learn to play the game but power is as power does. Let’s not forget what the hell this is all about. They’ll have to come in as I did—through the living gate and sometimes it’s bloody. But they ought to know from back in Seventy-four .
    Mister Movie-Man … she said .
    God is love, I said, but art’s the possibility of forms, and shadows are the source of identity. And Donelson said, You tell ’em, buddy, while I go take a physic.…
    Hold the scene, don’t fade, don’t fade … Seven’s the number, Senator, I said. Fiscal problems come up seven, remember? Even for Joseph.… So she said, Mother, and I said me and she said cud was worth all that pain. But he still wouldn’t tell .
    Back away from me! Cat … cat … What’s the rest?
    I simply refused, that was all. Chicken in a casket was a no good-a union like-a da cloak. Too dark in there. Chick in this town, chick in that town and in the country. Always having to break out of that pink-lined shell .
    No, not afraid after a while, but still against it. I was pretty little—little though not pretty, understand. Saw first snow in Kansas. The wind blows cold, but I can’t tuck it .
    Look, I have to climb out of here immediately, or the wires will flash Cudworth moos for Ma—a hell of a note from now on. And on the other side there’s the dark. Daddy Hic, hic, what day?
    To hell with it, I’ve stood up too long to lie down .
    Lawd, Lawd, why?
    Inevitable? Well, I suppose so. So focus in the scene. There, there. The Right Honorable Daddy—Where?
    Karp! Karp, pan with the action—See! See! He’s riding right out from under his old Cordoba. But watch him, Stack wore a magic hat—Listen for a bulldog!
    Beliss?
    No! What do you know about that? I can’t hear him bark.…
    Bliss be-eeee thee ti-ee that binds.…

CHAPTER 3

    Forty-four in all, they were sitting in the Senate’s Visitors’ Gallery when Senator Sunraider arose to address the body. They sat in compact rows, their faces marked by that impassive expression which American Negroes often share with Orientals, watching the Senator with a remote concentration of their eyes. They barely moved while the Senator developed his argument, sitting like a row of