by Alice Walker
What? he ast.
These Olinka people worship it. They say who knows, maybe it is kinfolks, but for sure it’s the smartest, cleanest, slickest thing they ever seen.
These folks sure must have a heap of time just to sit and think, say Mr. ___.
Nettie say they real good at thinking, I say. But they think so much in terms of thousands of years they have a hard time gitting themself through one.
So what they name Adam?
Something sound like Omatangu, I say. It mean a un-naked man somewhere near the first one God made that knowed what he was. A whole lot of the men that come before the first man was men, but none of ’em didn’t know it. You know how long it take some mens to notice anything, I say.
Took me long enough to notice you such good company, he say. And he laugh.
He ain’t Shug, but he begin to be somebody I can talk to.
And no matter how much the telegram said you must be drown, I still git letters from you.
Your Sister, Celie
DEAR CELIE,
After two and a half months Adam and Tashi returned! Adam overtook Tashi and her mother and some other members of our compound as they were nearing the village where the white woman missionary had lived, but Tashi would not hear of turning back, nor would Catherine, and so Adam accompanied them to the mbeles encampment.
Oh, he says, it is the most extraordinary place!
You know, Celie, in Africa there is a huge depression in the earth called the great rift valley, but it is on the other side of the continent from where we are. However, according to Adam, there is a “small” rift on our side, several thousand acres large and even deeper than the great rift, which covers millions of acres. It is a place set so deep into the earth that it can only really be seen, Adam thinks, from the air, and then it would seem just an overgrown canyon. Well, in this overgrown canyon are a thousand people from dozens of African tribes, and even one colored man—Adam swears—from Alabama! There are farms. There is a school. An infirmary. A temple. And there are male and female warriors who do indeed go on missions of sabotage against the white plantations.
But all this seemed more a marvel in the recounting than in the actual experiencing of it, if I am any judge of Adam and Tashi. Their minds seem to have been completely riveted on each other.
I wish you could have seen them as they staggered into the compound. Filthy as hogs, hair as wild as could be. Sleepy. Exhausted. Smelly. God knows. But still arguing.
Just because I came back with you, don’t think I am saying yes to marriage, says Tashi.
Oh yes you are, says Adam, heatedly, but through a yawn. You promised your mother. I promised your mother.
Nobody in America will like me, says Tashi.
I will like you, says Adam.
Olivia ran and enfolded Tashi in her arms. Ran about preparing food and a bath.
Last night, after Tashi and Adam had slept most of the day, we had a family conference. We informed them that because so many of our people had gone to join the mbeles and the planters were beginning to bring in Moslem workers from the North, and because it was time for us to do so, we would be leaving for home in a matter of weeks.
Adam announced his desire to marry Tashi.
Tashi announced her refusal to be married.
And then, in that honest, forthright way of hers, she gave her reasons. Paramount among them that, because of the scarification marks on her cheeks Americans would look down on her as a savage and shun her, and whatever children she and Adam might have. That she had seen the magazines we receive from home and that it was very clear to her that black people did not truly admire blackskinned black people like herself, and especially did not admire blackskinned black women. They bleach their faces, she said. They fry their hair. They try to look naked.
Also, she continued, I fear Adam will be distracted by one of these naked looking women and desert me. Then I would have no country, no people, no mother and no husband and brother.
You’d have a sister, said Olivia.
Then Adam spoke. He asked Tashi to forgive his initial stupid response to the scarification. And to forgive the repugnance he’d felt about the female initiation ceremony. He assured Tashi that it was she he loved and that in America she would have country, people, parents, sister, husband, brother and lover, and that whatever befell her in America would also be his own choice and his own lot.
Oh, Celie.
So, the next day, our boy came to us with scars identical to Tashi’s on his cheeks.
And they are so happy. So happy, Celie. Tashi and Adam Omatangu.
Samuel married them, of course, and all the people left in the compound came to wish them happiness and an abundance of roofleaf forever. Olivia stood up with the bride and a friend of Adam’s—a man too old to have joined the mbeles—stood up with him. Immediately after the wedding we left the compound, riding in a lorry that took us to a boat at the coast inlet that flows out to sea.
In a few weeks, we will all be home.
Your loving sister, Nettie
DEAR NETTIE,
Mr. _____ talk to Shug a lot lately by telephone. He say as soon as he told her my sister and her family was missing, she and Germaine made a beeline for the State department trying to find out what happen. He say Shug say it just kill her to think I’m down here suffering from not knowing. But nothing happen at the State department. Nothing at the department of defense. It’s a big war. So much going on. One ship lost feel like nothing, I guess. Plus, colored don’t count to those people.
Well, they just don’t know, and never did. Never will. And so what? I know you on your way home and you may not git here till I’m ninety, but one of these days I do expect to see your face.
Meanwhile, I hired Sofia to clerk in our store. Kept the white man Alphonso got to run it, but put Sofia in there to wait on colored cause they never had nobody in a store to wait on ’em before and nobody in a store to treat ’em nice. Sofia real good at selling stuff too cause she act like she don’t care if you buy or not. No skin off her nose. And then if you decide to buy anyhow, well, she might exchange a few pleasant words with you. Plus, she scare that white man. Anybody else colored he try to call ’em auntie or something. First time he try that with Sofia she ast him which colored man his mama sister marry.
I ast Harpo do he mind if Sofia work.
What I’m gon mind for? he say. It seem to make her happy. And I can take care of anything come up at home. Anyhow, he say, Sofia got me a little help for when Henrietta need anything special to eat or git sick.
Yeah, say Sofia. Miss Eleanor Jane gon look in on Henrietta and every other day promise to cook her something she’ll eat. You know white people have a look of machinery in they kitchen. She whip up stuff with yams you’d never believe. Last week she went and made yam ice cream.
How this happen? I ast. I thought the two of you was through.
Oh, say Sofia. It finally dawn on her to ast her mama why I come to work for them.
I don’t expect it to last, though, say Harpo. You know how they is.
Do her peoples know? I ask.
They know, say Sofia. They carrying on just like you know they would. Whoever heard of a white woman working for niggers, they rave. She tell them, Whoever heard of somebody like Sofia working for trash.
She bring Reynolds Stanley with her? I ask.
Henrietta say she don’t mind him.
Well, say Harpo, I’m satisfied if her menfolks against her helping you, she gon quit.
Let her quit, say Sofia. It not my salvation she working for. And if she don’t learn she got to face judgment for herself, she won’t even have live.
Well, you got me behind you, anyway, say Harpo. And I loves every judgment you ever made. He move up and kiss her where her nose was stitch.
Sofia toss her head. Everybody learn something in life, she say. And they laugh.
Speaking of learning, Mr. _____ say one day us was sewing out on the porch, I first start to learn
all them days ago I use to sit up there on my porch, staring out cross the railing.
Just miserable. That’s what I was. And I couldn’t understand why us have life at all if all it can do most times is make us feel bad. All I ever wanted in life was Shug Avery, he say. And one while, all she wanted in life was me. Well, us couldn’t have each other, he say. I got Annie Julia. Then you. All them rotten children. She got Grady and who know who all. But still, look like she come out better than me. A lot of people love Shug, but nobody but Shug love me.
Hard not to love Shug, I say. She know how to love somebody back.
I tried to do something bout my children after you left me. But by that time it was too late. Bub come with me for two weeks, stole all my money, laid up on the porch drunk. My girls so far off into mens and religion they can’t hardly talk. Every time they open they mouth some kind of plea come out. Near bout to broke my sorry heart.
If you know your heart sorry, I say, that mean it not quite as spoilt as you think.
Anyhow, he say, you know how it is. You ask yourself one question, it lead to fifteen. I start to wonder why us need love. Why us suffer. Why us black. Why us men and women. Where do children really come from. It didn’t take long to realize I didn’t hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don’t mean nothing if you don’t ask why you here, period.
So what you think? I ask.
I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, he say, the more I love.
And people start to love you back, I bet, I say.
They do, he say, surprise. Harpo seem to love me. Sofia and the children. I think even ole evil Henrietta love me a little bit, but that’s cause she know she just as big a mystery to me as the man in the moon.
Mr. _____ is busy patterning a shirt for folks to wear with my pants.
Got to have pockets, he say. Got to have loose sleeves. And definitely you not spose to wear it with no tie. Folks wearing ties look like they being lynch.
And then, just when I know I can live content without Shug, just when Mr. _____ done ask me to marry him again, this time in the spirit as well as in the flesh, and just after I say Naw, I still don’t like frogs, but let’s us be friends, Shug write me she coming home.
Now. Is this life or not?
I be so calm.
If she come, I be happy. If she don’t, I be content.
And then I figure this the lesson I was suppose to learn.
Oh Celie, she say, stepping out of the car, dress like a moving star, I missed you more than I missed my own mama.
Us hug.
Come on in, I say.
Oh, the house look so nice, she say, when us git to her room. You know I love pink.
Got you some elephants and turtles coming, too, I say.
Where your room? she ast.
Down the hall, I say.
Let’s go see it, she say.
Well, here it is, I say, standing in the door. Everything in my room purple and red cept the floor, that painted bright yellow. She go right to the little purple frog perch on my mantlepiece.
What this? she ast.
Oh, I say, a little something Albert carve for me.
She look at me funny for a minute, I look at her. Then us laugh.
Where Germaine at? I ast.
In college, she say. Wilberforce. Can’t let all that talent go to waste. Us through, though, she say. He feel just like family now. Like a son. Maybe a grandson. What you and Albert been up to? she ast.
Nothing much, I say.
She say, I know Albert and I bet he been up to something, with you looking as fine as you look.
Us sew, I say. Make idle conversation.
How idle? she ast.
What do you know, I think. Shug jealous. I have a good mind to make up a story just to make her feel bad. But I don’t
Us talk bout you, I say. How much us love you.
She smile, come put her head on my breast. Let out a long breath.
Your Sister, Celie
DEAR GOD. DEAR STARS, DEAR TREES, DEAR SKY, DEAR PEOPLES.
DEAR EVERYTHING. DEAR GOD.
Thank you for bringing my sister Nettie and our children home. Wonder who that coming yonder? ast Albert, looking up the road. Us can see the dust just aflying.
Me and him and Shug sitting out on the porch after dinner. Talking. Not talking. Rocking and fanning flies. Shug mention she don’t want to sing in public no more—well, maybe a night or two at Harpo’s. Think maybe she retire. Albert say he want her to try on his new shirt. I talk bout Henrietta. Sofia. My garden and the store. How things doing generally. So much in the habit of sewing something I stitch up a bunch of scraps, try to see what I can make. The weather cool for the last of June, and sitting on the porch with Albert and Shug feel real pleasant. Next week be the fourth of July and us plan a big family reunion outdoors here at my house. Just hope the cool weather hold.
Could be the mailman, I say. Cept he driving a little fast.
Could be Sofia, say Shug. You know she drive like a maniac.
Could be Harpo, say Albert. But it not.
By now the car stop under the trees in the yard and all these peoples dress like old folks git out.
A big tall whitehaired man with a backward turn white collar, a little dumpty woman with her gray hair in plaits cross on top her head. A tall youngish man and two robust looking youngish women. The whitehaired man say something to the driver of the car and the car leave. They all stand down there at the edge of the drive surrounded by boxes and bags and all kinds of stuff.
By now my heart is in my mouth and I can’t move.
It’s Nettie, Albert say, gitting up.
All the people down by the drive look up at us. They look at the house. The yard. Shug and Albert’s cars. They look round at the fields. Then they commence to walk real slow up the walk to the house.
I’m so scared I don’t know what to do. Feel like my mind stuck. I try to speak, nothing come. Try to git up, almost fall. Shug reach down and give me a helping hand. Albert press me on the arm.
When Nettie’s foot come down on the porch I almost die. I stand swaying, tween Albert and Shug. Nettie stand swaying tween Samuel and I reckon it must be Adam. Then us both start to moan and cry. Us totter toward one nother like us use to do when us was babies. Then us feel so weak when us touch, us knock each other down. But what us care? Us sit and lay there on the porch inside each other’s arms.
After while, she say Celie.
I say Nettie.
Little bit more time pass. Us look round at a lot of peoples knees. Nettie never let go my waist. This my husband Samuel, she say, pointing up. These our children Olivia and Adam and this Adam’s wife Tashi, she say.
I point up at my peoples. This Shug and Albert, I say.
Everybody say Pleased to Meetcha. Then Shug and Albert start to hug everybody one after the other.
Me and Nettie finally git up off the porch and I hug my children. And I hug Tashi. Then I hug Samuel.
Why us always have family reunion on July 4th, say Henrietta, mouth poke out, full of complaint. It so hot.
White people busy celebrating they independence from England July 4th, say Harpo, so most black folks don’t have to work. Us can spend the day celebrating each other.
Ah, Harpo, say Mary Agnes, sipping some lemonade, I didn’t know you knowed history. She and Sofia working together on the potato salad. Mary Agnes come back home to pick up Suzie Q. She done left Grady, move back to Memphis and live with her sister and her ma. They gon look after Suzie Q while she work. She got a lot of new songs, she say, and not too knocked out to sing ’em.
After while, being with Grady, I couldn’t think, she say. Plus, he not a good influence for no child. Course, I wasn’t eithe
r, she say. Smoking so much reefer.
Everybody make a lot of miration over Tashi. People look at her and Adam’s scars like that’s they business. Say they never suspect African ladies could look so good. They make a fine couple. Speak a little funny, but us gitting use to it.
What your people love best to eat over there in Africa? us ast.
She sort of blush and say barbecue.
Everybody laugh and stuff her with one more piece.
I feel a little peculiar round the children. For one thing, they grown. And I see they think me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old and don’t know much what going on. But I don’t think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.
Amen
I thank everybody in this book for coming.
—A.W., author and medium
The Temple of My Familiar