The Whispers of the Streets

Book excerpt: But we loved that old ROOSEVELT & when he signed that Order 8802 a whole bunch of us got in the service. But you see I didn't trust them too much, & there was a lot of money to be made with all the work that the war caused. I just met this old girl that came up here from New Orleans, because, well, I thought that she was dirt poor & came up to make some money & find a husband. She was the prettiest thing that we ever seen around here, & we started courting almost as soon as she got off the bus ( he chuckled to himself). "Her name was Antoinette. She had the softest light real near white skin that I had ever seen even on white folks, long Black shining hair, and a very pretty smile, you see. She loved to laugh, a&nd I did as much as I could to make her laugh. If she wanted a clown, I sure damned was going to be one. She always spoke in a near whisper in that half French way that they speak down there in the French Quarter down there, & sometimes we didn't know what the hell she was talking about. But she was so damned pretty that I really didn't care since she was my girl. Hell, after a couple of weeks of being together, she started talking that talk to me & whatever she was saying sounded so good to me that I was agreeing all over myself! "She got so excited that we didn't go to see the show like we was suppose to & spent the night together. We made good music that night, if you know what I mean? That was the summer of forty-three, and I was so happy that I didn't know what to do with myself. The next morning she told me that she had to send her Mama a telegram to let her know that we was coming down so she could meet me & show me off to her family. "That's when I realized that the woman was talking about marriage! Well, I tell you that I was scared to death, because I never thought about marrying her or anybody else at the time, you see! But she was such a pretty thing that I said to myself "BOY, AS UGLY AS YOU ARE, YOU AIN'T GOING TO DO MUCH BETTER."