We prostitute ourselves not only when we sell our bodies or minds for money, but also every time we compromise our morals or ethics for some kind of gain. (Myss)
Barefoot Woman
It’s BessieJune again, tellin’ my story. Now mebbe you’re wonderin’ how come this is my story when all I do is ta write about the girls, but I’ll be tellin’ you all that terrectly. Today I wanna talk about Barefoot Woman. She’s on my mind ’cause I seen her this mornin’ sneakin’ out ta ole Miz Dobbs’s house.
Now Miz Dobbs is an old widder woman what lives out by the pike. Folks say she sells bootlegger likker, and she might, but you cain’t prove it by me. I do know that she’s supposed ta hang out different colored underwear on her clothes line, dependin’ on what kinda likker she’s got ta sell that day, and my, she does have a lot of different colored knickers, and sometimes skivvies, too, even tho’ I don’t think she has a man. Mebbe she wears them long johns herself, but I bet they’d be pretty scratchy.
Anyway ole Widder Dobbs might not have a man, but she’s got a passel of scruffy ole dogs that hang around her yard lookin’ mean and hungry. I usta be real scared of ’em, but not since I seen ’em chasin’ Polecat Jackson not too long ago — now I even got a soft spot for the mangy ole things and throw ’em a scrap sometimes.
But back to Barefoot Woman. When I seen her this mornin’, she was a’offerin’ Miz Dobbs a bag, a big bag, and I wondered if she was a’sellin’ her some of that there likker. Barefoot Woman needs money more’n most of the other girls ’cause she’s got her a kid. The kid’s named Pony, but I don’t think that’s his real name. He lives with Barefoot Woman in her room, and she pays Matildie a little extra ta mind him when she’s a’workin’. I know Miz Suze worries about havin’ Pony in a place like The Yella Schoolhouse, ’cause I hear her talkin’ to Barefoot Woman about how she oughta be thinkin’ about sendin’ him back to his people. I could tell Miz Suze I think this is a fine place to grow up, but I don’t like to go agin her.
I don’t know what people Barefoot Woman come from — mebbe Apache — or mebbe Comanche, ’cause she can be real fierce. And I wonder — did they kick her out, or did she run away, or get lost somehow. More’n likely her people kicked her out, ’cause I think Pony is what they called a half-breed, and if she went and laid with a white man, her people woulda got real mad.
i do know Barefoot Woman seems so lonesome-like that I sometimes kinda feel this holler ache in my stomach, and I wonder if she feels that way all the time, like somethin’ gnawin’ away inside her. It must be awful hard, bein’ part of a tribe and then they just throw ya out like you wasn’t worth nothin’, worser than they’d treat a dog.
Barefoot Woman always seems mad, too, but mebbe it’s because she never smiles or meets your eyes. I know she’s real against drinkin’, so it’s kinda funny she’d be sellin’ home-brew to Widder Dobbs. But folks have to make themselves do a lotta stuff for money, nobody know that more’n the girls what work here.
I do know Miz Suze is teachin’ Barefoot Woman ta read, ‘n hopin’ that if Barefoot Woman won’t do it ta send Pony back ta his people, she can at least get her another job somewheres away from The Yella Schoolhouse. I hate ta tell Miz Suze that it ain’t likely tho’. Once girls come ta a place like this, it’s mighty hard ta get away.
As Matildie says, that’s just the way this ole world is.