Free The Three Miss Margarets by Louise Shaffer

brought Lottie home he asked if he could sit with her on the porch. Lottie dismissed him. “I have better things to do with my time,” she told Maggie. “I’m not gonna end up like Momma, having a baby before I’m twenty and with no work I can do but cooking.”
    But Maggie could see Lottie was pleased, because she liked the attention from a boy. Maggie wanted to cry out, What about me? but she was too afraid. She became irritable and moody, snapping at Lottie for no reason and then apologizing. She had always been a rational, confident child, but now she was full of doubts. Mama wanted to take her to the doctor, but Maggie knew what she needed. She had to find the courage somewhere to tell Lottie how she felt.
    There were several nights when she came close to saying it. There were nights when she thought Lottie knew. Once, when she had been staring at Lottie, she found Lottie looking back at her. Their eyes met and she almost blurted it out; Lottie looked away quickly and she lost her nerve. But she had to say something because time was running out. They’d be graduating in a year, and they had to work out a way to be together when they went to college.
    Then the county school board announced they’d be closing the colored high school in Charles Valley. Negro students who wanted to continue their education would have to get themselves to Ashtabula, twenty miles away.
    Lottie was beside herself. There was no way she could make the daily round-trip. Maggie was heartbroken for her, but there was nothing she could do to help. Even if she kept on tutoring Lottie every day, it wouldn’t get Lottie the diploma she needed. Charlie Mae said it was just as well. Lottie’s Aunt Grace had started working as a maid at the new resort the Garrisons had just opened, and she thought she could get Lottie a job there too. Times were still bad in Charles Valley, work for pay was hard to come by, and Lottie’s family could use the money. Desperate, Lottie spilled all this to Miss Monross, who came up with a solution.
    “She says there’s a family I can live with in Ashtabula,” Lottie reported to Maggie. “They have a girl my age who’s going to high school. Miss Monross is gonna talk to Momma and Daddy and see if they’ll let me stay with those people and finish high school.”
    It was like a physical blow. “You want to . . . to go away?” Maggie stammered.
    “I don’t want to, I’ve got to, Maggie. I have to get my diploma.”
    “But what about me?” The words were tumbling out now. “What will I do?”
    “I’ll be back sometimes. . . .”
    “We’ve always been together. . . .”
    “I know. . . .”
    “You can’t go.” As she said it, Lottie’s eyes met hers the way they had before. Only this time there was something in her look. As if Lottie sensed what she’d been trying to tell her. And then she could tell that Lottie knew. For a moment she was just plain happy. Lottie knew. It was out in the open. They could say it. But then Lottie turned away again.
    “You can’t leave,” Maggie repeated, determined now.
    “Maggie—”
    “You can’t leave me.”
    Lottie wouldn’t look at her. But it was too late. They had to have it out now. She was starting to cry.
    “Lottie, please!” she begged, as she reached out to take Lottie’s hand.
    She never knew what happened next, whether she knocked the oil lamp over or Lottie did when she jerked her hand away. The hot oil spilled on the papers they had been working with and the burning wick fell into it. The papers blazed into flame, and the dry straw on the floor of the barn began to burn. Lottie and Maggie froze, watching as the fire started spreading across the floor to the junk piled up on the sides of the barn. Then together they went into crazed action. Lottie grabbed the algebra book they’d been studying from and began beating at the burning floor until the book caught fire in her hands. Maggie grabbed the blanket and threw it on the flames, stomping on