Free Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange Page B

about kissing.
    â€œElizabeth, do you hear me? Come to my room right now. I want to tell you something.”
    Jane had no idea Betsey had done anything besides study her lessons and play rope or read like she usually did. Jane noticed a soft blush in her daughter’s cheeks, but beyond that she saw a little girl with magic eyes and an impish smile that was hiding some huge secret.
    â€œElizabeth, what are you smiling about?”
    â€œOh, I’m just happy, Mama, that’s all. I had a wonderful day. An absolutely wonderful day.”
    â€œWell, what happened?”
    â€œOh, nothing. Charlie and a friend of his came over to play ball. I talked to Grandma. And it was just wonderful. That’s all.”
    Jane motioned for Betsey to sit by her on the bed.
    â€œBetsey, sweetheart, we’re going to have to try really hard to keep the house straight and the children off your grandma’s nerves until I can find someone to help out around here. I’m going to put an ad in the
St. Louis Argus
asking for someone who’s good with children and can do light housework. I won’t be accepting anybody off the streets again.”
    Betsey sank into her mother’s arms. It hadn’t been sucha wonderful day after all. There was good in it, like a kiss, and bad in it, like where was Miss Calhoun?

5
    Then Regina came. Greer’d discovered that Mr. Johnson had a granddaughter who had finished high school and was in need of a job. Jane didn’t take to the notion at first. She had had her fill of the Johnsons in more ways than one, but Regina seemed to be a nice girl. Fresh, and neat, slender with a heavy curl cross her forehead, the fashion of the day. The only thing that bothered Jane was that the beautician who did Regina’s hair had used an electric razor on her neck. Jane believed in the use of scissors on a woman’s head, no razors. That was too common. Other than that, Regina fit right in. She sang with the children and somehow managed to keep them out of trouble.
    Charlie was moon-eyed all the time. Regina wasn’t that much older than he was. She was so grown though. She wore tight skirts even when she was cleaning the kitchen table legs.Her blouses pointed out straight in front of her like the Playtex bra ads said they would if you wanted “lift.” Charlie’s crush on Regina calmed the house considerably. He was willing to do anything she asked him to.
    Betsey liked Regina cause she knew about boys. Regina wore a big gold ring from Roscoe round her neck, on a gold chain that danced in the cleavage of her breasts every time she bent down. Every afternoon after school Regina read out loud to Margot and Sharon and Betsey from
True Romance
and
Love Is the Way.
The girls would huddle round Regina, whose left ankle was decorated with a bracelet that had a heart with an arrow going through the center. Regina wore hose with a seam down the back and was always pushing her cuticles back or using emery boards to save her nails.
    Regina liked the way Jane lived, even if Jane had second thoughts about it herself. A doctor, a big house, a bunch of children, a garden and porches everywhere you looked. Regina sometimes took the girls upstairs to Jane’s room to try on Jane’s evening gowns. Jane entertained a lot. That’s how the children knew about the rhumba, chocolate-covered grasshoppers, and caviar. Regina and the girls played dress-up till it was time for Regina to get dinner started, or till Vida came ambling along, humming a song to let everyone know she was in the general vicinity.
    Vida believed deep in her soul that Regina was a bad influence on the girls at this critical stage of their lives. Rouged cheeks on weekdays and lipstick at 8:00 in the morning were not signs of careful living, to Vida’s mind. So much preening in all the mirrors, from Sharon on up, caused Vida to click her teeth and shake her head. Jane didn’t understand young folks was