Free Yonnondio: From the Thirties by Tillie Olsen Page B

ol’ man Kvaternick in the mine and he was dead now,
     dead. Worms … no, dont think of ol’ man Kvaternick) Irish French Italian Jewish Lith
     … A face was black, black like when the men come up from the mine, blacker; lots of
     faces were black. Maybe the mine was here too, maybe kids had to live in the mine
     here like they had to live in gunnysack houses, maybe the whistle would be again,
     but the whistle was all the time now. Mexican Negro Polish Portuguese. If her heart
     beat any faster she would have to scream and all the faces would turn and look, …
     One face was honey color—honey like on the farm. The farm. It is just a dream, a bad
     dream, andit really is the farm, really the farm, in a minute now you will get awake, and it
     will be the farm again.
    At recess, her heart quieting, telling two girls, Annamae and Ellie, about riding
     a horse, somebody hissed: “So ya come from the country where our milk comes from;
     ya learn about bulls?” and smack, a head butted her in the stomach. Bewildered, gasping
     for breath, swaying, she heard Annamae laugh, “Oh, Smoky, didja put that one over,”
     and in a darkness of rage and hatred she lunged at him, but already he was across
     the playground, his too big shirt flapping in the wind, his angular face jeering.
     And then she turned to Ellie and shoved her down, and turned to Annamae to shove her
     down, but the teacher was holding her shoulder, steering her inside the school. “Perhaps
     you indulged in rough play of this nature where you came from, but we do not permit
     it here, nor does it go unpunished.” Mazie could still see Smoky’s jeering face. “Lemme
     alone,” she cried and, making her body a hard ball of force, wrenched herself free.
     Then, paralyzed at what she had done, she stood in front of them all and began to
     cry. Hearing Will savagely whisper to someone next to him, “That aint my sister, that
     aint my sister,” she cried louder and louder, uncontrollably.
    That night they went to the Bedners, old friends Jim and Anna hadn’t seen for seven
     years. Alex wasdoing well—he was a tool and die maker now. They lived in a five-room house with a
     piano and a stained-glass window, and it didn’t smell around there, except when the
     wind blew strong from the south. They went on a streetcar, the kids’ first ride, but
     only Will seemed jubilant. Jimmie and Bess slept, Ben was sick all the way, and Mazie
     kept looking out the window with her eyes shut tight. Anna, kept smoothing her hair
     and passing her hand over the lines in her face.
    Else let out a cry of pain when she saw her: “Why, Anna, honey, you’ve changed so,
     I wouldn’t hardly’ve known you.”
    “But a lot happens in seven years,” Anna reminded her.
    “So it does, so it does,” Else agreed and began to cry. She was fat and smelled too
     sweet and had on a tight yellow dress. “So you’re Anna’s little man,” she said to
     Will, tears still on her face. “Give an old friend a kiss.” But Will wouldn’t. He
     ran over to the piano and banged it, and Jim had to slap him before he would kiss
     her.
    Everything was strained and shaken. Jimmie and Will ran into the other rooms to watch
     the electric lights on the ceiling and turn them on and off. Alex cleared his throat,
     then Jim cleared his, and then they smoked cigars in silence. In a low voice Else
     wassaying to Anna, “So stuck up around here … So lonesome I could die … such a brood
     … and we cant even manage to get one … been to all the doctors … just breaks my heart
     …”
    On a little table there were a lot of magazines. Screen Star and True Confession . Mazie turned the pages—there were pictures in them of men and la-dies smiling, or
     kissing. Alex, his thumb in his lapel, his voice suddenly loud and important, said,
     “Now if you still cant get on by the end of the week at the yards, you go on down
     and see Mulcahey; he’s the biggest contractor in town for road and