Free The Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor

M y sister and I were playing out on the front lawn when the gold Cadillac rolled up and my father stepped from behind the wheel. We ran to him, our eyes filled with wonder. “Daddy, whose Cadillac?” I asked.
    And Wilma demanded, “Where’s our Mercury?”
    My father grinned. “Go get your mother and I’ll tell you all about it.”
    “Is it ours?” I cried. “Daddy, is it ours?”
    “Get your mother!” he laughed. “And tell her to hurry!” Wilma and I ran off to obey as Mr. Pondexter next door came from his house to see what this new Cadillac was all about. We threw open the front door, ran through the downstairs front parlor and straight through the house to the kitchen where my mother was cooking and one of my aunts was helping her. “Come on, Mother-Dear!” we cried together. “Daddy say come on out and see this new car!”

    “What?” said my mother, her face showing her surprise. “What’re you talking about?”
    “A Cadillac!” I cried.
    “He said hurry up!” relayed Wilma.
    And then we took off again, up the back stairs to the second floor of the duplex. Running down the hall, we banged on all the apartment doors. My uncles and their wives stepped to the doors. It was good it was a Saturday morning. Everybody was home.
    “We got us a Cadillac! We got us a Cadillac!” Wilma and I proclaimed in unison. We had decided that the Cadillac had to be ours if our father was driving it and holding on to the keys. “Come on see!” Then we raced on, through the upstairs sunroom, down the front steps, through thedownstairs sunroom, and out to the Cadillac. Mr. Pondexter was still there. Mr. LeRoy and Mr. Courtland from down the street were there too and all were admiring the Cadillac as my father stood proudly by, pointing out the various features.
    “Brand-new 1950 Coupe deVille!” I heard one of the men saying.
    “Just off the showroom floor!” my father said. “I just couldn’t resist it.”
    My sister and I eased up to the car and peeked in. It was all gold inside. Gold leather seats. Gold carpeting. Gold dashboard. It was like no car we had owned before. It looked like a car for rich folks.
    “Daddy, are we rich?” I asked. My father laughed.
    “Daddy, it’s ours, isn’t it?” asked Wilma, who was older and more practical than I. She didn’t intend to give her heart too quickly to something that wasn’t hers.
    “You like it?”
    “Oh, Daddy, yes!”
    He looked at me. “What ’bout you, ’lois?”
    “Yes, sir!”
    My father laughed again. “Then I expect I can’t much disappoint my girls, can I? It’s ours all right!”
    Wilma and I hugged our father with our joy. My uncles came from the house and my aunts, carrying their babies, came out too. Everybody surrounded the car and owwed and ahhed. Nobody could believe it.
    Then my mother came out.
    Everybody stood back grinning as she approached the car. There was no smile on her face. We all waited for her to speak. She stared at the car, then looked at my father, standing there as proud as he could be. Finally she said, “You didn’t buy this car, did you, Wilbert?”
    “Gotta admit I did. Couldn’t resist it.”
    “But…but what about our Mercury? It was perfectly good!”
    “Don’t you like the Cadillac, Dee?”
    “That Mercury wasn’t even a year old!”
    My father nodded. “And I’m sure whoever buys it is going to get themselves a good car. But we’ve got ourselves a better one. Now stop frowning, honey, and let’s take ourselves a ride in our brand-new Cadillac!”

    My mother shook her head. “I’ve got food on the stove,” she said and turning away walked back to the house.
    There was an awkward silence and then my father said, “You know Dee never did much like surprises. Guess this here Cadillac was a bit too much for her. I best go smooth things out with her.”
    Everybody watched as he went after my mother. But when he came back, he was alone.
    “Well, what she say?” asked one of my uncles.
    My