Free Another Country by James Baldwin

eyes, her face swollen and dirty with weeping. Rufus had been beating her. He sat silently on the bed.
    “Why?” cried Vivaldo.
    “I don’t know,” Leona sobbed, “it can’t be for nothing I did. He’s always beating me, for nothing, for nothing!” She gasped for breath, opening her mouth like an infant, and in that instant Vivaldo really hated Rufus and Rufus knew it. “He says I’m sleeping with other colored boys behind his back and it’s not true, God knows it’s not true!”
    “Rufus knows it isn’t true,” Vivaldo said. He looked over at Rufus, who said nothing. He turned back to Leona. “Get up, Leona. Stand up. Wash your face.”
    He went into the bathroom and helped her to her feet and turned the water on. “Come on, Leona. Pull yourself together, like a good girl.”
    She tried to stop sobbing, and splashed water on her face. Vivaldo patted her on the shoulder, astonished all over again to realize how frail she was. He walked into the bedroom.
    Rufus looked up at him. “This is my house,” he said, “and that’s my girl. You ain’t got nothing to do with this. Get your ass out of here.”
    “You could be killed for this,” said Vivaldo. “All she has to do is yell. All I have to do is walk down to the corner and get a cop.”
    “You trying to scare me? Go get a cop.”
    “You must be out of your mind. They’d take one look at this situation and put you under the jailhouse.” He walked to the bathroom door. “Come on, Leona. Get your coat. I’m taking you out of here.”
    “I’m not out of my mind,” Rufus said, “but you are. Where you think you taking Leona?”
    “I got no place to go,” Leona muttered.
    “Well, you can stay at my place until you find some place to go. I’m not leaving you here.”
    Rufus threw back his head and laughed. Vivaldo and Leona both turned to watch him. Rufus cried to the ceiling, “He’s going to come to my house and walk out with my girl and he thinks this poor nigger’s just going to sit and let him do it. Ain’t this a bitch?”
    He fell over on his side, still laughing.
    Vivaldo shouted, “For Christ’s sake, Rufus! Rufus! ”
    Rufus stopped laughing and sat straight up. “What? Who the hell do you think you’re kidding? I know you only got one bed in your place!”
    “Oh, Rufus,” Leona wailed, “Vivaldo’s only trying to help.”
    “You shut up,” he said instantly, and looked at her.
    “Everybody ain’t a animal,” she muttered.
    “You mean, like me?”
    She said nothing. Vivaldo watched them both.
    “You mean, like me, bitch? Or you mean, like you?”
    “If I’m a animal,” she flared— perhaps she was emboldened by the presence of Vivaldo— “I’d like you to tell me who made me one. Just tell me that?”
    “Why, your husband did, you bitch. You told me yourself he had a thing on him like a horse. You told me yourself how he did you— he kept telling you how he had the biggest thing in Dixie, black or white. And you said you couldn’t stand it. Ha- ha. That’s one of the funniest things I ever heard.”
    “I guess,” she said, wearily, after a silence, “I told you a lot of things I shouldn’t have.”
    Rufus snorted. “I guess you did.” He said— to Vivaldo, the room, the river— “it was her husband ruined this bitch. Your husband and all them funky niggers screwed you in the Georgia bushes. That’s why your husband threw you out. Why don’t you tell the truth? I wouldn’t have to beat you if you’d tell the truth.” He grinned at Vivaldo. “Man, this chick can’t get enough”— and he broke off, staring at Leona.
    “Rufus,” said Vivaldo, trying to be calm, “I don’t know what you’re putting down. I think you must be crazy. You got a great chick, who’d go all the way for you— and you know it— and you keep coming on with this Gone with the Wind crap. What’s the matter with your head, baby?” He tried to smile. “Baby, please don’t do this. Please?”
    Rufus said nothing.