Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cAh know exactly what Ah got to tell yuh, but it\u2019s hard to know where to start at.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cAh ain\u2019t never seen mah papa. And Ah didn\u2019t know \u2019im if Ah did. Mah mama neither. She was gone from round dere long before Ah wuz big enough tuh know. Mah grandma raised me. Mah grandma and de white folks she worked wid. She had a house out in de back-yard and dat\u2019s where Ah wuz born. They was quality white folks up dere in West Florida. Named Washburn. She had four gran\u2019chillun on de place and all of us played together and dat\u2019s how come Ah never called mah Grandma nothin\u2019 but Nanny, \u2019cause dat\u2019s what everybody on de place called her. Nanny used to ketch us in our devilment and lick every youngun on de place and Mis\u2019 Washburn did de same. Ah reckon dey never hit us ah lick amiss \u2019cause dem three boys and us two girls wuz pretty aggravatin\u2019, Ah speck.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cAh was wid dem white chillun so much till Ah didn\u2019t know Ah wuzn\u2019t white till Ah was round six years old. Wouldn\u2019t have found it out then, but a man come long takin\u2019 pictures and without askin\u2019 anybody, Shelby, dat was de oldest boy, he told him to take us. Round a week later de man brought de picture for Mis\u2019 Washburn to see and pay him which she did, then give us all a good lickin\u2019.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cSo when we looked at de picture and everybody got pointed out there wasn\u2019t nobody left except a real dark little girl with long hair standing by Eleanor. Dat\u2019s where Ah wuz s\u2019posed to be, but Ah couldn\u2019t recognize dat dark chile as me. So Ah ast, \u2018where is me? Ah don\u2019t see me.\u2019<\/p>\r\n
\u201cEverybody laughed, even Mr. Washburn. Miss Nellie, de Mama of de chillun who come back home after her husband dead, she pointed to de dark one and said, \u2018Dat\u2019s you, Alphabet, don\u2019t you know yo\u2019 ownself?\u2019<\/p>\r\n
\u201cDey all useter call me Alphabet \u2019cause so many people had done named me different names. Ah looked at de picture a long time and seen it was mah dress and mah hair so Ah said:<\/p>\r\n
\u201c\u202f\u2018Aw, aw! Ah\u2019m colored!\u2019<\/p>\r\n
\u201cDen dey all laughed real hard. But before Ah seen de picture Ah thought Ah wuz just like de rest.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cUs lived dere havin\u2019 fun till de chillun at school got to teasin\u2019 me \u2019bout livin\u2019 in de white folks\u2019 back-yard. Dere wuz uh knotty head gal name Mayrella dat useter git mad every time she look at me. Mis\u2019 Washburn useter dress me up in all de clothes her gran\u2019chillun didn\u2019t need no mo\u2019 which still wuz better\u2019n whut de rest uh de colored chillun had. And then she useter put hair ribbon on mah head fuh me tuh wear. Dat useter rile Mayrella uh lot. So she would pick at me all de time and put some others up tuh do de same. They\u2019d push me \u2019way from de ring plays and make out they couldn\u2019t play wid nobody dat lived on premises. Den they\u2019d tell me not to be takin\u2019 on over mah looks \u2019cause they mama told \u2019em \u2019bout de hound dawgs huntin\u2019 mah papa all night long. \u2019Bout Mr. Washburn and de sheriff puttin\u2019 de bloodhounds on de trail tuh ketch mah papa for whut he done tuh mah mama. Dey didn\u2019t tell about how he wuz seen tryin\u2019 tuh git in touch wid mah mama later on so he could marry her. Naw, dey didn\u2019t talk dat part of it atall. Dey made it sound real bad so as tuh crumple mah feathers. None of \u2019em didn\u2019t even remember whut his name wuz, but dey all knowed de bloodhound part by heart. Nanny didn\u2019t love tuh see me wid mah head hung down, so she figgered it would be mo\u2019 better fuh me if us had uh house. She got de land and everything and then Mis\u2019 Washburn helped out uh whole heap wid things.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Pheoby\u2019s hungry listening helped Janie to tell her story. So she went on thinking back to her young years and explaining them to her friend in soft, easy phrases while all around the house, the night time put on flesh and blackness.<\/p>\r\n
She thought awhile and decided that her conscious life had commenced at Nanny\u2019s gate. On a late afternoon Nanny had called her to come inside the house because she had spied Janie letting Johnny Taylor kiss her over the gatepost.<\/p>\r\n
It was a spring afternoon in West Florida. Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard. She had been spending every minute that she could steal from her chores under that tree for the last three days. That was to say, ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously. How? Why? It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh. Now they emerged and quested about her consciousness.<\/p>\r\n
She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid.<\/p>\r\n
After a while she got up from where she was and went over the little garden field entire. She was seeking confirmation of the voice and vision, and everywhere she found and acknowledged answers. A personal answer for all other creations except herself. She felt an answer seeking her, but where? When? How? She found herself at the kitchen door and stumbled inside. In the air of the room were flies tumbling and singing, marrying and giving in marriage. When she reached the narrow hallway she was reminded that her grandmother was home with a sick headache. She was lying across the bed asleep so Janie tipped on out of the front door. Oh to be a pear tree\u2014any<\/span> tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her? Nothing on the place nor in her grandma\u2019s house answered her. She searched as much of the world as she could from the top of the front steps and then went on down to the front gate and leaned over to gaze up and down the road. Looking, waiting, breathing short with impatience. Waiting for the world to be made.<\/p>\r\n Through pollinated air she saw a glorious being coming up the road. In her former blindness she had known him as shiftless Johnny Taylor, tall and lean. That was before the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags and her eyes.<\/p>\r\n In the last stages of Nanny\u2019s sleep, she dreamed of voices. Voices far-off but persistent, and gradually coming nearer. Janie\u2019s voice. Janie talking in whispery snatches with a male voice she couldn\u2019t quite place. That brought her wide awake. She bolted upright and peered out of the window and saw Johnny Taylor lacerating her Janie with a kiss.<\/p>\r\n \u201cJanie!\u201d<\/p>\r\n The old woman\u2019s voice was so lacking in command and reproof, so full of crumbling dissolution,\u2014that Janie half believed that Nanny had not seen her. So she extended herself outside of her dream and went inside of the house. That was the end of her childhood.<\/p>\r\n Nanny\u2019s head and face looked like the standing roots of some old tree that had been torn away by storm. Foundation of ancient power that no longer mattered. The cooling palma christi leaves that Janie had bound about her grandma\u2019s head with a white rag had wilted down and become part and parcel of the woman. Her eyes didn\u2019t bore and pierce. They diffused and melted Janie, the room and the world into one comprehension.<\/p>\r\n \u201cJanie, youse uh \u2019oman, now, so\u2014\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cNaw, Nanny, naw Ah ain\u2019t no real \u2019oman yet.\u201d<\/p>\r\n The thought was too new and heavy for Janie. She fought it away.<\/p>\r\n Nanny closed her eyes and nodded a slow, weary affirmation many times before she gave it voice.<\/p>\r\n \u201cYeah, Janie, youse got yo\u2019 womanhood on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh whut Ah been savin\u2019 up for uh spell. Ah wants to see you married right away.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cMe, married? Naw, Nanny, no ma\u2019am! Whut Ah know \u2019bout uh husband?\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cWhut Ah seen just now is plenty for me, honey, Ah don\u2019t want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin\u2019 yo\u2019 body to wipe his foots on.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Nanny\u2019s words made Janie\u2019s kiss across the gatepost seem like a manure pile after a rain.<\/p>\r\n \u201cLook at me, Janie. Don\u2019t set dere wid yo\u2019 head hung down. Look at yo\u2019 ole grandma!\u201d Her voice began snagging on the prongs of her feelings. \u201cAh don\u2019t want to be talkin\u2019 to you lak dis. Fact is Ah done been on mah knees to mah Maker many\u2019s de time askin\u2019 please<\/span>\u2014for Him not to make de burden too heavy for me to bear.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cNanny, Ah just\u2014Ah didn\u2019t mean nothin\u2019 bad.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cDat\u2019s what makes me skeered. You don\u2019t mean no harm. You don\u2019t even know where harm is at. Ah\u2019m ole now. Ah can\u2019t be always guidin\u2019 yo\u2019 feet from harm and danger. Ah wants to see you married right away.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cWho Ah\u2019m goin\u2019 tuh marry off-hand lak dat? Ah don\u2019t know nobody.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cDe Lawd will provide. He know Ah done bore de burden in de heat uh de day. Somebody done spoke to me \u2019bout you long time ago. Ah ain\u2019t said nothin\u2019 \u2019cause dat wasn\u2019t de way Ah placed you. Ah wanted yuh to school out and pick from a higher bush and a sweeter berry. But dat ain\u2019t yo\u2019 idea, Ah see.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cNanny, who\u2014who dat been askin\u2019 you for me?\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cBrother Logan Killicks. He\u2019s a good man, too.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cNaw, Nanny, no ma\u2019am! Is dat whut he been hangin\u2019 round here for? He look like some ole skullhead in de grave yard.\u201d<\/p>\r\n The older woman sat bolt upright and put her feet to the floor, and thrust back the leaves from her face.<\/p>\r\n \u201cSo you don\u2019t want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh? You wants to make me suck de same sorrow yo\u2019 mama did, eh? Mah ole head ain\u2019t gray enough. Mah back ain\u2019t bowed enough to suit yuh!\u201d<\/p>\r\n The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree, but Janie didn\u2019t know how to tell Nanny that. She merely hunched over and pouted at the floor.<\/p>\r\n \u201cJanie.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cYes, ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cYou answer me when Ah speak. Don\u2019t you set dere poutin\u2019 wid me after all Ah done went through for you!\u201d<\/p>\r\n She slapped the girl\u2019s face violently, and forced her head back so that their eyes met in struggle. With her hand uplifted for the second blow she saw the huge tear that welled up from Janie\u2019s heart and stood in each eye. She saw the terrible agony and the lips tightened down to hold back the cry and desisted. Instead she brushed back the heavy hair from Janie\u2019s face and stood there suffering and loving and weeping internally for both of them.<\/p>\r\n \u201cCome to yo\u2019 Grandma, honey. Set in her lap lak yo\u2019 use tuh. Yo\u2019 Nanny wouldn\u2019t harm a hair uh yo\u2019 head. She don\u2019t want nobody else to do it neither if she kin help it. Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it\u2019s some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don\u2019t know nothin\u2019 but what we see. So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don\u2019t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. Ah been prayin\u2019 fuh it tuh be different wid you. Lawd, Lawd, Lawd!\u201d<\/p>\r\n For a long time she sat rocking with the girl held tightly to her sunken breast. Janie\u2019s long legs dangled over one arm of the chair and the long braids of her hair swung low on the other side. Nanny half sung, half sobbed a running chantprayer over the head of the weeping girl.<\/p>\r\n \u201cLawd have mercy! It was a long time on de way but Ah reckon it had to come. Oh Jesus! Do, Jesus! Ah done de best Ah could.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Finally, they both grew calm.<\/p>\r\n \u201cJanie, how long you been \u2019lowin\u2019 Johnny Taylor to kiss you?\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cOnly dis one time, Nanny. Ah don\u2019t love him at all. Whut made me do it is\u2014oh, Ah don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cThank yuh, Massa Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cAh ain\u2019t gointuh do it no mo\u2019, Nanny. Please don\u2019t make me marry Mr. Killicks.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it\u2019s protection. Ah ain\u2019t gittin\u2019 ole, honey. Ah\u2019m done<\/span> ole. One mornin\u2019 soon, now, de angel wid de sword is gointuh stop by here. De day and de hour is hid from me, but it won\u2019t be long. Ah ast de Lawd when you was uh infant in mah arms to let me stay here till you got grown. He done spared me to see de day. Mah daily prayer now is tuh let dese golden moments rolls on a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cLemme wait, Nanny, please, jus\u2019 a lil bit mo\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cDon\u2019t think Ah don\u2019t feel wid you, Janie, \u2019cause Ah do. Ah couldn\u2019t love yuh no more if Ah had uh felt yo\u2019 birth pains mahself. Fact uh de matter, Ah loves yuh a whole heap more\u2019n Ah do yo\u2019 mama, de one Ah did birth. But you got to take in consideration you ain\u2019t no everyday chile like most of \u2019em. You ain\u2019t got no papa, you might jus\u2019 as well say no mama, for de good she do yuh. You ain\u2019t got nobody but me. And mah head is ole and tilted towards de grave. Neither can you stand alone by yo\u2019self. De thought uh you bein\u2019 kicked around from pillar tuh post is uh hurtin\u2019 thing. Every tear you drop squeezes a cup uh blood outa mah heart. Ah got tuh try and do for you befo\u2019 mah head is cold.\u201d<\/p>\r\n A sobbing sigh burst out of Janie. The old woman answered her with little soothing pats of the hand.<\/p>\r\n \u201cYou know, honey, us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways. You in particular. Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn\u2019t for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do. Dat\u2019s one of de hold-backs of slavery. But nothing can\u2019t stop you from wishin\u2019. You can\u2019t beat nobody down so low till you can rob \u2019em of they will. Ah didn\u2019t want to be used for a work-ox and a brood-sow and Ah didn\u2019t want mah daughter used dat way neither. It sho wasn\u2019t mah will for things to happen lak they did. Ah even hated de way you was born. But, all de same Ah said thank God, Ah got another chance. Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin\u2019 on high, but they wasn\u2019t no pulpit for me. Freedom found me wid a baby daughter in mah arms, so Ah said Ah\u2019d take a broom and a cook-pot and throw up a highway through de wilderness for her. She would expound what Ah felt. But somehow she got lost offa de highway and next thing Ah knowed here you was in de world. So whilst Ah was tendin\u2019 you of nights Ah said Ah\u2019d save de text for you. Ah been waitin\u2019 a long time, Janie, but nothin\u2019 Ah been through ain\u2019t too much if you just take a stand on high ground lak Ah dreamed.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Old Nanny sat there rocking Janie like an infant and thinking back and back. Mind-pictures brought feelings, and feelings dragged out dramas from the hollows of her heart.<\/p>\r\n \u201cDat mornin\u2019 on de big plantation close to Savannah, a rider come in a gallop tellin\u2019 \u2019bout Sherman takin\u2019 Atlanta. Marse Robert\u2019s son had done been kilt at Chickamauga. So he grabbed his gun and straddled his best horse and went off wid de rest of de gray-headed men and young boys to drive de Yankees back into Tennessee.<\/p>\r\n \u201cThey was all cheerin\u2019 and cryin\u2019 and shoutin\u2019 for de men dat was ridin\u2019 off. Ah couldn\u2019t see nothin\u2019 cause yo\u2019 mama wasn\u2019t but a week old, and Ah was flat uh mah back. But pretty soon he let on he forgot somethin\u2019 and run into mah cabin and made me let down mah hair for de last time. He sorta wropped his hand in it, pulled mah big toe, lak he always done, and was gone after de rest lak lightnin\u2019. Ah heard \u2019em give one last whoop for him. Then de big house and de quarters got sober and silent.<\/p>\r\n \u201cIt was de cool of de evenin\u2019 when Mistis come walkin\u2019 in mah door. She throwed de door wide open and stood dere lookin\u2019 at me outa her eyes and her face. Look lak she been livin\u2019 through uh hundred years in January without one day of spring. She come stood over me in de bed.<\/p>\r\n \u201c\u202f\u2019Nanny, Ah come to see that baby uh yourn.\u2019<\/p>\r\n \u201cAh tried not to feel de breeze off her face, but it got so cold in dere dat Ah was freezin\u2019 to death under the kivvers. So Ah couldn\u2019t move right away lak Ah aimed to. But Ah knowed Ah had to make haste and do it.<\/p>\r\n \u201c\u202f\u2018You better git dat kivver offa dat youngun and dat quick!\u2019 she clashed at me. \u2018Look lak you don\u2019t know who is Mistis on dis plantation, Madam. But Ah aims to show you.\u2019<\/p>\r\n \u201cBy dat time I had done managed tuh unkivver mah baby enough for her to see de head and face.<\/p>\r\n \u201c\u202f\u2018Nigger, whut\u2019s yo\u2019 baby doin\u2019 wid gray eyes and yaller hair?\u2019 She begin tuh slap mah jaws ever which a\u2019way. Ah never felt the fust ones \u2019cause Ah wuz too busy gittin\u2019 de kivver back over mah chile. But dem last lick burnt me lak fire. Ah had too many feelin\u2019s tuh tell which one tuh follow so Ah didn\u2019t cry and Ah didn\u2019t do nothin\u2019 else. But then she kept on astin me how come mah baby look white. She asted me dat maybe twenty-five or thirty times, lak she got tuh sayin\u2019 dat and couldn\u2019t help herself. So Ah told her, \u2018Ah don\u2019t know nothin\u2019 but what Ah\u2019m told tuh do, \u2019cause Ah ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but uh nigger and uh slave.\u2019<\/p>\r\n \u201cInstead of pacifyin\u2019 her lak Ah thought, look lak she got madder. But Ah reckon she was tired and wore out \u2019cause she didn\u2019t hit me no more. She went to de foot of de bed and wiped her hands on her handksher. \u2018Ah wouldn\u2019t dirty mah hands on yuh. But first thing in de mornin\u2019 de overseer will take you to de whippin\u2019 post and tie you down on yo\u2019 knees and cut de hide offa yo\u2019 yaller back. One hundred lashes wid a raw-hide on yo\u2019 bare back. Ah\u2019ll have you whipped till de blood run down to yo\u2019 heels! Ah mean to count de licks mahself. Ahd if it kills you Ah\u2019ll stand de loss. Ahyhow, as soon as dat brat is a month old Ah\u2019m going to sell it offa dis place.\u2019<\/p>\r\n \u201cShe flounced on off and let her wintertime wid me. Ah knowed mah body wasn\u2019t healed, but Ah couldn\u2019t consider dat. In de black dark Ah wrapped mah baby de best Ah knowed how and made it to de swamp by de river. Ah knowed de place was full uh moccasins and other bitin\u2019 snakes, but Ah was more skeered uh whut was behind me. Ah hide in dere day and night and suckled de baby every time she start to cry, for fear somebody might hear her and Ah\u2019d git found. Ah ain\u2019t sayin\u2019 uh friend or two didn\u2019t feel mah care. And den de Good Lawd seen to it dat Ah wasn\u2019t taken. Ah don\u2019t see how come mah milk didn\u2019t kill mah chile, wid me so skeered and worried all de time. De noise uh de owls skeered me; de limbs of dem cypress trees took to crawlin\u2019 and movin\u2019 round after dark, and two three times Ah heered panthers prowlin\u2019 round. But nothin\u2019 never hurt me \u2019cause de Lawd knowed how it was.<\/p>\r\n \u201cDen, one night Ah heard de big guns boomin\u2019 lak thunder. It kept up all night long. Ahd de next mornin\u2019 Ah could see uh big ship at a distance and a great stirrin\u2019 round. So Ah wrapped Leafy up in moss and fixed her good in a tree and picked mah way on down to de landin\u2019. The men was all in blue, and Ah heard people say Sherman was comin\u2019 to meet de boats in Savannah, and all of us slaves was free. So Ah run got mah baby and got in quotation wid people and found a place Ah could stay.<\/p>\r\n \u201cBut it was a long time after dat befo\u2019 de Big Surrender at Richmond. Den de big bell ring in Atlanta and all de men in gray uniforms had to go to Moultrie, and bury their swords in de ground to show they was never to fight about slavery no mo\u2019. So den we knowed we was free.<\/p>\r\n \u201cAh wouldn\u2019t marry nobody, though Ah could have uh heap uh times, cause Ah didn\u2019t want nobody mistreating mah baby. So Ah got with some good white people and come down here in West Florida to work and make de sun shine on both sides of de street for Leafy.<\/p>\r\n \u201cMah Madam help me wid her just lak she been doin\u2019 wid you. Ah put her in school when it got so it was a school to put her in. Ah was \u2019spectin\u2019 to make a school teacher outa her.<\/p>\r\n \u201cBut one day she didn\u2019t come home at de usual time and Ah waited and waited, but she never come all dat night. Ah took a lantern and went round askin\u2019 everybody but nobody ain\u2019t seen her. De next mornin\u2019 she come crawlin\u2019 in on her hands and knees. A sight to see. Dat school teacher had done hid her in de woods all night long, and he had done raped mah baby and run on off just before day.<\/p>\r\n \u201cShe was only seventeen, and somethin\u2019 lak dat to happen! Lawd a\u2019mussy! Look lak Ah kin see it all over again. It was a long time before she was well, and by dat time we knowed you was on de way. And after you was born she took to drinkin\u2019 likker and stayin\u2019 out nights. Couldn\u2019t git her to stay here and nowhere else. Lawd knows where she is right now. She ain\u2019t dead, \u2019cause Ah\u2019d know it by mah feelings, but sometimes Ah wish she was at rest.<\/p>\r\n \u201cAnd, Janie, maybe it wasn\u2019t much, but Ah done de best Ah kin by you. Ah raked and scraped and bought dis lil piece uh land so you wouldn\u2019t have to stay in de white folks\u2019 yard and tuck yo\u2019 head befo\u2019 other chillun at school. Dat was all right when you was little. But when you got big enough to understand things, Ah wanted you to look upon yo\u2019self. Ah don\u2019t want yo\u2019 feathers always crumpled by folks throwin\u2019 up things in yo\u2019 face. And Ah can\u2019t die easy thinkin\u2019 maybe de menfolks white or black is makin\u2019 a spit-cup outa you: Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah\u2019m a cracked plate.\u201d<\/p>","rendered":" Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.<\/p>\n \u201cAh know exactly what Ah got to tell yuh, but it\u2019s hard to know where to start at.<\/p>\n \u201cAh ain\u2019t never seen mah papa. And Ah didn\u2019t know \u2019im if Ah did. Mah mama neither. She was gone from round dere long before Ah wuz big enough tuh know. Mah grandma raised me. Mah grandma and de white folks she worked wid. She had a house out in de back-yard and dat\u2019s where Ah wuz born. They was quality white folks up dere in West Florida. Named Washburn. She had four gran\u2019chillun on de place and all of us played together and dat\u2019s how come Ah never called mah Grandma nothin\u2019 but Nanny, \u2019cause dat\u2019s what everybody on de place called her. Nanny used to ketch us in our devilment and lick every youngun on de place and Mis\u2019 Washburn did de same. Ah reckon dey never hit us ah lick amiss \u2019cause dem three boys and us two girls wuz pretty aggravatin\u2019, Ah speck.<\/p>\n \u201cAh was wid dem white chillun so much till Ah didn\u2019t know Ah wuzn\u2019t white till Ah was round six years old. Wouldn\u2019t have found it out then, but a man come long takin\u2019 pictures and without askin\u2019 anybody, Shelby, dat was de oldest boy, he told him to take us. Round a week later de man brought de picture for Mis\u2019 Washburn to see and pay him which she did, then give us all a good lickin\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when we looked at de picture and everybody got pointed out there wasn\u2019t nobody left except a real dark little girl with long hair standing by Eleanor. Dat\u2019s where Ah wuz s\u2019posed to be, but Ah couldn\u2019t recognize dat dark chile as me. So Ah ast, \u2018where is me? Ah don\u2019t see me.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody laughed, even Mr. Washburn. Miss Nellie, de Mama of de chillun who come back home after her husband dead, she pointed to de dark one and said, \u2018Dat\u2019s you, Alphabet, don\u2019t you know yo\u2019 ownself?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cDey all useter call me Alphabet \u2019cause so many people had done named me different names. Ah looked at de picture a long time and seen it was mah dress and mah hair so Ah said:<\/p>\n \u201c\u202f\u2018Aw, aw! Ah\u2019m colored!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cDen dey all laughed real hard. But before Ah seen de picture Ah thought Ah wuz just like de rest.<\/p>\n \u201cUs lived dere havin\u2019 fun till de chillun at school got to teasin\u2019 me \u2019bout livin\u2019 in de white folks\u2019 back-yard. Dere wuz uh knotty head gal name Mayrella dat useter git mad every time she look at me. Mis\u2019 Washburn useter dress me up in all de clothes her gran\u2019chillun didn\u2019t need no mo\u2019 which still wuz better\u2019n whut de rest uh de colored chillun had. And then she useter put hair ribbon on mah head fuh me tuh wear. Dat useter rile Mayrella uh lot. So she would pick at me all de time and put some others up tuh do de same. They\u2019d push me \u2019way from de ring plays and make out they couldn\u2019t play wid nobody dat lived on premises. Den they\u2019d tell me not to be takin\u2019 on over mah looks \u2019cause they mama told \u2019em \u2019bout de hound dawgs huntin\u2019 mah papa all night long. \u2019Bout Mr. Washburn and de sheriff puttin\u2019 de bloodhounds on de trail tuh ketch mah papa for whut he done tuh mah mama. Dey didn\u2019t tell about how he wuz seen tryin\u2019 tuh git in touch wid mah mama later on so he could marry her. Naw, dey didn\u2019t talk dat part of it atall. Dey made it sound real bad so as tuh crumple mah feathers. None of \u2019em didn\u2019t even remember whut his name wuz, but dey all knowed de bloodhound part by heart. Nanny didn\u2019t love tuh see me wid mah head hung down, so she figgered it would be mo\u2019 better fuh me if us had uh house. She got de land and everything and then Mis\u2019 Washburn helped out uh whole heap wid things.\u201d<\/p>\n Pheoby\u2019s hungry listening helped Janie to tell her story. So she went on thinking back to her young years and explaining them to her friend in soft, easy phrases while all around the house, the night time put on flesh and blackness.<\/p>\n She thought awhile and decided that her conscious life had commenced at Nanny\u2019s gate. On a late afternoon Nanny had called her to come inside the house because she had spied Janie letting Johnny Taylor kiss her over the gatepost.<\/p>\n It was a spring afternoon in West Florida. Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard. She had been spending every minute that she could steal from her chores under that tree for the last three days. That was to say, ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously. How? Why? It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh. Now they emerged and quested about her consciousness.<\/p>\n She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid.<\/p>\n After a while she got up from where she was and went over the little garden field entire. She was seeking confirmation of the voice and vision, and everywhere she found and acknowledged answers. A personal answer for all other creations except herself. She felt an answer seeking her, but where? When? How? She found herself at the kitchen door and stumbled inside. In the air of the room were flies tumbling and singing, marrying and giving in marriage. When she reached the narrow hallway she was reminded that her grandmother was home with a sick headache. She was lying across the bed asleep so Janie tipped on out of the front door. Oh to be a pear tree\u2014any<\/span> tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her? Nothing on the place nor in her grandma\u2019s house answered her. She searched as much of the world as she could from the top of the front steps and then went on down to the front gate and leaned over to gaze up and down the road. Looking, waiting, breathing short with impatience. Waiting for the world to be made.<\/p>\n Through pollinated air she saw a glorious being coming up the road. In her former blindness she had known him as shiftless Johnny Taylor, tall and lean. That was before the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags and her eyes.<\/p>\n In the last stages of Nanny\u2019s sleep, she dreamed of voices. Voices far-off but persistent, and gradually coming nearer. Janie\u2019s voice. Janie talking in whispery snatches with a male voice she couldn\u2019t quite place. That brought her wide awake. She bolted upright and peered out of the window and saw Johnny Taylor lacerating her Janie with a kiss.<\/p>\n \u201cJanie!\u201d<\/p>\n The old woman\u2019s voice was so lacking in command and reproof, so full of crumbling dissolution,\u2014that Janie half believed that Nanny had not seen her. So she extended herself outside of her dream and went inside of the house. That was the end of her childhood.<\/p>\n Nanny\u2019s head and face looked like the standing roots of some old tree that had been torn away by storm. Foundation of ancient power that no longer mattered. The cooling palma christi leaves that Janie had bound about her grandma\u2019s head with a white rag had wilted down and become part and parcel of the woman. Her eyes didn\u2019t bore and pierce. They diffused and melted Janie, the room and the world into one comprehension.<\/p>\n \u201cJanie, youse uh \u2019oman, now, so\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNaw, Nanny, naw Ah ain\u2019t no real \u2019oman yet.\u201d<\/p>\n The thought was too new and heavy for Janie. She fought it away.<\/p>\n Nanny closed her eyes and nodded a slow, weary affirmation many times before she gave it voice.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, Janie, youse got yo\u2019 womanhood on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh whut Ah been savin\u2019 up for uh spell. Ah wants to see you married right away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMe, married? Naw, Nanny, no ma\u2019am! Whut Ah know \u2019bout uh husband?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhut Ah seen just now is plenty for me, honey, Ah don\u2019t want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin\u2019 yo\u2019 body to wipe his foots on.\u201d<\/p>\n Nanny\u2019s words made Janie\u2019s kiss across the gatepost seem like a manure pile after a rain.<\/p>\n \u201cLook at me, Janie. Don\u2019t set dere wid yo\u2019 head hung down. Look at yo\u2019 ole grandma!\u201d Her voice began snagging on the prongs of her feelings. \u201cAh don\u2019t want to be talkin\u2019 to you lak dis. Fact is Ah done been on mah knees to mah Maker many\u2019s de time askin\u2019 please<\/span>\u2014for Him not to make de burden too heavy for me to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNanny, Ah just\u2014Ah didn\u2019t mean nothin\u2019 bad.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDat\u2019s what makes me skeered. You don\u2019t mean no harm. You don\u2019t even know where harm is at. Ah\u2019m ole now. Ah can\u2019t be always guidin\u2019 yo\u2019 feet from harm and danger. Ah wants to see you married right away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho Ah\u2019m goin\u2019 tuh marry off-hand lak dat? Ah don\u2019t know nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDe Lawd will provide. He know Ah done bore de burden in de heat uh de day. Somebody done spoke to me \u2019bout you long time ago. Ah ain\u2019t said nothin\u2019 \u2019cause dat wasn\u2019t de way Ah placed you. Ah wanted yuh to school out and pick from a higher bush and a sweeter berry. But dat ain\u2019t yo\u2019 idea, Ah see.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNanny, who\u2014who dat been askin\u2019 you for me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBrother Logan Killicks. He\u2019s a good man, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNaw, Nanny, no ma\u2019am! Is dat whut he been hangin\u2019 round here for? He look like some ole skullhead in de grave yard.\u201d<\/p>\n The older woman sat bolt upright and put her feet to the floor, and thrust back the leaves from her face.<\/p>\n \u201cSo you don\u2019t want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh? You wants to make me suck de same sorrow yo\u2019 mama did, eh? Mah ole head ain\u2019t gray enough. Mah back ain\u2019t bowed enough to suit yuh!\u201d<\/p>\n The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree, but Janie didn\u2019t know how to tell Nanny that. She merely hunched over and pouted at the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cJanie.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou answer me when Ah speak. Don\u2019t you set dere poutin\u2019 wid me after all Ah done went through for you!\u201d<\/p>\n She slapped the girl\u2019s face violently, and forced her head back so that their eyes met in struggle. With her hand uplifted for the second blow she saw the huge tear that welled up from Janie\u2019s heart and stood in each eye. She saw the terrible agony and the lips tightened down to hold back the cry and desisted. Instead she brushed back the heavy hair from Janie\u2019s face and stood there suffering and loving and weeping internally for both of them.<\/p>\n \u201cCome to yo\u2019 Grandma, honey. Set in her lap lak yo\u2019 use tuh. Yo\u2019 Nanny wouldn\u2019t harm a hair uh yo\u2019 head. She don\u2019t want nobody else to do it neither if she kin help it. Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it\u2019s some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don\u2019t know nothin\u2019 but what we see. So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don\u2019t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. Ah been prayin\u2019 fuh it tuh be different wid you. Lawd, Lawd, Lawd!\u201d<\/p>\n For a long time she sat rocking with the girl held tightly to her sunken breast. Janie\u2019s long legs dangled over one arm of the chair and the long braids of her hair swung low on the other side. Nanny half sung, half sobbed a running chantprayer over the head of the weeping girl.<\/p>\n \u201cLawd have mercy! It was a long time on de way but Ah reckon it had to come. Oh Jesus! Do, Jesus! Ah done de best Ah could.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, they both grew calm.<\/p>\n \u201cJanie, how long you been \u2019lowin\u2019 Johnny Taylor to kiss you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOnly dis one time, Nanny. Ah don\u2019t love him at all. Whut made me do it is\u2014oh, Ah don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThank yuh, Massa Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAh ain\u2019t gointuh do it no mo\u2019, Nanny. Please don\u2019t make me marry Mr. Killicks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it\u2019s protection. Ah ain\u2019t gittin\u2019 ole, honey. Ah\u2019m done<\/span> ole. One mornin\u2019 soon, now, de angel wid de sword is gointuh stop by here. De day and de hour is hid from me, but it won\u2019t be long. Ah ast de Lawd when you was uh infant in mah arms to let me stay here till you got grown. He done spared me to see de day. Mah daily prayer now is tuh let dese golden moments rolls on a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLemme wait, Nanny, please, jus\u2019 a lil bit mo\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t think Ah don\u2019t feel wid you, Janie, \u2019cause Ah do. Ah couldn\u2019t love yuh no more if Ah had uh felt yo\u2019 birth pains mahself. Fact uh de matter, Ah loves yuh a whole heap more\u2019n Ah do yo\u2019 mama, de one Ah did birth. But you got to take in consideration you ain\u2019t no everyday chile like most of \u2019em. You ain\u2019t got no papa, you might jus\u2019 as well say no mama, for de good she do yuh. You ain\u2019t got nobody but me. And mah head is ole and tilted towards de grave. Neither can you stand alone by yo\u2019self. De thought uh you bein\u2019 kicked around from pillar tuh post is uh hurtin\u2019 thing. Every tear you drop squeezes a cup uh blood outa mah heart. Ah got tuh try and do for you befo\u2019 mah head is cold.\u201d<\/p>\n A sobbing sigh burst out of Janie. The old woman answered her with little soothing pats of the hand.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, honey, us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways. You in particular. Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn\u2019t for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do. Dat\u2019s one of de hold-backs of slavery. But nothing can\u2019t stop you from wishin\u2019. You can\u2019t beat nobody down so low till you can rob \u2019em of they will. Ah didn\u2019t want to be used for a work-ox and a brood-sow and Ah didn\u2019t want mah daughter used dat way neither. It sho wasn\u2019t mah will for things to happen lak they did. Ah even hated de way you was born. But, all de same Ah said thank God, Ah got another chance. Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin\u2019 on high, but they wasn\u2019t no pulpit for me. Freedom found me wid a baby daughter in mah arms, so Ah said Ah\u2019d take a broom and a cook-pot and throw up a highway through de wilderness for her. She would expound what Ah felt. But somehow she got lost offa de highway and next thing Ah knowed here you was in de world. So whilst Ah was tendin\u2019 you of nights Ah said Ah\u2019d save de text for you. Ah been waitin\u2019 a long time, Janie, but nothin\u2019 Ah been through ain\u2019t too much if you just take a stand on high ground lak Ah dreamed.\u201d<\/p>\n Old Nanny sat there rocking Janie like an infant and thinking back and back. Mind-pictures brought feelings, and feelings dragged out dramas from the hollows of her heart.<\/p>\n \u201cDat mornin\u2019 on de big plantation close to Savannah, a rider come in a gallop tellin\u2019 \u2019bout Sherman takin\u2019 Atlanta. Marse Robert\u2019s son had done been kilt at Chickamauga. So he grabbed his gun and straddled his best horse and went off wid de rest of de gray-headed men and young boys to drive de Yankees back into Tennessee.<\/p>\n \u201cThey was all cheerin\u2019 and cryin\u2019 and shoutin\u2019 for de men dat was ridin\u2019 off. Ah couldn\u2019t see nothin\u2019 cause yo\u2019 mama wasn\u2019t but a week old, and Ah was flat uh mah back. But pretty soon he let on he forgot somethin\u2019 and run into mah cabin and made me let down mah hair for de last time. He sorta wropped his hand in it, pulled mah big toe, lak he always done, and was gone after de rest lak lightnin\u2019. Ah heard \u2019em give one last whoop for him. Then de big house and de quarters got sober and silent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was de cool of de evenin\u2019 when Mistis come walkin\u2019 in mah door. She throwed de door wide open and stood dere lookin\u2019 at me outa her eyes and her face. Look lak she been livin\u2019 through uh hundred years in January without one day of spring. She come stood over me in de bed.<\/p>\n \u201c\u202f\u2019Nanny, Ah come to see that baby uh yourn.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAh tried not to feel de breeze off her face, but it got so cold in dere dat Ah was freezin\u2019 to death under the kivvers. So Ah couldn\u2019t move right away lak Ah aimed to. But Ah knowed Ah had to make haste and do it.<\/p>\n \u201c\u202f\u2018You better git dat kivver offa dat youngun and dat quick!\u2019 she clashed at me. \u2018Look lak you don\u2019t know who is Mistis on dis plantation, Madam. But Ah aims to show you.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBy dat time I had done managed tuh unkivver mah baby enough for her to see de head and face.<\/p>\n \u201c\u202f\u2018Nigger, whut\u2019s yo\u2019 baby doin\u2019 wid gray eyes and yaller hair?\u2019 She begin tuh slap mah jaws ever which a\u2019way. Ah never felt the fust ones \u2019cause Ah wuz too busy gittin\u2019 de kivver back over mah chile. But dem last lick burnt me lak fire. Ah had too many feelin\u2019s tuh tell which one tuh follow so Ah didn\u2019t cry and Ah didn\u2019t do nothin\u2019 else. But then she kept on astin me how come mah baby look white. She asted me dat maybe twenty-five or thirty times, lak she got tuh sayin\u2019 dat and couldn\u2019t help herself. So Ah told her, \u2018Ah don\u2019t know nothin\u2019 but what Ah\u2019m told tuh do, \u2019cause Ah ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but uh nigger and uh slave.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of pacifyin\u2019 her lak Ah thought, look lak she got madder. But Ah reckon she was tired and wore out \u2019cause she didn\u2019t hit me no more. She went to de foot of de bed and wiped her hands on her handksher. \u2018Ah wouldn\u2019t dirty mah hands on yuh. But first thing in de mornin\u2019 de overseer will take you to de whippin\u2019 post and tie you down on yo\u2019 knees and cut de hide offa yo\u2019 yaller back. One hundred lashes wid a raw-hide on yo\u2019 bare back. Ah\u2019ll have you whipped till de blood run down to yo\u2019 heels! Ah mean to count de licks mahself. Ahd if it kills you Ah\u2019ll stand de loss. Ahyhow, as soon as dat brat is a month old Ah\u2019m going to sell it offa dis place.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cShe flounced on off and let her wintertime wid me. Ah knowed mah body wasn\u2019t healed, but Ah couldn\u2019t consider dat. In de black dark Ah wrapped mah baby de best Ah knowed how and made it to de swamp by de river. Ah knowed de place was full uh moccasins and other bitin\u2019 snakes, but Ah was more skeered uh whut was behind me. Ah hide in dere day and night and suckled de baby every time she start to cry, for fear somebody might hear her and Ah\u2019d git found. Ah ain\u2019t sayin\u2019 uh friend or two didn\u2019t feel mah care. And den de Good Lawd seen to it dat Ah wasn\u2019t taken. Ah don\u2019t see how come mah milk didn\u2019t kill mah chile, wid me so skeered and worried all de time. De noise uh de owls skeered me; de limbs of dem cypress trees took to crawlin\u2019 and movin\u2019 round after dark, and two three times Ah heered panthers prowlin\u2019 round. But nothin\u2019 never hurt me \u2019cause de Lawd knowed how it was.<\/p>\n \u201cDen, one night Ah heard de big guns boomin\u2019 lak thunder. It kept up all night long. Ahd de next mornin\u2019 Ah could see uh big ship at a distance and a great stirrin\u2019 round. So Ah wrapped Leafy up in moss and fixed her good in a tree and picked mah way on down to de landin\u2019. The men was all in blue, and Ah heard people say Sherman was comin\u2019 to meet de boats in Savannah, and all of us slaves was free. So Ah run got mah baby and got in quotation wid people and found a place Ah could stay.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it was a long time after dat befo\u2019 de Big Surrender at Richmond. Den de big bell ring in Atlanta and all de men in gray uniforms had to go to Moultrie, and bury their swords in de ground to show they was never to fight about slavery no mo\u2019. So den we knowed we was free.<\/p>\n \u201cAh wouldn\u2019t marry nobody, though Ah could have uh heap uh times, cause Ah didn\u2019t want nobody mistreating mah baby. So Ah got with some good white people and come down here in West Florida to work and make de sun shine on both sides of de street for Leafy.<\/p>\n \u201cMah Madam help me wid her just lak she been doin\u2019 wid you. Ah put her in school when it got so it was a school to put her in. Ah was \u2019spectin\u2019 to make a school teacher outa her.<\/p>\n \u201cBut one day she didn\u2019t come home at de usual time and Ah waited and waited, but she never come all dat night. Ah took a lantern and went round askin\u2019 everybody but nobody ain\u2019t seen her. De next mornin\u2019 she come crawlin\u2019 in on her hands and knees. A sight to see. Dat school teacher had done hid her in de woods all night long, and he had done raped mah baby and run on off just before day.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was only seventeen, and somethin\u2019 lak dat to happen! Lawd a\u2019mussy! Look lak Ah kin see it all over again. It was a long time before she was well, and by dat time we knowed you was on de way. And after you was born she took to drinkin\u2019 likker and stayin\u2019 out nights. Couldn\u2019t git her to stay here and nowhere else. Lawd knows where she is right now. She ain\u2019t dead, \u2019cause Ah\u2019d know it by mah feelings, but sometimes Ah wish she was at rest.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd, Janie, maybe it wasn\u2019t much, but Ah done de best Ah kin by you. Ah raked and scraped and bought dis lil piece uh land so you wouldn\u2019t have to stay in de white folks\u2019 yard and tuck yo\u2019 head befo\u2019 other chillun at school. Dat was all right when you was little. But when you got big enough to understand things, Ah wanted you to look upon yo\u2019self. Ah don\u2019t want yo\u2019 feathers always crumpled by folks throwin\u2019 up things in yo\u2019 face. And Ah can\u2019t die easy thinkin\u2019 maybe de menfolks white or black is makin\u2019 a spit-cup outa you: Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah\u2019m a cracked plate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-72","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/72\/revisions\/159"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/72\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}