{"id":78,"date":"2021-10-29T11:15:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T15:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/the-distributed-proofreaders-canada-ebook-of-their-eyes-were-watching-god-by-zora-neale-hurston-7\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T11:20:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T16:20:53","slug":"8","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/8\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 8","rendered":"Chapter 8"},"content":{"raw":"
<\/div>\r\n

After<\/span> that night Jody moved his things and slept in a room downstairs. He didn\u2019t really hate Janie, but he wanted her to think so. He had crawled off to lick his wounds. They didn\u2019t talk too much around the store either. Anybody that didn\u2019t know would have thought that things had blown over, it looked so quiet and peaceful around. But the stillness was the sleep of swords. So new thoughts had to be thought and new words said. She didn\u2019t want to live like that. Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time? Had been doing it for years. Well, if she must eat out of a long-handled spoon, she must. Jody might get over his mad spell any time at all and begin to act like somebody towards her.<\/p>\r\n

Then too she noticed how baggy Joe was getting all over. Like bags hanging from an ironing board. A little sack hung from the corners of his eyes and rested on his cheek-bones; a loose-filled bag of feathers hung from his ears and rested on his neck beneath his chin. A sack of flabby something hung from his loins and rested on his thighs when he sat down. But even these things were running down like candle grease as time moved on.<\/p>\r\n

He made new alliances too. People he never bothered with one way or another now seemed to have his ear. He had always been scornful of root-doctors and all their kind, but now she saw a faker from over around Altamonte Springs, hanging around the place almost daily. Always talking in low tones when she came near, or hushed altogether. She didn\u2019t know that he was driven by a desperate hope to appear the old-time body in her sight. She was sorry about the root-doctor because she feared that Joe was depending on the scoundrel to make him well when what he needed was a doctor, and a good one. She was worried about his not eating his meals, till she found out he was having old lady Davis to cook for him. She knew that she was a much better cook than the old woman, and cleaner about the kitchen. So she bought a beef-bone and made him some soup.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw, thank you,\u201d he told her shortly. \u201cAh\u2019m havin\u2019 uh hard enough time tuh try and git well as it is.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

She was stunned at first and hurt afterwards. So she went straight to her bosom friend, Pheoby Watson, and told her about it.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh\u2019d rather be dead than for Jody tuh think Ah\u2019d hurt him,\u201d she sobbed to Pheoby. \u201cIt ain\u2019t always been too pleasant, \u2019cause you know how Joe worships de works of his own hands, but God in heben knows Ah wouldn\u2019t do one thing tuh hurt nobody. It\u2019s too underhand and mean.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cJanie, Ah though maybe de thing would die down and you never would know nothin\u2019 \u2019bout it, but it\u2019s been singin\u2019 round here ever since de big fuss in de store dat Joe was \u2018fixed\u2019 and you wuz de one dat did it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cPheoby, for de longest time, Ah been feelin\u2019 dat somethin\u2019 set for still-bait, but dis is\u2014is\u2014oh Pheoby! Whut kin<\/span> I do?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t do nothin\u2019 but make out you don\u2019t know it. It\u2019s too late fuh y\u2019all tuh be splittin\u2019 up and gittin\u2019 divorce. Just g\u2019wan back home and set down on yo\u2019 royal diasticutis and say nothin\u2019. Nobody don\u2019t b\u2019lieve it nohow.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cTuh think Ah been wid Jody twenty yeahs and Ah just now got tuh bear de name uh poisonin\u2019 him! It\u2019s \u2019bout to kill me, Pheoby. Sorrow dogged by sorrow is in mah heart.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s lie dat trashy nigger dat calls hisself uh two-headed doctor brought tuh \u2019im in order tuh git in wid Jody. He seen he wuz sick\u2014everybody been knowin\u2019 dat for de last longest, and den Ah reckon he heard y\u2019all wuz kind of at variance, so dat wuz his chance. Last summer dat multiplied cockroach wuz round heah tryin\u2019 tuh sell gophers!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cPheoby, Ah don\u2019t even b\u2019lieve Jody b\u2019lieve dat lie. He ain\u2019t never took no stock in de mess. He just make out he b\u2019lieve it tuh hurt me. Ah\u2019m stone dead from standin\u2019 still and tryin\u2019 tuh smile.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

She cried often in the weeks that followed. Joe got too weak to look after things and took to his bed. But he relentlessly refused to admit her to his sick-room. People came and went in the house. This one and that one came into her house with covered plates of broth and other sick-room dishes without taking the least notice of her as Joe\u2019s wife. People who never had known what it was to enter the gate of the Mayor\u2019s yard unless it were to do some menial job now paraded in and out as his confidants. They came to the store and ostentatiously looked over whatever she was doing and went back to report to him at the house. Said things like \u201cMr. Starks need somebody<\/span> tuh sorta look out for \u2019im till he kin git on his feet again and look for hisself.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

But Jody was never to get on his feet again. Janie had Sam Watson to bring her the news from the sick-room, and when he told her how things were, she had him bring a doctor from Orlando without giving Joe a chance to refuse, and without saying she sent for him.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cJust a matter of time,\u201d the doctor told her. \u201cWhen a man\u2019s kidneys stop working altogether, there is no way for him to live. He needed medical attention two years ago. Too late now.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

So Janie began to think of Death. Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West. The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof. What need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world. Stands watchful and motionless all day with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger to bid him come. Been standing there before there was a where or a when or a then. She was liable to find a feather from his wings lying in her yard any day now. She was sad and afraid too. Poor Jody! He ought not to have to wrassle in there by himself. She sent Sam in to suggest a visit, but Jody said No. These medical doctors wuz all right with the Godly sick, but they didn\u2019t know a thing about a case like his. He\u2019d be all right just as soon as the two-headed man found what had been buried against him. He wasn\u2019t going to die at all. That was what he thought. But Sam told her different, so she knew. And then if he hadn\u2019t, the next morning she was bound to know, for people began to gather in the big yard under the palm and china-berry trees. People who would not have dared to foot the place before crept in and did not come to the house. Just squatted under the trees and waited. Rumor, that wingless bird, had shadowed over the town.<\/p>\r\n

She got up that morning with the firm determination to go on in there and have a good talk with Jody. But she sat a long time with the walls creeping in on her. Four walls squeezing her breath out. Fear lest he depart while she sat trembling upstairs nerved her and she was inside the room before she caught her breath. She didn\u2019t make the cheerful, casual start that she had thought out. Something stood like an oxen\u2019s foot on her tongue, and then too, Jody, no Joe, gave her a ferocious look. A look with all the unthinkable coldness of outer space. She must talk to a man who was ten immensities away.<\/p>\r\n

He was lying on his side facing the door like he was expecting somebody or something. A sort of changing look on his face. Weak-looking but sharp-pointed about the eyes. Through the thin counterpane she could see what was left of his belly huddled before him on the bed like some helpless thing seeking shelter.<\/p>\r\n

The half-washed bedclothes hurt her pride for Jody. He had always been so clean.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhut you doin\u2019 in heah, Janie?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cCome tuh see \u2019bout you and how you wuz makin\u2019 out.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

He gave a deep-growling sound like a hog dying down in the swamp and trying to drive off disturbance. \u201cAh come in heah tuh git shet uh you but look lak \u2019tain\u2019t doin\u2019 me no good. G\u2019wan out. Ah needs tuh rest.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw, Jody, Ah come in heah tuh talk widja and Ah\u2019m gointuh do it too. It\u2019s for both of our sakes Ah\u2019m talkin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

He gave another ground grumble and eased over on his back.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cJody, maybe Ah ain\u2019t been sich uh good wife tuh you, but Jody\u2014\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s \u2019cause you ain\u2019t got de right feelin\u2019 for nobody. You oughter have some sympathy \u2019bout yo\u2019self. You ain\u2019t no hog.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBut, Jody, Ah meant tuh be awful nice.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMuch as Ah done fuh yuh. Holdin\u2019 me up tuh scorn. No sympathy!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw, Jody, it wasn\u2019t because Ah didn\u2019t have no sympathy. Ah had uh lavish uh dat. Ah just didn\u2019t never git no chance tuh use none of it. You wouldn\u2019t let me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s right, blame everything on me. Ah wouldn\u2019t let you show no feelin\u2019! When, Janie, dat\u2019s all Ah ever wanted or desired. Now you come blamin\u2019 me!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t dat, Jody. Ah ain\u2019t here tuh blame nobody. Ah\u2019m just tryin\u2019 tuh make you know what kinda person Ah is befo\u2019 it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cToo late?\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\r\n

His eyes buckled in a vacant-mouthed terror and she saw the awful surprise in his face and answered it.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah, Jody, don\u2019t keer whut dat multiplied cockroach told yuh tuh git yo\u2019 money, you got tuh die, and yuh can\u2019t live.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

A deep sob came out of Jody\u2019s weak frame. It was like beating a bass drum in a hen-house. Then it rose high like pulling in a trombone.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cJanie? Janie! don\u2019t tell me Ah got tuh die, and Ah ain\u2019t used tuh thinkin\u2019 \u2019bout it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t really no need of you dying, Jody, if you had of\u2014de doctor\u2014but it don\u2019t do no good bringin\u2019 dat up now. Dat\u2019s just whut Ah wants tuh say, Jody. You wouldn\u2019t listen. You done lived wid me for twenty years and you don\u2019t half know me atall. And you could have but you was so busy worshippin\u2019 de works of yo\u2019 own hands, and cuffin\u2019 folks around in their minds till you didn\u2019t see uh whole heap uh things yuh could have.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLeave heah, Janie. Don\u2019t come heah\u2014\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh knowed you wasn\u2019t gointuh lissen tuh me. You changes everything but nothin\u2019 don\u2019t change you\u2014not even death. But Ah ain\u2019t goin\u2019 outa here and Ah ain\u2019t gointuh hush. Naw, you gointuh listen tuh me one time befo\u2019 you die. Have yo\u2019 way all yo\u2019 life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let yo\u2019self heah \u2019bout it. Listen, Jody, you ain\u2019t de Jody Ah run off down de road wid. You\u2019se whut\u2019s left after he died. Ah run off tuh keep house wid you in uh wonderful way. But you wasn\u2019t satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for yours in me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cShut up! Ah wish thunder and lightnin\u2019 would kill yuh!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh know it. And now you got tuh die tuh find out dat you got tuh pacify somebody besides yo\u2019self if you wants any love and any sympathy in dis world. You ain\u2019t tried tuh pacify nobody<\/span> but yo\u2019self. Too busy listening tuh yo\u2019 own big voice.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAll dis tearin\u2019 down talk!\u201d Jody whispered with sweat globules forming all over his face and arms. \u201cGit outa heah!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAll dis bowin\u2019 down, all dis obedience under yo\u2019 voice\u2014dat ain\u2019t whut Ah rushed off down de road tuh find out about you.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

A sound of strife in Jody\u2019s throat, but his eyes stared unwillingly into a corner of the room so Janie knew the futile fight was not with her. The icy sword of the square-toed one had cut off his breath and left his hands in a pose of agonizing protest. Janie gave them peace on his breast, then she studied his dead face for a long time.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDis sittin\u2019 in de rulin\u2019 chair is been hard on Jody,\u201d she muttered out loud. She was full of pity for the first time in years. Jody had been hard on her and others, but life had mishandled him too. Poor Joe! Maybe if she had known some other way to try, she might have made his face different. But what that other way could be, she had no idea. She thought back and forth about what had happened in the making of a voice out of a man. Then thought about herself. Years ago, she had told her girl self to wait for her in the looking glass. It had been a long time since she had remembered. Perhaps she\u2019d better look. She went over to the dresser and looked hard at her skin and features. The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there. She took careful stock of herself, then combed her hair and tied it back up again. Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see, and opened up the window and cried, \u201cCome heah people! Jody is dead. Mah husband is gone from me.\u201d<\/p>","rendered":"

<\/div>\n

After<\/span> that night Jody moved his things and slept in a room downstairs. He didn\u2019t really hate Janie, but he wanted her to think so. He had crawled off to lick his wounds. They didn\u2019t talk too much around the store either. Anybody that didn\u2019t know would have thought that things had blown over, it looked so quiet and peaceful around. But the stillness was the sleep of swords. So new thoughts had to be thought and new words said. She didn\u2019t want to live like that. Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time? Had been doing it for years. Well, if she must eat out of a long-handled spoon, she must. Jody might get over his mad spell any time at all and begin to act like somebody towards her.<\/p>\n

Then too she noticed how baggy Joe was getting all over. Like bags hanging from an ironing board. A little sack hung from the corners of his eyes and rested on his cheek-bones; a loose-filled bag of feathers hung from his ears and rested on his neck beneath his chin. A sack of flabby something hung from his loins and rested on his thighs when he sat down. But even these things were running down like candle grease as time moved on.<\/p>\n

He made new alliances too. People he never bothered with one way or another now seemed to have his ear. He had always been scornful of root-doctors and all their kind, but now she saw a faker from over around Altamonte Springs, hanging around the place almost daily. Always talking in low tones when she came near, or hushed altogether. She didn\u2019t know that he was driven by a desperate hope to appear the old-time body in her sight. She was sorry about the root-doctor because she feared that Joe was depending on the scoundrel to make him well when what he needed was a doctor, and a good one. She was worried about his not eating his meals, till she found out he was having old lady Davis to cook for him. She knew that she was a much better cook than the old woman, and cleaner about the kitchen. So she bought a beef-bone and made him some soup.<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw, thank you,\u201d he told her shortly. \u201cAh\u2019m havin\u2019 uh hard enough time tuh try and git well as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was stunned at first and hurt afterwards. So she went straight to her bosom friend, Pheoby Watson, and told her about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh\u2019d rather be dead than for Jody tuh think Ah\u2019d hurt him,\u201d she sobbed to Pheoby. \u201cIt ain\u2019t always been too pleasant, \u2019cause you know how Joe worships de works of his own hands, but God in heben knows Ah wouldn\u2019t do one thing tuh hurt nobody. It\u2019s too underhand and mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJanie, Ah though maybe de thing would die down and you never would know nothin\u2019 \u2019bout it, but it\u2019s been singin\u2019 round here ever since de big fuss in de store dat Joe was \u2018fixed\u2019 and you wuz de one dat did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPheoby, for de longest time, Ah been feelin\u2019 dat somethin\u2019 set for still-bait, but dis is\u2014is\u2014oh Pheoby! Whut kin<\/span> I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t do nothin\u2019 but make out you don\u2019t know it. It\u2019s too late fuh y\u2019all tuh be splittin\u2019 up and gittin\u2019 divorce. Just g\u2019wan back home and set down on yo\u2019 royal diasticutis and say nothin\u2019. Nobody don\u2019t b\u2019lieve it nohow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTuh think Ah been wid Jody twenty yeahs and Ah just now got tuh bear de name uh poisonin\u2019 him! It\u2019s \u2019bout to kill me, Pheoby. Sorrow dogged by sorrow is in mah heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s lie dat trashy nigger dat calls hisself uh two-headed doctor brought tuh \u2019im in order tuh git in wid Jody. He seen he wuz sick\u2014everybody been knowin\u2019 dat for de last longest, and den Ah reckon he heard y\u2019all wuz kind of at variance, so dat wuz his chance. Last summer dat multiplied cockroach wuz round heah tryin\u2019 tuh sell gophers!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPheoby, Ah don\u2019t even b\u2019lieve Jody b\u2019lieve dat lie. He ain\u2019t never took no stock in de mess. He just make out he b\u2019lieve it tuh hurt me. Ah\u2019m stone dead from standin\u2019 still and tryin\u2019 tuh smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

She cried often in the weeks that followed. Joe got too weak to look after things and took to his bed. But he relentlessly refused to admit her to his sick-room. People came and went in the house. This one and that one came into her house with covered plates of broth and other sick-room dishes without taking the least notice of her as Joe\u2019s wife. People who never had known what it was to enter the gate of the Mayor\u2019s yard unless it were to do some menial job now paraded in and out as his confidants. They came to the store and ostentatiously looked over whatever she was doing and went back to report to him at the house. Said things like \u201cMr. Starks need somebody<\/span> tuh sorta look out for \u2019im till he kin git on his feet again and look for hisself.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jody was never to get on his feet again. Janie had Sam Watson to bring her the news from the sick-room, and when he told her how things were, she had him bring a doctor from Orlando without giving Joe a chance to refuse, and without saying she sent for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a matter of time,\u201d the doctor told her. \u201cWhen a man\u2019s kidneys stop working altogether, there is no way for him to live. He needed medical attention two years ago. Too late now.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Janie began to think of Death. Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West. The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof. What need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world. Stands watchful and motionless all day with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger to bid him come. Been standing there before there was a where or a when or a then. She was liable to find a feather from his wings lying in her yard any day now. She was sad and afraid too. Poor Jody! He ought not to have to wrassle in there by himself. She sent Sam in to suggest a visit, but Jody said No. These medical doctors wuz all right with the Godly sick, but they didn\u2019t know a thing about a case like his. He\u2019d be all right just as soon as the two-headed man found what had been buried against him. He wasn\u2019t going to die at all. That was what he thought. But Sam told her different, so she knew. And then if he hadn\u2019t, the next morning she was bound to know, for people began to gather in the big yard under the palm and china-berry trees. People who would not have dared to foot the place before crept in and did not come to the house. Just squatted under the trees and waited. Rumor, that wingless bird, had shadowed over the town.<\/p>\n

She got up that morning with the firm determination to go on in there and have a good talk with Jody. But she sat a long time with the walls creeping in on her. Four walls squeezing her breath out. Fear lest he depart while she sat trembling upstairs nerved her and she was inside the room before she caught her breath. She didn\u2019t make the cheerful, casual start that she had thought out. Something stood like an oxen\u2019s foot on her tongue, and then too, Jody, no Joe, gave her a ferocious look. A look with all the unthinkable coldness of outer space. She must talk to a man who was ten immensities away.<\/p>\n

He was lying on his side facing the door like he was expecting somebody or something. A sort of changing look on his face. Weak-looking but sharp-pointed about the eyes. Through the thin counterpane she could see what was left of his belly huddled before him on the bed like some helpless thing seeking shelter.<\/p>\n

The half-washed bedclothes hurt her pride for Jody. He had always been so clean.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhut you doin\u2019 in heah, Janie?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCome tuh see \u2019bout you and how you wuz makin\u2019 out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gave a deep-growling sound like a hog dying down in the swamp and trying to drive off disturbance. \u201cAh come in heah tuh git shet uh you but look lak \u2019tain\u2019t doin\u2019 me no good. G\u2019wan out. Ah needs tuh rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw, Jody, Ah come in heah tuh talk widja and Ah\u2019m gointuh do it too. It\u2019s for both of our sakes Ah\u2019m talkin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gave another ground grumble and eased over on his back.<\/p>\n

\u201cJody, maybe Ah ain\u2019t been sich uh good wife tuh you, but Jody\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s \u2019cause you ain\u2019t got de right feelin\u2019 for nobody. You oughter have some sympathy \u2019bout yo\u2019self. You ain\u2019t no hog.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, Jody, Ah meant tuh be awful nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch as Ah done fuh yuh. Holdin\u2019 me up tuh scorn. No sympathy!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw, Jody, it wasn\u2019t because Ah didn\u2019t have no sympathy. Ah had uh lavish uh dat. Ah just didn\u2019t never git no chance tuh use none of it. You wouldn\u2019t let me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s right, blame everything on me. Ah wouldn\u2019t let you show no feelin\u2019! When, Janie, dat\u2019s all Ah ever wanted or desired. Now you come blamin\u2019 me!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t dat, Jody. Ah ain\u2019t here tuh blame nobody. Ah\u2019m just tryin\u2019 tuh make you know what kinda person Ah is befo\u2019 it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToo late?\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n

His eyes buckled in a vacant-mouthed terror and she saw the awful surprise in his face and answered it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, Jody, don\u2019t keer whut dat multiplied cockroach told yuh tuh git yo\u2019 money, you got tuh die, and yuh can\u2019t live.\u201d<\/p>\n

A deep sob came out of Jody\u2019s weak frame. It was like beating a bass drum in a hen-house. Then it rose high like pulling in a trombone.<\/p>\n

\u201cJanie? Janie! don\u2019t tell me Ah got tuh die, and Ah ain\u2019t used tuh thinkin\u2019 \u2019bout it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t really no need of you dying, Jody, if you had of\u2014de doctor\u2014but it don\u2019t do no good bringin\u2019 dat up now. Dat\u2019s just whut Ah wants tuh say, Jody. You wouldn\u2019t listen. You done lived wid me for twenty years and you don\u2019t half know me atall. And you could have but you was so busy worshippin\u2019 de works of yo\u2019 own hands, and cuffin\u2019 folks around in their minds till you didn\u2019t see uh whole heap uh things yuh could have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLeave heah, Janie. Don\u2019t come heah\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh knowed you wasn\u2019t gointuh lissen tuh me. You changes everything but nothin\u2019 don\u2019t change you\u2014not even death. But Ah ain\u2019t goin\u2019 outa here and Ah ain\u2019t gointuh hush. Naw, you gointuh listen tuh me one time befo\u2019 you die. Have yo\u2019 way all yo\u2019 life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let yo\u2019self heah \u2019bout it. Listen, Jody, you ain\u2019t de Jody Ah run off down de road wid. You\u2019se whut\u2019s left after he died. Ah run off tuh keep house wid you in uh wonderful way. But you wasn\u2019t satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for yours in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShut up! Ah wish thunder and lightnin\u2019 would kill yuh!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh know it. And now you got tuh die tuh find out dat you got tuh pacify somebody besides yo\u2019self if you wants any love and any sympathy in dis world. You ain\u2019t tried tuh pacify nobody<\/span> but yo\u2019self. Too busy listening tuh yo\u2019 own big voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll dis tearin\u2019 down talk!\u201d Jody whispered with sweat globules forming all over his face and arms. \u201cGit outa heah!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll dis bowin\u2019 down, all dis obedience under yo\u2019 voice\u2014dat ain\u2019t whut Ah rushed off down de road tuh find out about you.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sound of strife in Jody\u2019s throat, but his eyes stared unwillingly into a corner of the room so Janie knew the futile fight was not with her. The icy sword of the square-toed one had cut off his breath and left his hands in a pose of agonizing protest. Janie gave them peace on his breast, then she studied his dead face for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cDis sittin\u2019 in de rulin\u2019 chair is been hard on Jody,\u201d she muttered out loud. She was full of pity for the first time in years. Jody had been hard on her and others, but life had mishandled him too. Poor Joe! Maybe if she had known some other way to try, she might have made his face different. But what that other way could be, she had no idea. She thought back and forth about what had happened in the making of a voice out of a man. Then thought about herself. Years ago, she had told her girl self to wait for her in the looking glass. It had been a long time since she had remembered. Perhaps she\u2019d better look. She went over to the dresser and looked hard at her skin and features. The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there. She took careful stock of herself, then combed her hair and tied it back up again. Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see, and opened up the window and cried, \u201cCome heah people! Jody is dead. Mah husband is gone from me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-78","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\/78","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/78\/revisions\/137"}],"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\/78\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}