Excerpt of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
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"It wouldn't do any good to go around with my head in the clouds."
"It would sometimes, Hattie. It sure would."
He was responsible for her now. She might, he thought, at least try to be a little more . . . Well, after all they were starting a life together that very day, that very moment. Lawrence needed her steeliness. He needed her resolve to bolster his own. More was required than his charms and his sex and a bit of laughter and forgetting. He had to be better than August.
That bum. August was always out at nightclubs or at the jukes. Lawrence saw him once at a supper club where all the dicty Negroes went. August was on a date; he was all dressed up like the mayor of Philadelphia while Hattie was at home on Wayne Street elbow deep in dishwater. August could have gotten a decent job, but he chose to work catch as catch can at the Navy Yard out of pure laziness. A man had to be responsible. Lawrence was responsible. Whatever else he might be, he took care of his own. He had this Buick, didn't he? Free and clear. And a house in a decent neighborhood. He'd kept his ex- wife in nice dresses while they were married and was still keeping her in them now that they were divorced. He saw his daughter once a week— didn't miss a visit unless there was something really important, no, something damn near unavoidable. She was the picture of good health, didn't want for anything. There were all kinds of ways to be responsible. Maybe he hadn't made his money in the way most people would approve of, but none of his had ever gone without.
"You have to take some joy from the little things, baby. Look at this— fireworks!"
A gold flare rose above the treetops and peacocked into a fan of light over the highway. "Isn't that something?" he said. "We must be closer to Baltimore than I thought."
Hattie barely glanced at the lights bursting overhead.
"Hey," Lawrence said, after a few moments, "do you plait your hair at night?"
"What?"
"Your hair. Do you plait it at night and tie it down with a scarf?"
"What kind of a thing is that to ask?"
"I just . . . I guess I just realized I didn't know."
"Oh, Lawrence," Hattie said. Her voice quivered. After a long pause, she said, "I tie it down."
Excerpted from The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Oprah's Book Club 2.0) by Ayana Mathis. Copyright © 2012 by Ayana Mathis. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
