Authors: Mercedes Keyes
His questions were all legitimate as far as Manny and Lena were concerned, but before they could answer, Mike who had come in midway and heard him was immediately offended. Angry, thinking that Rory was once again talking against his mother and their marriage burned him to the core. To do so right in front of her, with no consideration for her feelings he could not take. "You stinkin’ guttersnipe! Who in the hell do you think you are-..."
"M
ichael!" Lena called his name, stunned at his aggressive tone.
He was too charged up to listen, "...-sitting here talking about my mother as if not in the room! What in hell do you mean-..."
"Mike!!" It was Manny this time whom he plowed on past.
"…-placing her among the servants?!" He snarled bitterly.
"I wasn't talking to you! I was talking to my father!?" Rory stood from the table as Mike walked further into the room.
"About my mother! I'm getting fed up with your disrespect of her!" Mike was too upset to guard his tongue and pushed on heatedly as Manny and Lena stood.
"Michael what's wrong with you!?" Lena called, shocked by his behavior, "He was asking a simple question." Lena defended.
Rory spoke over her, "She happens to be my mother too you know!!"
"Oh!! So you mean to tell me you're going to finally admit it!?"
"Who the hell are you to say that to me?!" Rory retaliated.
"Unfortunately - I'm your bloody brother! That's who I am!!"
The two of them had long since stunned Lena into silence but Manny's anger was definitely on the rise as he turned to Mike. "What is wrong with you Mike?! I'm getting fed up with these outbursts from you!?!" Manny fumed.
"He is what is wrong with me!! You didn’t ask him that same question did you!!" Mike launched in return. "That's okay father, I see how it is… the little boy who wants to be white gets all of daddy's protection. Me - I get a, what's wrong with you Mike! Well I'll tell you what's wrong with me! Who gives a damn about dinner parties and balls!?" He turned to Rory shouting, "I'll tell you who - little feeble minded shallow spine white boy's like yourself! That's what you claim to be isn't it!? Then you have the nerve to stand and yell she's your mother too, while denying her at every turn!" Mike argued.
"Oh and you haven’t?! You’re going to stand here and tell me you've claimed her as your mother to anyone here or anywhere else since you were a man and knew what it would mean for you?! No – you haven't… you're a liar if you say so! Admit it, you're just as afraid of people knowing about your black side as I am!"
"You little-..." Hitting his sore spot, Mike went for Rory but Manny stepped between them and pushed him back. "You come back at him with words! Not your fist, you understand me!" Manny demanded.
"Manny stop them!" Lena pleaded, afraid.
"N
o! You go in the other room, we're gonna have this out here and now!" Manny ordered her. Mike pointed over his father's shoulder at Rory and demanded. "You think I'm afraid of being black? I'm proud of the black that's in me! It's you who have a problem with it! Wishing you were white! No way kiddo! You had better learn now, to the world, either you're all or not at all! Get used to it!"
"Don't tell me what to get used to! You get used to being white! You look more like it than I do! Get used to that!"
"Manny stop this - please!!" Lena cried out, unable to stand this war between her sons.
Mike's temper wouldn't allow him to stand that, he tried to reach over Manny to hit Rory. Manny pushed him back. "Damn it I said no hitting!!"
"It’ll only take one – end of argument! That was too stupid to deserve anything but a pop in the mouth! Just one pop is all it will take!!”
"You're the one who's stupid! Mad all the time because you want to be black! Angry at me as if I should want the same thing! I'm not going to deny my father, for you or anyone else!"
"Anyone else meaning, our
mother!
"
"Don’t put words in my mouth!!" Rory yelled not wanting to hurt Lena.
"Not words I wanna put in your mother little brother – but this right here will fit just right – I’ll make sure of it!!" Mike waved his fist, dying to hit him.
"I said – you don't get to hit him, so forget it!" Manny reminded him. Mike immediately took offense. "See what I mean! You'll take up for him-…"
"Aaah poor baby, he's got nobody on his side." Rory taunted.
"
Rory
stop it!" Lena yelled.
"You didn't yell stop it Mike when he was about to hit me! And he's bigger than I am! Not only that, he's the one who started it!!"
"You're taunting him and you know it!" She reprimanded.
"Oh I see what this is; my father is on my side, so it's only right that you be on his side!"
Manny turned hearing that. "Ohhh no! That's where you're wrong son, I'm not about to take sides, neither is your mother!"
"See what I mean about him?! Shallow! How dare you suggest my mother take my side simply because she's black!" Mike argued. "Me shallow! You're the bully crying because father won't let you thump your little brother! If I choose to be white, that's up to me, you got no right to tell me I can't! So your getting mad is a waste!" Rory railed back at him.
Hope stood in the doorway, not believing her ears. Watching her
two brothers fight over who was black and who was white, she'd heard enough.
"Well I've been standing hear listening and the score I've tallied so far, says you both look like two shallow, imbeciles! I mean, who really gives a damn which one of the two you are! I don't!"
"Hope!" Lena screeched.
"I'm
sorry
mama. I'm tired of this nonsense. I wish you two would wake up and realize how fortunate we are after being apart for so long. Especially going through what we have to get back together again! Now that we are, this is all you have to show for yourselves? Arguing over something neither of you can change! Mad because one chooses this over that! Well you both make me sick and ashamed that you were the two survivors instead of the other two that died!"
"Hope don't say such a thing!" Lena cried, alarmed.
"Well it's the truth! Look at them! What a ridiculous argument?! Why are you two even trying to divide yourselves…as if you could!? It took both of them to bring each of us into existence! Not just one, so it's impossible to chose one over the other. You both make me sick to my stomach to be caught between you! You ask me, neither of you are worthy of either of them. You're not good enough to carry my father's name! Nor good enough to claim my mother as yours or to have the privilege of knowing - her blood - flows through your veins! I happen to be proud of both of them! Whether I am labeled a mulatto, a mutt, a freak of nature, tainted white! Nigger! I am what I am, those who don't like it can kiss the deep and darker part of my ass…I don't care!"
"
Hope!
" Lena gasped.
"That's the way I feel mama, in my heart, I know within me I have the best of both worlds! Who can claim what we can? To have a white father, a slave owner, that loves us, and has claimed us?! You are stupid Mike – because the way things are, no one would have batted an eye if he had chosen to kill us all at birth!" She gave him a dirty look to make him feel ashamed.
"And you Rory, no matter what your neglect in the past, you still had her! We didn't! I wanted my mother so bad…so much…" She was getting choked up. "You…you still had her, and she loved you, I know that. You don't want my mother you red ass bastard, then you can
go to hell!
"
"Hope don't say that." Lena cringed. "He's gone through a lot. You don't know what he's been through."
"We've all been through something mama! We all have!"
"Okay Hope, f
ine, calm down. Don't blow a horn to end a war you’ve never had to fight in! You least of all have no means of understanding how tough it is. You haven't a clue of how it feels to have people demean you because of being black…I'm not totally ignorant of what Rory's going through." Mike inserted.
"How dare you…how –
dare
- you…you don't know what you're talking about." She defended.
Mike's expression changed to sarcasm. "Please Hope, let’s face it shall we, you've been protected and pampered all of your life. You've never had to face a decision that forced you to hold back about being black when you've wanted to shout it to the world, like I've wanted to do, but couldn't. It's impossible for you to understand that until you've gone through it!" Mike shook his head, "You've always been little Golden Hope, not a care in the world. Until you've faced what it's like being black, don't expect to come in here telling us how to think and feel. As much as I hate it, Rory's fear of being put down by someone white and being treated no better than a dog is a legit concern. You just… you just finish your chores like a good girl and leave this discussion to us."
Hope could feel a shaking rage building inside of her; she covered her mouth trying to keep from sobbing. She felt her insides knot up and harden with fury. "You –
bastard!
How - dare – you assume - what I've not gone through!" She ground out, so overcome she held her stomach.
"Hope…calm down." Lena turned from them to her daughter, confused by her strong reactions; tears were streaming from her eyes, visibly shaking before them.
"No…you –
Mike
– you don't know everything! I - I damn well know - what it's like! I know – I know!" She pounded her chest distraught. Manny stood with something in him warning him to brace himself, he couldn't explain it, yet, he'd never seen his daughter fighting so with herself.
"I'm gonna tell you something…big brother! You're
so
smug! So – so sure… you're the only one – who's suffered! Well you haven't!!" She was wiping at her eyes, so angry she wanted to scream. She gasped for control as she felt a volcano of emotions about to erupt, burning her chest.
"Father asked me – when he first saw me…why I – cut my hair! I lied! I told him some silly excuse of - it was the right thing to do – at the time. Would you like to know the truth big brother?! Hm Mike?! Well I didn't cut my hair!" She cried out as she snatched off the scarf that she placed there while cleaning, letting the tresses fall above her shoulders. "Capt. Kevin Dobbs...cut - my - hair! He felt no ... no nigger deserved to have such hair as mine.”
“
Especially a nigger who didn't have sense enough to lie…about being a nigger!" The room was silent, Manny and Mike both stood with their eyes wide as she went on. "I was there…right after you two…I was there." She was trying to talk and not cry, but had to keep stopping. "We missed each other. He told me, you were there." She was thinking back, her thoughts were scrambled. “I just wanted to go home… back to – to Webster Fields, that’s all – I just wanted to go home.”
"Hope." Lena's eyes were filled with tears. "What are you saying?" She asked gently.
Hope reached up and grabbed her hair, afraid of losing control of herself. "Mama, I'm saying…I know…I know…I know mama…I know." She repeated over and over trying not to lose control.
"What do you know?" Lena asked.
"How they – hate us!! I know…I know!" She sobbed ripping at the top of her dress. "Hope!" Lena shouted not understanding. Maria and the children were standing quietly at the patio French doors and watching, having heard them all arguing.
"Hope stop…what are you doing…don’t!!" She screamed at Hope as she shredded her top. Buttons fell to the floor, as she tugged it roughly from her shoulders, pulling her arms from their short sleeves, not caring that she exposed her breasts to them, turning so they could all see.
"Oooo-ooh God!" Lena screamed.
"Mike!! Is that enough!! Is it? Is – it?!" She screamed with her scarred back out in clear view.
Manny felt his knees about to go and turned away walking to the window, gripping it as tightly as his stomach twisted into knots.
Maria stood staring in horror and sobbing. Rory and Mike both gaped at the crisscross ridged puckered flesh. Hope turned back to them breathing hard, the throbbing in her head so intense she thought she would faint. Through blurred vision she told her mother. "He said I was a fool mama. Because I declared loud and proud, that yes…I was indeed, the child of one, Ceś alena Huebana. He remembered you mama, through me. I will not deny you…I will die for you mama…but I will not deny you…so he whipped me. Said if I was so proud to be a nigger, I should know what it was to be one." She sniffed as she relived the horrible memory; she shook her head and wiped at her tears as she lifted up the front of her dress with the other. Focusing on her brothers, she finally said. "Don't look at me like that. The whipping I can take…it was nothing!”
“
Nothing - compared to...to losing my ... my baby. They killed my baby... Oh God ...I begged them, please..." Lena grabbed her sobbing, holding on tight. "Mama…they didn't care…I pleaded please ... don't kill my baby ... don't kill ... my-…" She wrapped her arms around her mother, holding on tight. Lena pointed at Manny's jacket. Maria ran over and handed it her. She draped it over her daughters back as she sobbed.