1943. Shanghai. A soldier of the Japanese Army happens by a club one night purely out of boredom. What he expects to find are uncouth drunks. He actually meets a beautiful African-American performer by the name of Beatrice. Throughout the next three...
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sanjuunana
thirty-seven
* GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING. THANK YOU*
The rain was heavier this day than it had been yesterday. Two feet stood on a familiar porch, fingers holding a cigarette. Cool air and gloom seemed to penetrate the air but the heated voices coming from inside of the house sparked a fire. It'd been thirty minutes and they were still going. Relaxed fingers lifted the cigarette to awaiting lips and ears continued to take in the argument.
***
"You think your father would approve of this?" There was silence for a moment before she spoke again.
"You think your brother would approve of you and that man on my porch?" Bea inhaled slowly, preparing her words.
"I think Joe woulda liked him real good. With time."
"Time huh?"
"Papa too if he had had the time to know him." Her mother now was quiet.
"I know you upset about how I did things Mama but... I ain't tell you we was leavin' cause I knew you was gon' try to stop me."
"Sure as hell woulda! You took your fast lil' tail all the way across the world for a man you barely know. Ain't thought I was important to know nothin'." Balling up her lips, she took a deep breath.
"I did everythin' right that I could. I introduced you to him. You ain't like him, which is your business, not mine. I decided to go with him so he could re-connect with his roots and I thought that I'd be welcomed back here." She knew that when they returned to the States, she was going to get hit by her mother's emotions. She had prepared herself for it. But, not well enough it seemed.
"You have always been welcome here Beatrice Grace. Don't act like you ain't been." Her mother's furious eyes drifted down to her showing stomach. Her throat tightened slightly.
"I'm sure you know him real well by now. Your belly proves that. But I don't." Her words stung, no, they cut deep into her heart, and as angry as she was, she was hurting more.
"I never thought I'd see the day my daughter would come home pregnant...pregnant and unwed. Was that Jap son of a bitch out there worth it? All the ridicule you gon get from the neighbors? Did you not think of how hard that baby life gon' be when he grows up?"
"What the hell difference does it make?" Her voice yelled suddenly, making her mother grow still in shocked silence.
"Would it have been better to have been raped by one of them Klan bastards? You'd rather me have a life of misery and pain havin' a half white child than one with a man I love? What the hell kinda mother are you?"
