Cut by Thread

Little Black Sambo

I sat in my room just thinking and thinking, not paying attention to the time . Then, I saw the clock. It was almost 3. I was going to be late to pick Grace up! I ran out of the apartment and down the street towards her school. Grace was sitting on the steps waiting for me. She was holding a book called Little Black Sambo. I asked Grace, "Where did you get that book?" my voice full of surprise, because I saw a negro in the front of the cover. "I saw it in the library and I saw a tiger and it seemed like a nice book," she replied. In her eyes, I saw that she didn't understand the difference between negroes and us, even though we lived in a neighborhood almost filled with them. She thought of them like us! As if they were equal! She was silly in the head sometimes, but i didn't mind because of her innocence. She was just too young to understand. As Grace skipped home in front of me in her daisy dress that had belonged to me, I noticed that it was getting a little short on her. She was so happy even though so many things are going wrong in our world. She still made time for happiness and giggles. I wished I could've been more like Grace.We got home and my mom was in her room. I didn't bother knocking her door because she was probably crying and wouldn't want me to see. I made soup from our leftover scraps from dinner the night before. Then, I shared a bath with Grace and played with the bubbles with her. Just as I was going to shut my eyes, Grace came to me and begged me to read the book she got at the school. So I did. She rested her head on my chest and looked at the book as she waited for the words to come out of my mouth. On the front of the cover of the yellow book was a little black boy dressed in a red coat, blue trousers, and purple shoes. He was holding a green umbrella. The title above the boy said "Little Black Sambo." I began to read to her. In the beginning of the story, the family was introduced. The mom, Black Mumbo, the father, Black Jumbo, and then there was Little Black Sambo. Little Black Sambo got nice clothing from his parents to make him look grand. But later on in the story the tigers started taking his clothing so that they wouldn't eat Little Black Sambo. Afterwards, Sambo didn't have anything left. The tigers started to fight to see who was the grandest tiger. In the end, the tigers were fighting so fast that they turned into butter and Little Black Sambo got his clothes back. Then, he made pancakes with the butter that had been tigers earlier in the book. I closed the book, looking at it strangely. That had been a strange book. Then, I saw that Grace had fallen asleep. I put the strange book on the dresser and also fell asleep. I dreamt that I was in the jungle having all the things I loved close to me and started walking. Then, a tiger came up to me and threatened to eat me so I gave him something close to me. I gave the tiger my favorite bracelet,which my father had given to me on my 16th birthday. Then, I had to give the tiger everything, including my family and my home. In the end, I had nothing. I started crying and woke up. I was covered in sweat; my dream had turned into a nightmare. Grace was gone when I awoke, mother must have taken her to school. I looked at my wrist and the bracelet was still there. I got up, went to the kitchen, and opened the fridge to find that there was no food left. I sat at the table, waiting for my mom to come home from the mart with a huge bag of groceries. However, when she opened the door, she only had a couple potatoes, bread, cheese, and milk. " I know this isn't much, but I had to pay this months rent and I didn't have much money left," she told me.I looked at her, somewhat nervous about the situation, then grabbed a piece of bread and cheese and ate them. After I ate, I started to think about my nightmare and how everything Little Black Sambo loved was taken away. I didn't want that to happen to me or Grace. I stood up, looked at my mom, and said with regret " I'm going out to get a job." I walked out of the house with tears in my eyes. They weren't tears of sadness, they were tears of sacrifice. I was doing this for Grace and no one else.