A MATTER OF COLOR
A short story of friendship
by
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It was the first day of school. I was only in the third grade in a small town in It was kind of exciting and scary at the same time. Everyone was taking all their school supplies out of their bags, and making sure their names were on everything. I remember our teacher, Miss Hamilton, showing us where to hang our jackets and where to put our lunchboxes. I knew all the kids in the class. We all took our seats and looked around, giggled and squirmed in our chairs with utter excitement. Just as we sat down, the door opened and in walked a small girl. She handed a note to Miss Hamilton. “Class, I would like to introduce you to Celia Bells. She has just moved here from Celia was a little black girl. She looked down at the floor, afraid, not knowing anyone. Miss Hamilton took Celia by the hand and put her in the empty desk next to me. She sat with her eyes still looking down. I looked at her and said, “Hi, Celia. My name is Mary. Don’t be afraid. You are going to like this school and Miss Hamilton. She’s the best teacher ever.” She looked up at me with a shy smile. “Hi, Mary.” At lunch, everyone was being really nice to Celia and making her feel welcome, just like Miss Hamilton had asked of us. I remember thinking to myself that we were going to be good friends. As school went on, Celia and I grew very close. We had decided to be partners in a science project. We chose to plant and try to grow flowers from seeds. We were going to have some in darkness and some in the sunlight to see the difference in the growth. That was our experiment. We would rush home from school each day to check if our little seeds had begun to sprout. One day, we went to the back porch to check the ones we had put in the sunlight, and there it was, a little green stem was popping through the soil. Our eyes got as big as saucers. We knew our experiment was working. The one we had put in the sunlight was growing, while the one in the dark was not. The day of the science fair, our little seeds had grown into beautiful purple flowers. We were so proud of ourselves that we worked as a team. That’s what we were: a team. We took third place on our science project, and we were bursting with pride. We spent all our days together. She would come over my house and we would ride our bicycles around the block. We would go to the neighborhood park, and sometimes we would have a lemonade stand to make money to go buy some penny candy at the store down the street. Some days we would just sit on my porch swing and talk about what we wanted to be when we grew up. Celia wanted to be a nurse so she could help people feel better when they were sick. She had to take care of her father all the time, because he was sick a lot. I wanted to be a teacher, just like Miss Hamilton. She was the best teacher in the whole world, and someday I hoped to follow in her footsteps. One day I asked Celia, “Why don’t we ever go over to your house and sit on your porch and swing?” She replied, “I don’t have a swing on my porch, Mary, and like I told you, my father is sick a lot and my mother does not like having people over when he is laying down. Besides, Mary, we always have so much fun over here, don’t we?” I didn’t argue or ask any questions about why her father was sick. All I knew was she was right: We always had a great time together. My mother would say we were two peas in a pod. We vowed to stay friends forever and ever. One day, Celia didn’t come to school. I was worried and told my mom. “Oh I’m sure she’s fine. Maybe she caught cold. She will probably be back tomorrow.” Tomorrow came and Celia was still not at school. I decided to go to her house. She had told me where she lived, but I had never been there. I walked slowly across town. I guess I was a little scared, never having been there, but I continued anyway. I saw her house and walked slowly up the stairs. I knocked softly and no one came. As I stood on Celia’s porch, I looked around. She didn’t have a swing, like she said, nor did she have a backyard to play in. All the houses were really close together. As I was peeking around the side of the house, all of a sudden, someone opened the door. A tall black man came to the door. “Yeah, so, what do you want?” I felt really nervous and replied, “I was wondering how Celia was feeling and if I could see her? She is my best friend.” He laughed and said, “You, her best friend? Huh!”
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About the Book
A story of friendship between two young girls, Mary who is Caucasian and Celia, who is African American their lives growing up, the dreams they share and the disappointments they face along the way.
When Celia finds herself pregnant with the child of an abusive boyfriend she turns to Mary for advice.
A coming of age story that depicts the journey of these two girls, how they remain true to each other even through the most difficult of times.
About the Author
Susan was brought up in a small mid western town. The simplicity of living there was an inspiration for her to write this story.
She has always enjoyed writing and since her place of employment, the past twenty years closed, the opportunity to devote the time and effort to fulfill her lifetime ambition to write was finally achievable.
She took an english writing course at the community college where she lives and learned some of the basic skills she needed.
Susan raised her two children in the same small town and now they are grown and have children of their own.