8
Though her shoes were two sizes too big for my feet, Joyce would stuff the toes with paper and cotton to make them fit, and I looked older than my eleven years, in those beautiful, shiny shoes, with the half-heels and two rhinestone-bows clipped to the front rims.
Without intending to, my mother had supplied me with a plan! In a flash, I put the school shoes on and dashed to the church. I would wear the shoes to the edge of the church-yard, remove them when I got there and hide them in the baptismal pool, which would be dry that Sunday.
But when I tried to enter church, one of the deacons was there.
“Hey...! Hold on, there, daughter! Where you think you going? Where your shoes at? You can’t come in here with your feet naked like that! Go back home and get your shoes!”
“Will you call Sister Quinn for me...?” I pleaded.
“Sister Quinn busy...”
When I heard the piano striking up the chords to my song, and Mozella’s voice singing it, I called out, “Sister Quinn, I’m here! Come get me! I know the song, just like we practiced it!“
The deacon got distracted momentarily, and I tried to dash past him. But his long arms roped me up in one quick action and set me back outside the door.
“Now, look-a here, daughter! You can’t get past me! I done told you, you can’t come in here without no shoes!”
“What’s going on out here?” Sister Quinn had heard me and had come to the door.
“Look-a here how this girl trying to come in this church...!”
“Please, Sister Quinn! Just let me talk to you!”
“What’s the matter, Addie? What happened?”
“I wanna tell you the truth, Sister Quinn. Just let me talk to you and tell you the truth!”
“Well, all right, Addie! Of course, you can tell me the truth! Deacon Bryant,
will you please go get Pastor for me?”