Fire from the Rock by Sharon Draper

Author:Sharon Draper
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2010-02-28T22:00:00+00:00

SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1957

Sylvia was in a good mood. Reggie had called her earlier in the day and they had talked for about fifteen minutes— about nothing, really, but everything he said made her laugh, even the alligator and crocodile stuff. He didn’t argue this time about Central or integration or any of the racial issues that Gary seemed to be always angry about. Sylvia didn’t like the fact that Reggie kept hanging out with Gary and the older boys, but she said nothing because she hated arguing with him. She was relieved that the Candy crisis seemed to be over.

The sun was out, making it look like spring might decide to show up after all. Sylvia had changed the sheets on her bed, and Donna Jean’s as well, and everything in her room smelled fresh and clean. The radio blasted as loud as she dared, and she hummed along with the songs she knew. Donna Jean was spending the afternoon with the little girls from next door; Gary had disappeared to one of his political activist meetings, and her father had gone to the brickyard to put in a few hours.

Thinking of Reggie, she strolled down the stairs and into the kitchen loudly singing the end of her favorite song, “... that you’ll always be there at the end of my prayer!”

“What kind of song is that about praying, Sylvie?” her mother asked. “It sounds more like a love song than a church song.”

“Isn’t it all right to pray about love, Mama?” Sylvia asked with a grin on her face.

Mama and Aunt Bessie were sipping tea and pasting green stamps into books. Both of them looked at Sylvia as if she had lost her mind.

“What do you know about love, child?” Aunt Bessie asked.

“It’s just a song called ‘My Prayer,’ Aunt Bessie. It’s by The Platters,” Sylvia answered defensively. “All the kids at school think they’re the most.”

“The most what?” Mama asked with a laugh.

“You know, they dig them—they think they’re really cool.” Sylvia smiled to herself, knowing her mother and Bessie just didn’t get it.

“You better not let your daddy hear you talk that foolish slang talk or sing those love songs. If it’s not a hymn or spiritual, you know he’ll call it a sin.”

“Daddy thinks everything fun is a sin,” Sylvia replied in exasperation.

“Probably is.” Aunt Bessie chuckled as she sipped her tea. “You ought to hear some of the stories from the women in my shop as I do their hair. Oh, yeah. The most dangerous fun is big-time sin.”

Sylvia’s mother gave a warning look to her sister, then said to Sylvia, “You want to help?” She offered her a pile of green stamps. Mama brought them home from the grocery store and saved them to redeem them in books. When the books were full, they could be redeemed for gifts and prizes. “Glory streams from the table of daily life,” her mother said cryptically.

Rarely did Sylvia completely understand what her mother meant when she quoted those sayings of hers.

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