The Progress of Our People: a Story of Black Representation at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair by Anne E. Johnson

Author:Anne E. Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: North Star Editions
Published: 2021-07-19T20:59:46+00:00

Lorraine ignored her. “Just tell us where and when. And you have to pay us fifty cents.”

“Jerry,” said the shorter one, “this is too good to pass up. Your dad was going to pay us thirty cents each. If these strange girls want to paint the fence, we don’t have to do it, and we still get ten cents each.”

“Actually it’s ten—”

“Shh!” Lorraine hissed at Mimi, worried that her math skills would end up reducing their wages. To the boys she said, “Tell us where and when.”

“We were going to paint it while my dad’s at work on Monday,” Jerry said. “It’s on Thirty-First Street and State. Can’t miss it. It’s the only house with a fence. I can’t believe you want to do this.”

“We’ll be there. But you pay us when we show up. I don’t trust you to pay us after we’re done.”

“Where are we supposed to get fifty cents?” Jerry asked.

Lorraine shrugged as she and Mimi walked away. “You’ll figure it out.”

“What have you gotten me into?” Mimi asked as they entered Miss Kerry’s classroom.

“I’m not sure,” said Lorraine, “but wear your oldest dress and bring one of your father’s old long-tail shirts to wear over your dress as a smock. This could get messy.”

“The Ferris Wheel,” sighed Lorraine. “Oh, how I hope we get a chance to ride it!”

She and Mimi were in Lorraine’s room, trying to clean white paint off their faces and hands. Mrs. Dupré had given them the idea to wear scruffy, torn pants and shirts that her husband kept around, rather than dresses, so at least they weren’t faced with cleaning their clothes. After finishing the job, they’d run all the way back to Lorraine’s apartment, panting and giggling.

“I got some on my shoe,” Mimi complained.

“You’ll start a new fashion,” Lorraine said. “Anyway, what do you most want to see if we go back to the Expo?”

“Probably the volcano,” said Mimi. “And you mean when we go back, not if. It’s looking like we’ll make a total of seventy cents for childcare. We just got fifty more. That’s a dollar twenty. We’re more than halfway there.”

“Yes, because now we only need . . .” Lorraine paused, hoping Mimi would jump in with the answer.

“Eighty cents, silly.”

“Exactly right. Know any others who need their fences painted? Or maybe we could start tarring roofs.” They fell backward onto Lorraine’s bed, laughing. “Seriously, though, who would hire us?”

“Someone with money.” Mimi groaned. “Nobody around here has money.”

Sitting bolt upright, Lorraine gasped. “That’s it! We should go to the Loop, where all the fancy people live. They have all the money!”

“We don’t know anybody in the Loop. What are we supposed to do, dance on the sidewalk and hold out a hat?” To demonstrate, Mimi did an energetic solo version of the two-step, a popular ballroom dance. Kids at school learned it from their older siblings and showed it off in the corridors, which usually landed them in the principal’s office.

“A thousand dollars,” Lorraine quipped. “That’s how much we’ll earn if you do that dance in front of rich people.

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