Tulsa Burning by Anna Myers

Author:Anna Myers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2009-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

I JUST NEVER DID FEEL the same inside after we went up in that airplane with Basil Bailey. I'd walk around Wekiwa looking at things like the street or the blacksmith shop, and I got to studying about how pretty things looked from up there. And then, of course, there was that kiss. I spent me some real nice times thinking about that kiss.

Sure. I had not forgot what Cinda said about me not being her beau. But that kiss was real, and it was her idea. There was flyers around town about how Basil was aiming to be back in town on June 2. I'd have me a payday by then, and I knew what I'd do with the money. I forgot all about saving for my escape. I'd use the money for an airplane ride for Cinda. I might ask Daisy about an advance on my wages, so that I'd have enough for me too.

It had been three days since the ride, and I was still feeling like I was walking in high cotton. The Café was open late on the last night of May because it was Tuesday, and the railroad men always came in for supper on Tuesday night.

As soon as I got out the front door of the sheriff's house, I started to whistle, "You Are My Sunshine." Most times I went around to the back door of the restaurant, but I just went in the front, sort of wanting to see the folks who were eating from the dishes I'd be washing in a few minutes.

My whistling stopped when I opened the front door and saw Sheriff Leonard. He had been at his house having his supper with Mrs. Leonard just a few minutes earlier, but now he was having pie while Charlie Carson from the bank ate roast beef. There was another man with them, but I didn't know him.

I just nodded to Daisy and was about to go through the swinging doors when Preacher Jackson busted through the front doors. His face was red, and his hair was wild.

"War's broke out in Tulsa!" he yelled, and he leaned against the counter like he'd run the whole twelve miles from there.

"Mercy," said Daisy. "Don't tell us the Germans have attacked Tulsa!"

The preacher shook his head, but he didn't say anything for a minute, just breathed heavy. Finally he was able to talk. "It wasn't the Germans," he said. "It's the colored people and the white people fighting each other. They're burning the town."

Sheriff Leonard jumped up, and he had his hand on his gun. "The damn coloreds are setting fire to Tulsa?" he yelled.

"No," said the preacher. "It's the whites that are doing the burning."

"Well," said the sheriff, "they're bound to have good reason. The coloreds must of got out of hand, else the whites wouldn't have to put them in their place."

The preacher wiped his face with a bandanna. "I was there when it started. A colored boy was arrested yesterday because a white woman claimed he grabbed her in the elevator where she worked.

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