The Help

by Kathryn Stockett

I was surprise to see the world didn’t stop just cause my boy did.

“Ugly live up on the inside. Ugly be a hurtful, mean person. Is you one a them peoples?”

“Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision.” Constantine was so close, I could see the blackness of her gums. “You gone have to ask yourself, Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?”

All my life I’d been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine’s thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.

You kind, you smart, you important.

“All I’m saying is, kindness don’t have no boundaries.”