The Help

by Kathryn Stockett

but Mae Mobley my special baby.

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?”

Aibileen, she moves on to another job when the babies get too old and stop being color-blind. We don’t talk about it.

I write a short biography of Sarah Ross, the name Aibileen chose, after her sixth-grade teacher who died years ago.

ITS ME

Then the Reverend hands me a box, wrapped in white paper, tied with light blue ribbon, same colors as the book. He lays his hand on it as a blessing. “This one, this is for the white lady. You tell her we love her, like she’s our own family.”

Who knows what I could become, if Leroy would stop goddamn hitting me.