The Color of Water

by James McBride

It was the first time I remember ever being alone with my mother. It became the high point of my day, a memory so sweet it is burned into my mind like a tattoo, Mommy walking

“God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.”

We did not consider ourselves poor or deprived, or depressed, for the rules of the outside world seemed meaningless to us as children. But as we grew up and fanned out into the world as teenagers and college students, we brought the outside