Read Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself for Free Online Page A

her own seat.
    “What were you doing over there?” Mom asked.
    “Playing with the baby.”
    “You shouldn’t be bothering them.”
    “I wasn’t … I was helping …”
    “From now on just stay in your own seat and read a book or something … it’s almost time for dinner.”
    “Okay …” Sally said.
    They ate in the dining car, and after took a walk to the club car, where they played checkers. Then it was time to get ready for bed. Sally, Mom and Ma Fanny changed into night clothes in the Ladies’Room and when Sally brushed her teeth Mom warned her not to put her mouth on the fountain when she rinsed. “You could get
trench mouth
that way, God forbid.” Sally was careful.
    There were sleeping compartments on
The Champion
but Sally and her family slept right in their seats. The porter gave them each a pillow and a blanket and showed them how to tilt their chairs way back. The lights in the car dimmed and the steady rhythm of the train soon put Sally to sleep.
    She half awoke sometime in the middle of the night, vaguely aware that the train had stopped and that Ma Fanny was snoring softly.
    In the morning Loreen and her family were gone. “But they’re going to Miami too,” Sally said. “Mrs. Williamson told me.”
    “They had to change cars,” Mom said.
    “But why?”
    “Because they’re Negro.”
    “So?”
    “We’re in a different part of the country now, Sally … and colored people don’t ride with white people here.”
    “That’s not fair.”
    “Maybe not … but that’s the way it is.”
    Sally was bored without Loreen, and angry that Mom didn’t seem to care that the Williamsons had to change cars. The day dragged on and on. Breakfastturned into lunch and lunch turned into supper. Douglas kept pointing out the change in the scenery. They had to be getting close, he said. There were palm trees everywhere. Sally was tired of just sitting. She wished she could get off the train and run around.
    Finally the conductor called, “Next stop … Miami … Miami, Florida …”
    Finally they were there.
    Sally stepped off the train, stretched, and yawned loudly. Now her adventure would begin. But what did that mean? Maybe I don’t want an adventure, Sally thought. Maybe I’d just rather go home. Her stomach rolled over, and tears came to her eyes. “I want to go home,” she said, but no one heard. They were too busy trying to find a porter.

They took a taxi to 1330 Pennsylvania Avenue, a pink stucco, U-shaped building, with a goldfish pool in front. Their apartment was ugly. Ugly and bare and damp. Mom opened the windows while Sally went looking for the bedrooms, but all she could find was a tiny kitchen, a breakfast nook, a bathroom and an alcove.
    “I thought you said this place was interesting,” Sally said to her mother.
    “And it is,” Mom answered. “Look at this …” Sally followed her into the alcove and watched as Mom opened a door in the wall and pulled down a bed. “You see … it fits right into the wall … it’s called a Murphy bed … isn’t that clever … and interesting?” But she didn’t sound as if she really thought so herself.
    “Who sleeps on that?”
    “Me and Ma Fanny,” Mom said. “You and Douglas get the day beds in the livingroom.
    “You and Ma Fanny are going to sleep together … in the same bed?”
    “Why not?” Ma Fanny asked. “I don’t take up much room.”
    “But what about when Daddy comes?”
    “Oh, well … when Daddy comes Ma Fanny will sleep on the bed that’s tucked away
under
your day bed. We have plenty of room … plenty …” Mom brushed some loose hairs away from her forehead.
    Sally thought of the four big bedrooms in her house in New Jersey. Of her own room with twin beds so she could have friends sleep overnight. And then she remembered how Christine had said that only millionaires spend the winter in Florida and she felt like laughing, not because it was funny but because if Christine