Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands

It’s Christmas time, and the McMahon family Santa is Doto. She brings a trunk full of presents from all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins and one huge gift for the whole family—a television.

Soon though, happiness turns to more sorrow when Sal and Sophia tell the family of the terrible harassment they have received. Threatening phone calls refer to their being Catholic, and someone even threw a rock through their picture window. They announce that they have finally decided to move to be closer to family in Tampa and that they will have to abandon their store, but Warren has an excellent idea. They will open the store up to the community and sell as much as possible at a discount. Warren then plans to ship all their canned goods to Tampa.

Later on, while enjoying their new TV, the family learns that Mr. Harry’s house has been bombed; both he and his wife have died. As Sophia prays and fingers her rosary beads, Reesa is awash in her own very vivid memories of Marvin’s death.

After the bombing of the Moore’s home, Reesa compares the quietness of the Klan to the center of a hurricane. She and her father go to the hardware store to purchase some special electrical fuses that make dynamiting the old orange trees and the palmettos safer. The store owner refuses to sell them any fuses, saying that he no longer carries them and that his purchase records have been confiscated.

A week later, a plain black Ford carrying two White FBI agents with North Florida accents pulls into the yard. They ask to speak with Warren. Very quickly, Warren sizes the men up and believes they have no intention of helping. They ask him general questions about his friendships with the men in the community. Warren answers that they are acquaintances but not friends. Finally the agents ask if he would be willing to talk to their superior, Agent James Jameson. Warren agrees to talk, but only in person. The two agents indicate that Agent Jameson might come there. Reesa believes that the center of the hurricane is past and that more terror is to come.

Once again, Reesa has a vivid memory of Marvin. While all the trouble surrounds her in Florida, she wants to know why she must be polite when she doesn’t feel like it. She flashes back to Marvin, who grins and tells her that she does not know what it’s like to be colored.

The NAACP is holding an emergency meeting that, at the invitation of Mr. Marshall, Armetta attends. In her hands, she holds a bill of rights for colored people drafted by the group. It contains freedoms that every White person takes for granted, like freedom from abuse by the legal authorities, freedom to go to any state-supported school, the right to vote, the right to travel freely, the right to serve unsegregated in the armed forces, and freedom of employment. Reesa admires Armetta’s hope and vigor.

Reesa receives a letter from Vaylie describing her unhappy Christmas. Her parents fought and then passed out from their alcohol and pills. Unhappy with the clothes her mother had bought her, she was happy with the small symbolic box that contained a tiny figure of a horse. It meant that her father had given her a horse of her own.

Reesa tells Vaylie about her mother’s metaphor for life: a card game. God deals the cards and every player receives cards by chance. The cards must be played the best way possible and everyone must wait for their luck to turn. Luck always turns.

Reesa and all her classmates are invited to a George Washington’s birthday pool party at the Garnet house. She doesn’t want to go, but her father insists. Once there, she has a good time playing in the pool and eating the food—fried chicken and baked beans. When it’s time to go, she looks for Lucy Garnet and May Carol. She wants to thank them for their hospitality. She overhears Lucy berating May Carol and slapping her. She opens the door anyway to say thank you. When she goes back out to the pool, the boys are all playing the popular children’s water game Marco Polo, but instead of the normal words, “Marco” and “Polo,” they say, “Nigga’” and “Massa.” Outraged, Reesa grabs the watermelon and hurls it at Randall Holt, May Carol’s cousin, splashing everyone.

When Reesa and her father arrive home, they see a mysterious stranger standing on their porch. Untanned, he looks as if he is not used to the outdoors. He holds a clipboard.