When she reads aloud in class, the young Zora Neale Thurston displays confidence, fearlessness, and joy.

In the book, Zora relates that Caucasian visitors often dropped in on her African-American school. The visitors often stayed to watch the children in their classroom. Zora maintains that the visitors were always kind but speculates that they must have also come to satisfy their curiosity.

On one particular afternoon, two young ladies came to watch while the children in Zora's class read aloud to their teacher, Mr. Calhoun. Zora relates that the children were reading from one of her favorite Greco-Roman stories that day: the myth of Pluto and Persephone. Because Zora knew the story well and was fluent in English, she took the opportunity to observe the female visitors. Zora tells us that she was most fascinated by the ladies' long, thin, white fingers. Additionally, the tips of their fingers were baby pink, which was a fascinating discovery for Zora.

Eventually, Zora stood up to read, and she read so well that Mr. Calhoun didn't stop her after her paragraph. Instead, he signaled her to continue until the end. Zora's confident and eloquent reading so impressed the female visitors that Mr. Calhoun called Zora up to shake hands with them after class.