Study Questions

1. What is the saying among Black Americans which describes Momma’s secretiveness?

2. What plan did Momma make when Bailey came home with his story of the body?

3. Where did Mrs. Henderson get the material to make Marguerite’s new clothes?

4. What did Bailey do with the body?

5. How did Uncle Willie respond to Bailey’s story?

6. How did Momma respond to Bailey’s story?

7. Why did Marguerite think that they were going to California?

8. What two promises did Marguerite make to Bailey?

9. How did they get the transportation to California?

10. Who would go to California first?

Answers

1. “If you ask a Negro where he’s been, he’ll tell you where he’s going.”

2. Mrs. Henderson began to plan to take the children to California.

3. Mrs. Henderson got the material for the clothes for Marguerite from the trunks of neighbors who had the material packed away for a long time.

4. Bailey helped carry the body in the calaboose.

5. Uncle Willie responded that he did not know “what the world was coming to.”

6. Momma prayed. Her prayer this time was, “God rest his soul, poor man.

7. Marguerite thought the finding of the body was the real reason for the trip to California. She thought their grandmother was getting them away from a volatile situation.

8. One promise was that she would not allow him to be buried without making sure that he was dead and the other was that Marguerite would not disturb Bailey when “his soul was sleeping.”

9. Momma traded groceries for a pass on the railroad.

10. Momma and Marguerite would go to California first. Bailey would follow later.