Chapter 28 Yes You Can Go Back Home
Upon returning to Washington DC, Emma immediately went back to the same routine of getting up early, cooking breakfast for Missy and then catching the bus to clean someone’s house. This was something that she had been doing for the twelve or so years since Missy had been born and even before when she and Missy’s mother lived in the same public housing unit. The only thing changed was that she now lived in a two bedroom apartment with new paint and new neighbors but other than that nothing much had changed. Well there was one more change. There seemed to be a lot more people just hanging out on the street corner. In the past the drug dealers and others stayed hidden while they waited on the next addict to come and purchase the drugs. Now they were hanging on the corner in full daylight as if they were not afraid of anyone or anything. While this did not frighten Emma, she was very concerned for Missy as she knew only full well how drugs ruined the life of her daughter. After much thought Emma decided that it would be better to rear Missy in Riverside rather than the streets of Washington DC. Emma then called Tom Jr. and told him that she had decided to move back to Riverside but that she could not return until after the end of the school year.
Emma then began to plan for the move back to Riverside. She wondered how it would be to live in Mississippi after living all of her adult life up north. Her memories of Riverside was one where Negroes and Whites were completely separate. Negroes had very little opportunity for economic growth. Emma recognized that things were changing but not quick enough. She knew about the Voting Rights Act, The Civil Rights Act that outlawed segregation however she also knew that there were still problems in Washington DC and it was the capitol city of the United States.
Emma did not know what to really expect in Riverside. While it was the only home she knew outside of Washington DC, she really did not consider it home as she had done nothing to claim it as home. She had been back to Riverside only twice and both times for a funeral, the first her father and the second her mother. In both cases, she had been there no more than 2 days before going back to DC. There were still people who lived there that she knew when she was a young child but she really did not know them as much time had past and she had not stayed in touch.
Emma decided to stay in DC most of the summer so she could work and save as much money as she could. She did not have a job waiting for her in Riverside and really did not have any idea of how she would find work and take care of Missy. She decided that it would be best for Missy and that is the only thing that mattered. At least she had a roof over her head and for the first time it would be her house. Her thoughts kept going back to when she left Riverside and wondered how things would really be once she go there.
August soon came and Emma packed up the little things she had and she and Missy caught the Greyhound bus back to Riverside. Emma thought for a moment how things were changing. First she was able to sit anywhere on the bus. Second she did not have to bring her food on the bus because she could actually buy food at the bus station and eat at the counter. Yes things had changed since she first rode the bus with a greasy brown paper bag with fried chicken. However old habits are hard to break so Emma did have food prepared and packed for the trip. She packed some fried chicken, biscuits and chocolate cake. She also made some ice tea for the trip. Of course her tea was sweet tea. She could never learn how to drink ice tea not sweetened. She remembered the time when she would stand on the side of the road and wave a white handkerchief for the bus to stop. Yes things had changed.
Emma looked at Missy and marveled how excited Missy was to be moving to Riverside. While Missy had never lived in Riverside, Missy was always one looking for new adventures and this was the ultimate adventure for she was going not only to a new city but a new city in a completely different part of the States. While her friends tried to tell her horror stories about Mississippi for the Negro, Missy could only see it as an opportunity as she did most things. Missy was so excited that she did not sleep much on the trip. She played a game trying to guess license plates on cars as the bus passed the cars. To make the game a little harder she decided to also name the state capital for each license plate. She was good at geography as she was in all of her subjects. School came easy for her. She was determined not to ever disappoint her grandmother. Every day her grandmother talked to her about the importance of education.