The Street

Earlier that same evening, as Jones stands outside and watches Lutie walk to the bar, Min is “certain that Jones [is]planning some devilment” (113). Though she’s never brought it up, she knows exactly what’s on Jones’ mind, and has seen him watching Lutie walk up the stairs. She knows that Jones will throw her out soon, and is determined to stay. She’s had a string of bad relationships, and with Jones, a man who doesn’t charge her rent and “was fond of her” (117), she has never “been so happy” (117). 

While Jones is out with Bub, Min sneaks into Mrs. Hedges’ apartment. Inside the “comfortable” (118) apartment, Min reveals her worries and asks Mrs. Hedges to recommend a root doctor—a traditional healer and conjurer who uses powders and roots to manipulate the world around them. Mrs. Hedges points Min toward “Prophet David” (122). 

On the bus ride to Prophet David, Min feels a “little guilty” (122). A religious woman, she knows that her church preacher would disapprove. However, she believes that there are “some things the church couldn’t handle” (123), and determinedly enters the dark shop. Inside, she waits with a few other women, still debating if she should follow through with it. This is the “first defiant gesture” (126) she’s ever done, having spent her life following the directions of her white bosses and her abusive husbands.

She finally meets Prophet David, who is “tall” and wearing “a white turban” (129). He listens intently as she describes the situation with Jones, and her insistence on not being thrown out. Prophet David advises her to clean her house “until there isn’t a speck of dirt anywhere” (135), and gives her some powders, candles, and a cross that will protect her from being thrown out.

She leaves satisfied, not just because of the results Prophet David offers, but because of the “quiet way he had listened to her, giving her all of his attention” (136). Min returns home, and Jones immediately notices how she enters with a new  “assurance” (138). Angry at the thought she was with another man, and determined to kick this “smug and satisfied” (139) woman out onto the street, he stops suddenly when he sees the cross from Prophet David hung in the bedroom. Though he’s not religious, the symbol still looms overhead, like an “accusing finger pointing at him” (140). He retreats back to the living room, and Min smiles at the effectiveness of Prophet David’s work.

Lutie approaches the Junto Bar and Grill. Outside, there’s always a crowd, regardless of the season or time of day, a place that’s busy “from the time its doors opened early in the morning until they were firmly shut behind the last drunk the following morning” (142). The Junto serves as a refuge for blacks in Harlem, where they can find companionship, refreshment, or just escape from lonely apartments, when the silence inside was “no longer bearable” (144).

Despite the fact that it’s not in her budget, Lutie orders one beer, then another. She’s not just there for the beer, however. It’s also “the sound of laughter, the hum of talk, the sight of people and brilliant lights” (145). She notices the owner, Old Man Junto, examining her from a back table, his large body seeming “to dominate the whole room” (146). Feeling moved by the beer and the atmosphere, Lutie begins to sing along with a popular song on the jukebox. Her beautiful voice causes everyone around her to stop and listen, and attracts the attention of a man who offers to buy her another drink.

Despite the man’s eyes, which are “so knowing, so hard” (150) and his predatory demeanor, described as being like a “cat slinking through grass” (151), she accepts. This is Boots Smith, a local musician who offers her a chance to try out for his band. She thrills at the chance to land a singing job, which would allow her to get Bub and herself “out of that street” (161).

She agrees to go for a ride in Boots’ fancy car, and they leave the city for the country, where the “buildings loomed darkly” (157) against the sky. Lutie marvels at how fast Boots drives his car, something she believes makes him feel like “a powerful being who could conquer the world” (157). As he races past farms and up mountain roads, she realizes that the powerful vehicle allows Boots to forget “he’s black” (158).

Boots parks the car on a secluded spot overlooking the Hudson River. He attempts to kiss Lutie, who scolds herself for not realizing until now that he simply viewed her as a “pick-up girl” (161). Searching for ways to avoid his “brutal” (161) mouth, she points out the time. Boots curses and starts the car, as he has to be back in New York shortly to work.