Sophie 

he only came to our house on Friday’s. It was the only day she was able to leave my grandparent’s mansion with all of its rooms and hidden staircases that included the one off the kitchen that led to the third floor where I was never supposed to go ‘cause that’s where Sophie lived.

Sophie was my grandparent’s maid, cook, housekeeper and nanny to my father when he was a child. And as far as I know she had always lived in the room on the third floor.

By Friday she had finished cleaning “the big house” and could catch the number seven bus that would take her the couple of miles up the road to where my family lived. I can remember seeing her walking up from the bus stop on the corner caring that brown grocery bag by its paper loop handles. It seemed like it was so full of stuff that it was gonna burst as it almost dragged along the concrete sidewalk. I never did get to see what she had in that bag ‘cause the school bus managed to pick me up just about the time she had reached our house. By the time I got home Sophie had just about finished cleaning and was running the vacuum.

She always sang when she worked. I used to like to hear her sing, especially that song, the one she called “Hold Your Light.” When she got to the part where they sang people names she would always look right at me and sing, “Hold your Light brother Rodney. Hold your Light.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant but I had a pretty good idea it had something to do with how I was made. If you know what I mean-

Sophie

hursdays, on the way home from school, the bus never let me off at my house. My parents told the driver not to ‘cause neither one of them were there; so, instead I got off in front of my grandparents mansion. Well it really wasn’t a mansion but it seemed that way to me.

There were so many rooms and hidden stairways that I loved to explore when my grandmother wasn’t watching. See, I wasn’t supposed to be anywhere but on the first floor where the living room, dining room, kitchen and front sun room were. But it was boring sitting there on all of that fancy furniture and looking at all the stuff sitting on the tables and hanging on the walls that I was never suppose to touch. So after about ten minutes I was ready to explore and would wait for my grandmother to get on the telephone or be doing something else that would take her out of the room. As soon as she’d be gone for more than thirty seconds I’d be out of my seat and climbing some stairway that would take me to another part of the house.

I had to make sure that where ever I went I had a route planned that would take me either past the bathroom or through the kitchen. ‘Cause that way whenever my grandmother would start calling me I could tell her I had gone to the bathroom or into the kitchen. It worked every time. She never knew about all the places I went where I wasn’t suppose to be. But Sophie knew. I would always see her laughing when I’d come running from where ever I had gone and then slow down to a walk when I got into the room where my grandmother was.

One time my grandmother was talking for so long on the phone that I made it all the way to the one place I was never supposed to go, the third floor where Sophie lived. The door at the top of the steps was closed, but I could see in some through the glass in the top part. It looked kinda small but real clean and neat just the way she kept my grandparents house.

Now, Sophie never told me not to go to the third floor it was my grandmother. She was the one with all the money, well her family was, and she didn’t want her grandson associating with the help, especially since she was colored.

My grandmother never called the colored by any other name and I was taught it “wasn’t nice” to use any of the other words I heard some people call them. But you know what? Besides for not calling them anything but colored she didn’t treat the colored any different than the people who called them the names I wasn’t suppose to use. I didn’t think it was right, the way she treated Sophie. It made me want to go to the third floor even more. I wanted to tell Sophie just how I felt and especially I wanted to tell her how much I liked it when she sang to me. But I never got the chance.