A New Beginning: My Journey with Addy

On our way home, we pass a small building with a painted sign that reads “Children’s Theater.” I open the door and crane my neck inside. A puppet show is starting, and I beg Addy to come watch it with me.

Addy hangs back, saying slowly that a show like this may not be for us. I spot a flyer on the wall announcing the show is free for children, and that’s enough for her to follow me in, though she still seems unsure.

Inside, the theater is dim and packed. Children and adults crowd around a small raised stage while someone plays a banjo alongside the puppets. Addy and I stand on tiptoe, straining to see over the crowd, until she finds us a spot with a better view. We are about to sit down when a woman in an ugly hat taps my shoulder and tells me I don’t belong here. When I point out that the show is free, Addy leans in and whispers that the woman means Colored people aren’t allowed. I ask Addy why, and she only shrugs and repeats that we just aren’t. The woman warns us to leave before there is trouble, and her eyes stay fixed on us as we edge toward the door.

Then a couple of children dash past, and the woman marches off after them, her attention gone already. I tell Addy that it’s our chance to go around to the other side. Addy murmurs that maybe we should just leave and go find Sarah instead. If she’s done helping her momma, we can jumping rope. That does sound like fun. But nothing on that flyer said we could not watch from somewhere else in the theater, and this woman might not even be in charge.