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78 all► Zora Neale Hurstonhurting inside so she let it pass without talking. She just measuredout a little time for him and set it aside to wait.It got to be terrible in the store. The more his back ached andhis muscle dissolved into fat and the fat melted off his bones, themore fractious he became with Janie. Especially in the store. Themore people in there the more ridicule he poured over her bodyto point attention away from his own. So one day Steve Mixonwanted some chewing tobacco and Janie cut it wrong. She hatedthat tobacco knife anyway. It worked very stiff. She fumbled withthe thing and cut way away from the mark. Mixon didn't mind.He held it up for a joke to tease Janie a little."Looka heah, Brother Mayor, whut yo' wife done took anddone." It was cut comical, so everybody laughed at it. "Uh womanand uh knife—no kind of uh knife, don't b'long tuhgether." Therewas some more good-natured laughter at the expense of women.Jody didn't laugh. He hurried across from the post office sideand took the plug of tobacco away from Mixon and cut it again.Cut it exactly on the mark and glared at Janie."I god amighty! A woman stay round uh store till she get oldas Methusalem and still can't cut a little thing like a plug oftobacco! Don't stand dere rollin' yo' pop eyes at me wid yo'rump hangin' nearly to yo' knees!"A big laugh started off in the store but people got to thinkingand stopped. It was funny if you looked at it right quick, butit got pitiful if you thought about it awhile. It was like somebodysnatched off part of a woman's clothes while she wasn't lookingand the streets were crowded. Then too, Janie took the middle ofthe floor to talk right into Jody's face, and that was somethingthat hadn't been done before."Stop mixin' up mah doings wid mah looks, Jody. When yougit through tellin' me how tuh cut uh plug uh tobacco, then youkin tell me whether mah behind is on straight or not."