Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered

234/260The court set and Janie saw the judge who had put on a great robeto listen about her and Tea Cake. And twelve more white men hadstopped whatever they were doing to listen and pass on whathappened between Janie and Tea Cake Woods, and as to whetherthings were done right or not. That was funny too. Twelve strange menwho didn’t know a thing about people like Tea Cake and her were goingto sit on the thing. Eight or ten white women had come to look ather too. They wore good clothes and had the pinky color that comes ofgood food. They were nobody’s poor white folks. What need had theyto leave their richness to come look on Janie in her overalls? But theydidn’t seem too mad, Janie thought. It would be nice if she could makethem know how it was instead of those menfolks. Oh, and she hopedthat undertaker was fixing Tea Cake up fine. They ought to let her gosee about it. Yes, and there was Mr. Prescott that she knew right welland he was going to tell the twelve men to kill her for shooting TeaCake. And a strange man from Palm Beach who was going to ask themnot to kill her, and none of them knew.Then she saw all of the colored people standing up in the back ofthe courtroom. Packed tight like a case of celery, only much darkerthan that. They were all against her, she could see. So many were thereagainst her that a light slap from each one of them would have beather to death. She felt them pelting her with dirty thoughts. They werethere with their tongues cocked and loaded, the only real weapon leftto weak folks. The only killing tool they are allowed to use in the presenceof white folks.So it was all ready after a while and they wanted people to talk sothat they could know what was right to do about Janie Woods, the relicof Tea Cake’s Janie. The white part of the room got calmer the moreserious it got, but a tongue storm struck the Negroes like wind amongpalm trees. They talked all of a sudden and all together like a choir andthe top parts of their bodies moved on the rhythm of it. They sent