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

117/260This was the first time it happened, but after a while it got so commonshe ceased to be surprised. It was like a drug. In a way it wasgood because it reconciled her to things. She got so she received allthings with the stolidness of the earth which soaks up urine and perfumewith the same indifference.One day she noticed that Joe didn’t sit down. He just stood in frontof a chair and fell in it. That made her look at him all over. Joe wasn’tso young as he used to be. There was already something dead abouthim. He didn’t rear back in his knees any longer. He squatted over hisankles when he walked. That stillness at the back of his neck. Hisprosperous-looking belly that used to thrust out so pugnaciously andintimidate folks, sagged like a load suspended from his loins. It didn’tseem to be a part of him anymore. Eyes a little absent too.Jody must have noticed it too. Maybe, he had seen it long beforeJanie did, and had been fearing for her to see. Because he began totalk about her age all the time, as if he didn’t want her to stay youngwhile he grew old. It was always “You oughta throw somethin’ over yo’shoulders befo’ you go outside. You ain’t no young pullet no mo’.You’se uh ole hen now.” One day he called her off the croquet grounds.“Dat’s somethin’ for de young folks, Janie, you out dere jumpin’ roundand won’t be able tuh git out de bed tuhmorrer.” If he thought to deceiveher, he was wrong. For the first time she could see a man’s headnaked of its skull. Saw the cunning thoughts race in and out throughthe caves and promontories of his mind long before they darted out ofthe tunnel of his mouth. She saw he was hurting inside so she let itpass without talking. She just measured out a little time for him andset it aside to wait.It got to be terrible in the store. The more his back ached and hismuscle dissolved into fat and the fat melted off his bones, the morefractious he became with Janie. Especially in the store. The more