A Short Summary

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It is eleven o'clock at night as a large woman carrying a large purse slung over her shoulder walks down a deserted city street. Suddenly a boy dashed behind her and with one tug jerks the purse from her. Its weight throws him off balance and falls, legs flying up. The woman calmly kicks him.

Pulling the boy up by his shirt and shaking him, the large woman demands him to return her pocketbook. When she asks him if he is ashamed the boy finally speaks. He answers yes and also denies that he meant to snatch her purse. Not deceived, the woman tells him that he lies, discovers that he has no one at home and drags him off. Frightened, the boy begs to be released, but the woman simply announces her name: Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. Now the sweating boy struggles desperately but finds the woman's half nelson difficult to resist.

As they enter her furnished room. The woman leaves the door open. She asks him his name; he replies that it is Roger. Calling him by name, she tells him to wash his face, and then turns him loose – at last. Roger looks at the open door and looks at the large woman; he chooses to wash.

When the woman asks if he took her money because of hunger, the boy replies that he wanted blue suede shoes. The woman only says that she has done things that she would tell no one. Then, leaving him alone by her purse and the open door, she steps behind a screen to warm lima beans and ham on her gas plate. The boy does not run; he does not want to be mistrusted.

While they eat, the woman asks no questions but talks on her work on the late shift at a hotel beauty shop. After they share her small cake, she gives him 10 dollars for some suede blue shoes and asks him to leave because she needs her rest.

The woman leads him to a barren stoop and says that she hopes he behaves himself. He barely manages thank you before she shuts the door. He never seen her again.