The Sky Is Gray

“The Sky is Gray” by African American writer Ernest J. Gaines is a short story within the collection Bloodline: Five Stories, first published in Negro Digest in August 1963 and in the collection in 1968. Gaines is best-known for his novel, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, published in 1971 and adapted into a television movie starring Cicely Tyson in 1974. Gaines is the winner of numerous awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (1993) for his novel A Lesson Before Dying. In the same year, he won a MacArthur Fellowship.

James, the story’s protagonist, is waiting for the bus with his mother, Octavia. His tooth aches, though he pretends that the pain isn’t as bad as it is so that he’ll not appear weak. The bus will take them to Dr. Bassett’s office, a dentist in Bayonne who accepts Black patients and charges them rates they can afford. Before they agreed to go to the dentist, James tried to hide his pain, knowing that his family didn’t have the money to send him to the dentist. His aunt found him out and sent for Monsieur Bayonne, a local folk medicine doctor, who mashed on James’s jaw and said Catholic prayers. The pain subsided for a while but returned after a short rabbit-hunting trip.

While waiting for the bus, James recalls when his mother forced him to kill his and Ty’s pet redbirds so that the family could eat supper. It pained him to kill the tiny birds, more than the beatings from his mother for initially refusing to obey. James was only eight years old at the time. He didn’t understand why he had to kill the birds, though he now understands. The meat on the tiny birds provided only a morsel for each member of the family of four.

When the bus approaches, James pulls out his handkerchief to wave it down. He and Octavia get on. She instructs him to move to the back of the bus while she pays. He sees the signs indicating a White section and a Black section. There’s only one seat in the Black section, and he reserves it for his mother. James notices a girl in “a red overcoat” sitting across from him (90). He shyly smiles at her, but she haughtily turns away, prompting him to pretend to ignore her. He looks instead at the river, which appears gray. He watches the “pool-doos” (birds) float along the waves. Meanwhile, the little girl’s mother teases her about having a crush on James. The little girl loudly and angrily protests that she doesn’t, which prompts James to dismiss her in kind. Their quarrel causes the other bus passengers to laugh. The bus then arrives in Bayonne. James and his mother disembark.

While walking to the dentist’s office, James and Octavia pass a school. James sees children playing on the playground. His mother tells him to look forward. When they pass the courthouse, James notices that the flag waving out front has fewer stars than the one at his school, which has “one for every state” (93). When they arrive at the office, they go into the waiting room, where James hears a child named John Lee Williams yelling in pain. A woman waiting asks why God would allow a child to suffer like that. A preacher sitting nearby replies that it isn’t for them to question God. The woman replies that the dentist, Dr. Bassett, simply isn’t very good, but that most Black people in the area can’t afford Dr. Robillard, who treats mostly White patients.

A young man sitting in the waiting room and reading a book speaks up. He says that the problem with Black people in the country today is that they don’t question enough. He then questions the existence of God, which infuriates the preacher. The young man goes on to say that the preacher only believes in God because a White man told him so to keep him ignorant and submissive. The preacher gets up, walks over to the young man, and slaps him in the face. The young man offers his other cheek. The preacher hits him there, too. The preacher then excuses himself and leaves. The young man resumes reading his book.

The lady who took pity on John Lee asks the young man why he doesn’t believe in God. He reiterates that he can’t believe in God because he can’t be certain of God’s existence. Furthermore, what people say doesn’t matter—only action does. Action and thought, not feeling, he insists, are the only ways for Black people to improve their lot. The young man admits, though, that he was born too late to have faith in much of anything. He hopes that the generation after him will believe in something, if not in the lady’s God then, at least, in something else “they can lean on” (102).

The nurse comes into the waiting room and says that the doctor will not take any more patients until one o’clock in the afternoon. Octavia jumps up and says that she has to return to the cotton field to work, but the nurse refuses to allow James to see the doctor. James and his mother go back outside. They wander around town. James notices a boy with brown shoes, which makes him think of his own rundown shoes. He won’t get a new pair until summer. They then walk by “a café where [White people are] eating” (103). His mother again tells him to keep looking ahead. They pass another café, which is also Whites-only. They go into a hardware store, where Octavia requests axe handles. She decides against buying any and they walk back out into the cold. James’s stomach is growling loudly, but they keep walking.

At the courthouse, he sees that it’s nearly noon. James’s mother knows he’s hungry, though he pretends otherwise. She gives him the choice between eating and walking back to the plantation, or riding the bus and not eating. James thinks about how the others back home are probably “eating dinner now” (106). The sleet starts to fall, and James prays not to die.

James and his mother walk back to the Black neighborhood of Bayonne and into a café. James stands beside the heater to warm his hands. His mother has only three dollars, some of which must go toward getting James’s tooth pulled and to buying “fifty cents worth of salt meat” (109). To avoid spending money on food, James again insists that he isn’t hungry. However, Octavia hands the woman behind the counter a quarter anyway for access to the café’s heat. The lady gives Octavia and James some cakes. A man who has been sitting nearby invites Octavia to dance with him; she pushes him away and bears her knife in case he wants to fight. The lady behind the counter facetiously calls the small man a “pimp” and laughs at him.

James and Octavia go back out into the cold. James thinks of the Edgar Allan Poe poem “Annabel Lee” while he walks to avoid thinking of the cold. Due to the weather, he has missed a lot of school and wonders what the other children are now studying. When they turn a corner, a small, old White woman stops them and asks if they’ve eaten. Octavia says they have and are now going to the dentist. The woman, whose name is Helena, insists that they come into her store to eat. She was watching James and Octavia walk in the cold and was trying to catch them. When they enter the store, Helena says that she’s been keeping food warm. Octavia turns to leave. Helena then says that she’ll need James’s help with moving trash bins in exchange for the food because her husband, Ernest, is too sick to do it. James carries the cans to the front, but they feel light enough to be empty. When he finishes, he goes to the bathroom to wash his hands, but he doesn’t dry them on the old woman’s towels.

When James goes into the kitchen, he sees that the old lady has dished out rice, gravy, and meat. She’s also prepared a salad, cake, and a glass of milk for James. Octavia eats slowly, as though deep in thought. After they eat, they prepare to leave. Ernest says goodbye from a back room. Octavia asks if Helena sells salt meat. Helena cuts off a piece, but Octavia says that it’s too much for the quarter that she can offer in payment. Helena protests, but Octavia insists that she weigh the meat. When she refuses, Octavia turns to leave again. Helena relents and then cuts about half a piece off before putting it back in the bag. Octavia thanks Helena for her kindness and leaves the quarter on her counter.

James and Octavia go back outside. Now, the sleet is coming down hard. James turns his collar up, but his mother insists that he turn it back down, telling him that he’s a man, “not a bum” (116).