Jeffrey first meets Amanda in East End. The town of Two
Mills is "pretty much divided...the East End (is) blacks, the West End (is) whites."
Because Jeffrey is white, Amanda comments that he "can't even be (there)." Although
Amanda herself is not at all a bigot, she has grown up in a segregated environment, and
makes the observation just as a matter of fact.
When
Jeffrey runs into Amanda, he is fascinated by the big bag of books she carries around.
He begs to borrow one, promising to return it to her at her house. When he asks Amanda
what her address is, she tells him, but also says, "But you can't
come there. You can't even be here." Amanda, who has not often seen
white people on the black side of town, is at first a little suspicious at seeing
Jeffrey, a white boy and a stranger. Her natural friendliness quickly trumps the
unexamined conventions of her environment, however, and she stops to talk to him,
treating him as just another kid. Amanda's mother exhibits the same sense of tolerance
and "color-blindness," and does not hesitate to offer Jeffrey a home with the Beale
family.
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