My Synopsis of “Thank you, Ma’am”

It is almost midnight sky as a large woman carrying a large purse slung over her shoulder walks
down a deserted city street. Suddenly a boy who is also burning the midnight oil dashes behind
her. And, with one tug, zap, jerks the bag from her. Its weight throws him off balance, and he
falls, legs flying up like a swing. The woman calmly kicks him. It was like he was drowning in a
sea of his own despair. Dragging the boy up by his shirt and shaking him, the woman demands
that he return her pocketbook. When she asks if he is ashamed, the boy finally speaks. Roger
admits that he does. Mrs. Jones notices that his face is dirty and his hair is uncombed as grubby
as a nest; she asks if anyone is looking after him. When he answers 'no', she drags him home
with her, saying when she's finished with him, he'll be sure never to forget he met her.

The boy begs to be released, but the woman announces her name: Mrs. Luella Bates Washington
Jones. As they enter her furnished room, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones leaves the door
open. She asks the boy’s name; he replies that it is Roger. Calling him by name, she tells him to
wash his face, 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 taken with a grain of salt.

Mrs. Jones explains to Roger that she was young once, too, and couldn't afford the things she
wanted. Like the teenage boy, she confides that she used to do some pretty shameful things, too.
While they eat, the woman asks no questions but talks of her childhood story and job on the late
shift at a hotel beauty shop. After they share her small cake, she gives the boy ten dollars for
some blue suede shoes and asks him to leave because she needs rest. Mrs. Luella Bates
Washington Jones leads Roger to the barren stoop and says that she hopes he behaves himself.
His heart was as heavy as lead, weighed down by the memory of what he’d done. He barely
manages to say thank you before the large woman closes the door and never sees the woman
again.