The Magnolia Girls: Meet Maggie and Sarah

This scene is not featured in the novel. It’s written just for you. Enjoy!

1926
Alamance County, North Carolina

Maggie came skipping into the kitchen, stopping short when Dot emerged from the pantry, her apron filled with ingredients for dinner. Maggie had only seen her once before, when she came to be interviewed for the maid’s position. On the farm, there were always people coming and going, new and familiar, but as Maggie stood on her tiptoes and reached for a biscuit off the counter, she decided she had a good feeling about Dot. 

Maggie said nothing to Dot, who seemed preoccupied with learning her way around. Maggie headed toward the living room, taking a crumbly bite of biscuit, and groaned with joy.

Yes, I definitely like Dot.

There, hunched on a stool in the corner of the room, sat a little girl, her black hair pulled tight back into a short, poofy ponytail. The book she had been reading fell to the floor as their eyes met. Maggie had never seen a colored person read before.

She must be faking.

“Who are you?”

“Sarah.”

“What are you doing here?”

“My Mamma come to work for you.”

“Dot’s your Mamma?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. I’m Maggie and I’m six! How old are you?”

“Eight.”

“Oh. Okay. Want to come see my room?”

“No, missus, I shouldn’t.”

“Oh. Well, want me to show you around the house?”

“No, missus, I don’t think that’d be proper.”

“Well…wanna go play outside? I know a place, a magnolia tree, so big it touches the ground!”  

“Well…okay.”

When Maggie and Sarah meet as children, they have no idea the impact their friendship will have on them or their world. They are both trapped by the societal walls between them, looking for a bridge but finding only a narrow window, a crack in an otherwise well-fortified barrier. 

Maggie, a lonely only child, the white daughter of an up-and-coming tobacco farmer, spends her days under the tongue lashings of her unhappy mother. She is just beginning to imagine an escape to a place that doesn’t mind her questions and spunk. But the rules that suffocate her are also her security, and security is a good thing, right?

Sarah, still grieving the loss of her father and the stability she once knew, finds herself in a white family’s home that feels anything but safe. Where once she ran the fields of her family’s farm, deeply loved and unaware of the world’s cruelty, she now wonders if life will ever feel good again.

And yet, as Maggie and Sarah sneak off into the trees that day, subtle smiles playing on their faces, walls begin to crumble.