Out From This Place (16 page)

“Something's alive under this seat! James!” she yelled out of the window.

Easter was getting angry with James and Julius—Julius for taking up needed space and James for piling people in the carriage so that he could make as much money as possible. Julius checked the seat as the woman leaned out of the window, still yelling for James. “You should be paying
us
to ride in this thing,” she shouted.

Julius found the culprit—a spring poking out of the leather.

“Seem like she have enough rump back there to cushion that,” the woman across from Easter whispered.

That school teacher goin' back to Philadelphia if we take her home in this confusion, Easter thought.

James stopped the carriage, and the woman got out and climbed up to sit next to him. Easter was relieved; she carefully stayed away from the lively spring.

They reached Elenaville and went straight to the dock. While James fed his horses, Easter found a shady spot under a live oak tree. Julius walked over to her and sat down. “Easter,” he said, flashing a wide smile, “there's something I want to ask you.”

She knew what was coming. He'd been buzzing around her ever since he'd come home from the army.

“I want you to marry me, Easter. I a hardworking man, not like some of these lazy scamps.”

She sighed and stared at her scratched hands. “I have to find Obi.”

“Where you findin' him? Why you not lookin' for him now?”

“I helpin' Rose. I can't look for him yet.”

“I wonder if he tryin' to find you?” Julius's face was serious now, the high cheekbones sharp and slightly glistening with moisture.

“He is lookin' for me.”

“Don't you want your own family? A real family?”

“Obi and Jason my family.”

“Jason not your child. How about your own child, and me for a husband? And a farm we all own. How about that?”

It made sense. What a woman should want. But suppose she did marry Julius and then Obi came for her? “Julius, I have to finish helping Rose, then I find Obi.” She kept staring at her hands.

“You and me alike,” he continued. “Ain't got no ma, no pa, no real kin and no memory of none.” He placed his hand over hers. She let her hands remain under his for a moment—at first it felt strange sitting there like that with Julius. When it began to seem not so strange, she removed her hands.

“Easter, I want a wife.”

He was one of the best young men on the plantation; she owned nothing and had no one. But Obi's face clouded her vision.

“Easter, don't give me no answer now. Think on it—but don't think too long.”

She had to try and explain how she felt. “Julius, I—”

He touched her lips lightly with his hand. “Don't say nothing till you think on it. Don't want you to tell me no on such a pretty day.”

Easter tried to put Julius's offer out of her head as they waited for the ferry, but the war in her mind was beginning. Since she wasn't going north and had no land or anything, maybe …

They spotted the ferry approaching the dock. Easter, Julius, and James concentrated on the passengers disembarking. “All I see is white peoples,” James remarked.

Easter saw her first. She noticed the gray silk traveling suit with a gray hat to match. Then she saw that the lady wearing the outfit was not white but was a light-brown-skinned young woman who looked confused and a little nervous. “There she is.” Easter pointed, ignoring James's “How you know?”

Easter was embarrassed by the way James stared at the
woman with his mouth hanging open. She poked him with her elbow. “She think you a dunce, James.”

They walked quickly toward the young woman. James was the first to speak. With a large swooping gesture he took off his battered straw hat, placed it against his chest, and almost bowed to the ground. “We happy to welcome you here, miss.”

She smiled sweetly, “Excuse me, sir, what did you say?”

Easter was surprised that she sounded exactly like a Yankee. Julius bowed and said something, which the woman still seemed not to understand. Easter arranged the words in her mind the way Miss Grantley had taught her how to say them.

“Good evening, are you Miss Fortune?”

The woman nodded.

“We from—we are from the Williams plantation, and we come to carry you there. My name's Easter, and these two are Julius and James.”

“I'm pleased to meet all of you.” She smiled warmly, especially at Easter.

There were no passengers on the return trip, so they could all stretch out. Easter made sure that Miss Fortune didn't sit on the seat with the broken spring.

When they returned to the plantation, everyone was there to welcome the new teacher. Jason ran up to them excitedly. “Easter, why didn't you tell me you was going to Elenaville?” he shouted.

“Jason, don't be rude. Say hello to Miss Fortune, our new teacher.”

Jason bowed. “Good evening, Miss Fortune, I so please to meet you. Now, Easter, why you—”

Rose tried to snatch him. “Stop actin' the fool, Jason,” she said as she handed the teacher a basket of fruit and pies.

“What a welcome,” Miss Fortune exclaimed. “I didn't expect this.”

Rose and Easter helped the teacher settle into Rose's old
cottage. Rose had moved out of the cottage and back to the quarters with Melissa and Easter. “I can't live in that house without Rayford,” she'd told Easter. Miss Fortune looked around the kitchen as they entered the cottage, which Rose and Isabel had cleaned. Easter hoped that the teacher liked it.

“This is fine. Clean and cozy,” Miss Fortune said.

“The bedroom is that way, miss,” said Rose. “I have to go and see about my little boy.”

“I go now too and let you rest. Charlotte, one of your students, comin' here tomorrow to fix breakfast for you.” Easter wasn't in a hurry to leave, but she thought it only polite to do so.

“Do you have to go too, Easter? It would be nice to have company while I unpack.” Miss Fortune's brown eyes were slightly slanted and looked soft and kind.

“Oh yes, ma'am. I'll help you,” Easter said, picking up one of the bags and carrying it to the bedroom. Easter wondered what other wonderful dresses Miss Fortune had tucked away in her suitcases.

“You don't have to do anything. I just want your company. I want to change into something simpler.” Easter tried not to stare as Miss Fortune changed her suit.

She knew that it was rude to stare, but while the teacher struggled to pull a plaid dress over her head, Easter had the chance to get a good look at her bloomers. She'd never seen such fancy underwear, so much lace and ribbon. Easter was suddenly ashamed of her own violet homespun dress and her old slippers.

“Easter, was that perky young fellow your brother?” Miss Fortune asked as she hung up her traveling suit.

“No ma'am,” Easter said politely, wondering how many sets of such underwear the teacher owned.

“He seems so close to you.”

“We been together since he was a baby.”

Miss Fortune hung up another dress. “How did that come to be?”

Easter told Miss Fortune her story. The teacher listened intently as if she were hearing a strange and adventurous tale. When Easter finished, Miss Fortune said, “You're a smart, resourceful young woman. Miss Grantley told me about you when she wrote to me after she learned that I was coming down here.” She sat down on the bed next to Easter. “You should be continuing your education.”

“I never want to live with the Yankee, Miss Fortune. It's bad enough with these buckra down here.”

“What?”

“That's the word we have for the whites who live here—buckra.”

“Oh, I see.” She twisted her hands and her soft brown eyes took on a faraway look. “I am lucky. My grandfather was a freeman who became wealthy in the sailing business. We have never been slaves, nor have we ever been poor. Yet I still suffer scorn because of my color. And many of my northern colored brethren, especially if they are poor, suffer as greatly as you do in these newly freed states.” She stared closely at Easter. “Education is our only weapon against such ignorance. The missionary society sincerely wants to help students such as you. Getting an education is a necessity for colored folks. We have so much work to do.”

Miss Emmaline Fortune became an important part of Easter's life. She spent most Saturday and Sunday evenings in the teacher's combination kitchen and sitting room, practicing her reading and writing, remembering how much she missed school. Easter was still torn between her dreams of being with Obi, her wish to study, and Julius's steady proposals of marriage. Only in the quiet of Miss Fortune's cottage was she truly at peace.

By the end of the year much of their land had been cleared, and thirty families purchased fifteen hundred acres of land and received the portions of land that they'd earned. Their Christmas and Emancipation Day celebrations included rejoicing over their success in obtaining
land. Yet there was a tinge of sadness as people remembered Rayford and watched the silent Brother Thomas, who had not regained his speech.

Cabins were built by teams of men and boys from the various families working together. Another year of planting, growing, and harvesting ended. The Williams family, along with the cook, butler, and one or two other loyal servants, moved back to the big house. More changes were in the offing.

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes

January 1, 1866
Easter and Rose talked quietly at the pine table while Little Ray, Melissa, and Jason slept. They'd just finished celebrating Emancipation Day, and Rose and Easter were having their nightly cup of tea before going to bed.

“Easter, now I have the seven acres me and Rayford work for—thanks to you—plus the farm I buyin'. I givin' you two acres.”

“I don't want anything, Rosie. I work those field to help you, not to get land.”

“I didn't ask what you want, I tellin' you what I givin'. Finish lookin' for Obi now, if you have to, but you know you have somewhere to live. We sisters, even though we don't have the same mama or papa.”

“You still need help, you know,” Easter said.

Rose waved her hand. “I have Virginia and George to help me with the farm. Easter, I think you should go on up to that Philadelphia school or marry Julius. Don't spend your whole life lookin' for something that ain't there.”

Easter took a sip of tea. “When I think of Virginia an' George that make me really not want to go north.”

Virginia, George, and their sons had gotten as far north as Richmond and had to return to the plantation hungry and destitute. “We can't find work in the cities, not enough for a family, and there's the black codes, so you ain't free to go where you want and do what you want. It no different from slavery times,” George had said.

Easter sometimes felt as if she were in a tiny box. When she was with Miss Fortune, she felt that she should finish school. Then when she saw Julius working hard with the other men, building a cabin, she thought that maybe she should marry and raise her own family. Then she'd think of Obi.

Rose interrupted her thoughts. “You know, seem like if Obi was lookin' for you, he'd have found you by now.”

“How? How he find me, Rose?”

“Seems to me he'd go to the Bureau like you been doin'. That's all he have to do.”

“I know he's lookin' for me.”

“Well, Easter, Miss Fortune is a nice woman, but it wouldn't be like havin' you for our real teacher. You one of us—sometime Miss Fortune too much like a Yankee woman. She ain't stayin' down here forever.” Rose fastened her eyes on Easter. “Well, I guess you goin' to be in them fields forever, though, waitin' for Obi. But you know, things change anyhow, even though we don't even do nothing.”

The next morning Easter and Jason picked the last of the cotton. Easter walked over to the sheet spread at the edge of the field and dumped the bolls on it to dry in the sun a bit before one of the children carried the full sheet to the cotton house. Stretching her arms and gazing toward the orchards, she saw a tall figure in a black suit and a large black slouch hat. As he drew closer, she saw that the man had a full, brown mustache. Suddenly Jason raced from the field and took off toward the man. Easter ran behind Jason as he yelled, “Dr. Taylor!”

Oh no,
Easter said to herself,
Jason lose his wits now.

Dr. Taylor smiled, removing his hat and bowing in her direction. “Girlie, I come to ask if the little chap could travel with me for a spell.”

“Please, Easter? Let me go,” Jason asked before she could answer the man. “I write to you. And I be good, Easter.”

As she watched Jason, she remembered everything. His life flashed before her—his mother, his birth, the years they'd spent together, the way he cried when she and Obi left him. Now he was almost a man, wanting to leave—twelve years old, no longer a baby. She had to let go.

“Easter, I come back to see you. I write, and we never be apart the way we was because I can write to you.” He stared at her with that new adult look in his eyes. “I ain't no farmer, Easter. I goin' in the man's show,” he told her.

She hugged him. “You know how to get back home, don't you, Jason?”

“Yes. And you always be in my mind.”

Dr. Taylor smiled and nodded. She turned to him. “He can go. And, mister, you take good care of my Jason, hear?”

March 31, 1866
Dear Miss Grantley,

I hope this letter finds you enjoying the best of health. Please forgive me for taking so long to write to you, but it took me this long to make another decision. First, let me tell you how our town is coming along. We call it New Canaan. We have a church, a school, and we are building a molasses mill and a general store. Some of the people still work for the Williams family to make extra money for the land they purchased.