Stand the Storm (35 page)
“It’s done. It’s done now and done. Forget about it,” Knitting Annie had said again, and dismissed her from the tale. “Shut your mouth and forget it.”
It was all fruit that Annie took from the shop. She was barred from taking the looms; spinning wheels; spindles; knitting needles, excepting the ones sewn among the linens; and the sewing needles, excepting those secreted in the children’s clothes.
Annie nearly lost composure again when the sheriff came to seize the water barrels. Jonathan Ridley did not come to the battle over these casks, for he knew that Annie wanted to take him on again—to froth at him angrily. Aches and pains and their remedy had made him soft and averse to quarreling. He conspired to rob her of the chance to see him vexed and thwarted over the barrels. So he delegated the duty to a sheriff. When the sheriff arrived, Annie only rolled her eyes and thumped one of the casks as it passed out of the yard.
She stood before the cheval glass on her last circuit of the shop. At first the oval threw back an image of Gabriel bright and proud in his soldier’s uniform. But her mind cleared and she saw her true self. Annie peered upon her self’s image and saw a disheveled woman standing amidst piled linens and suits preparing to pack all into trunks.
She would go with Pearl and Hannah to Philadelphia to live with Sis Ellen and her girl, Delia. Then all would go south together to teach. Naomi, determined to pull away from her grandmother, had claimed Ruth and planned to return to their studies at Hampton Institute. These two eldest girls were buoyed by Naomi’s dream of the both of them becoming model women of the race.
Here were all of these that Gabriel made!
The most pregnant time of worry was over, yet their real tribulation had come amidst a sliver of calm. The cruelest part being the shock of it.
Stand the Storm
Oh! stand the storm, it won’t be long.
We’ll anchor by and by.
Stand the storm, it won’t be long
We’ll anchor by and by.
My ship is on the ocean
We’ll anchor by and by.
My ship is on the ocean
We’ll anchor by and by.
She’s making for the kingdom
We’ll anchor by and by.
She’s making for the kingdom
We’ll anchor by and by.
My ship is on the ocean
We’ll anchor by and by.
My ship is on the ocean
We’ll anchor by and by.
I’ve a mother in the kingdom
We’ll anchor by and by.
I’ve a mother in the kingdom
We’ll anchor by and by.
My ship is on the ocean
We’ll anchor by and by.
My ship is on the ocean
We’ll anchor by and by.
IN MEMORIAM
EDNA HIGGINS PAYNE CLARKE
1916–2003
LUISE HIGGINS JETER
1918–2007
BREENA CLARKE
grew up in Washington, DC, and was educated at Webster College and Howard University. Her one previous novel,
River, Cross My Heart,
was a selection of Oprah’s Book Club. She lives in New Jersey.