The Quaker Café (26 page)

“You’re right,” Liz wanted to be as honest as she could with
LuAnne. “We spoke about it at our Quaker meeting as well.”

“So a black person like me might be a match.”

“As a bone marrow donor?”

“I guess. That’s what they say she needs.”

“The odds are best with a brother or a sister. After that they go to a national search. There’s always a possibility you could be a match, LuAnne, nothing’s impossible, but in all honesty it’s highly unlikely. Besides, you’re too old.”

“I
ain’t that old.”

“No, you’re not
that
old, but you’re still past the age limit to be a bone marrow donor. You can always give blood, though. She needs blood, too.”

LuAnne
was quiet for a minute as she looked at the floor. “Miss Liz, what if… just what if, Miss Maggie might have a brother or sister out there someplace?”

Liz raised her eyebrows
. This was unexpected. She caught her breath and leaned in closer. “LuAnne, that would be very important. Do you know of a brother or sister?”

LuAnne
remained silent and stared straight ahead. The edge of one of her lips started to twitch.

“I won’t tell a soul,” Liz nudged her along
. “If there is someone out there who is a brother or sister to Maggie, I could talk to them about being a donor. No one would have to mention that Maggie is their sister. I would never bring up your name.”

“You promise?”

“I give you my word.”

LuAnne
remained quiet for a while longer. She owed a life time of employment to the Kendalls. Not only had the Judge made sure she got her Social Security, Maggie continued to give her some additional weekly cash to work a few hours a day. LuAnne was better off than the majority of black women her age, and she knew it. This could be a double edged sword for her. Liz needed to be careful.

“Miss Liz, I have my suspicions
. I can’t prove what I think, but I know what I think.”

“I understand.”

“Ever since they murdered Isaac…”  Her eyes darted to the north side of the screened porch and she gazed out at the swamp. “Isaac was older than me and worked for the Kendalls before I did. My nephew, Johnson, is his son. I told you that.”

“I know.”

“Lawd, Johnson, he grew into a bitter man. Too many hateful memories of white men lynching his daddy, and of his mama just falling to pieces. He still fightin’ against the world, intent on avenging his daddy’s death. Fighting all his life, in school and outta school. He bought a gun. His mama, Molly, poor Molly, bless her soul, she got frightful scared, losing Isaac like that, and then Johnson talkin’ crazy. She was scared she’d lose them both. And she did. In different ways.”

Liz sat quietly not knowing where the conversation was headed
.

LuAnne’s
eyes began to tear up, and a twitch reappeared at the corner of her mouth.

“Molly sent him up to Norfolk to live with a cousin
. He’d get some better for a while, and then he’d end up back in jail for just doing crazy stuff; stealing, takin’ drugs, talking trash and threatening someone at work. Married. Divorced. Has two kids, a girl and a boy. They’ve got a good mama, although I’m afraid he hasn’t been much of a daddy to them. I told you about my niece.”

Liz
nodded. “You did. She visited Cedar Branch in the spring. Took you to church.”

“Johnson’s back in jail,
but we got hopes for his kids, Felicity and Alex.”  Her eyes glistened a bit. “He’s never forgiven me, you know.”

“Forgiven
you
? For what?” Liz asked.

“For working for the
Kendalls. He hates ‘em, and he accuses me of being their nigger.”

Liz gasped
. “LuAnne, surely not.”

“You wouldn’t understand, Miss Liz
. You don’t know what the Kendalls did to my family. My mama thought I could help set it all straight. That’s what I tried to do.”

LuAnne
took a swallow of tea and her face hardened. She looked out across the back screen again and her voice dropped, replaced by a dry rattle. “That swamp’s got no good memories for me, only bad things, horrible things.”  

Liz sat numb, a feeling of trepidation caught her unexpectedly
.

“I was there
. I seen it all.”

“What?” Liz wasn’t sure she’d heard her right.

“I was there when they lynched Isaac up in that tree.”

“Oh, my God,
LuAnne. No one ever told me that.”

“
Ain’t no one who knows, but me and my mama, and she made me promise not to tell another soul. For fifty-six years I ain’t told a soul. Mama was frightful scared if those men found out, they’d kill me, too.”

“My God,
LuAnne, how old were you?

“Fourteen
. Isaac, he was twenty-four.”

“Why did you go with him?”

“I didn’t at first. When he came runnin’ home that afternoon, he was shakin’ all over. He told Mama that there was a big mix-up between him and Mr. Corbett. He’d tried to explain, but Mr. Corbett didn’t listen. Isaac said Mr. Corbett started swinging a shovel at him, so he just run. Mama told him to go to the swamp and she’d come get him when things calmed down. Isaac, he left. Mama and Molly dressed up and went up to Cottonwoods to try to talk to Mr. Corbett and Old Man Kendall, but they said there weren’t no talking goin’ on. Everybody just yelling. The Sheriff and old Doc Hewitt was there, and they told Mama and Molly that Isaac could do his talking in court.”

LuAnne
rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes. “Like a black man ever get to see the inside of a court…we knowd that was a lie.” LuAnne stopped and looked out into the swamp once again, and then back. “Later that night Mama fixed some food for Isaac and sent me to take it to him. She told me to tell him to keep on running. Go to the other side of the swamp and get as far away as he could. That’s what I did. I knew where he’d be…a place we fished at.”

“
LuAnne, you were only fourteen. You must have been terrified.” Liz could hardly imagine what she heard. The thought sent shudders through her and she wrapped her arms around herself to try to ease the chill.

“I was
. I was so scared of the dark and the water moccasins, but more ‘an anything I was scared of those white men, and what they’d do to my brother if they found him.”

            “Jesus,” Liz whispered
. The mental image kept her frozen in her chair.

LuAnne
nodded. “The worst day of my life, I can’t ever forget.”

“Did you find him?  Alive?”

“He was right where I knowd he’d be. He told me he’d gone to pick up Miss Sarah from her horseback riding. He went early on that day ‘cause they got word Mr. Corbett would get home unexpected from Raleigh. When Miss Sarah didn’t come out the door of the barn, Isaac says he went in looking, thinking she’s still out riding. He says he heard something in the stall in the back and walked back to see if her horse was there. He says she comes running out of the back stall yelling at him to get out of the barn and she’s all undone and all, her clothes, you know… and she starts shoving at him.”

“And Corbett Kendall walks into the barn?” Liz said
. She could see the scene in her head now, as clear as day. She understood exactly what happened.

“That
’s right, the Judge comes in …that’s what he sees. The Judge picked up a shovel and started swinging at Isaac, but Isaac ducked. The Judge keeps swinging, like a mad man, but he loses his step and falls. When he falls, he lands on a board from the stall and breaks his nose. He ain’t never told the story that way, but that’s the way Isaac told it.”

“Then what happened?”

“Isaac runs, like I told you. And when he runs, he sees a white man running in the opposite direction from the back of the barn. And he’s thinking,
Which one is going to tell the truth to protect me? Miss Sarah or that man running away?
LuAnne hissed through her teeth in disgust and lets out a loud
humph
. “Neither of ‘em.”

When
LuAnne paused and kept peering out over the swamp, Liz sat silently. She  couldn’t think of any words appropriate to share LuAnne’s grief. She sat, as she would at Quaker meeting…her eyes closed in prayer…seeking words that might comfort.

LuAnne’s rocked back and forth and back and forth.

“We heard ‘
em,” she began again. “We heard the dogs first, then the shouts. I begged Isaac to run deeper into the swamp, but he’s scared for me, now. He don’t want to leave me. I beg him to run for his life. I scramble into a tree. Isaac looks up at me and says, ‘You stay there. You hear me?  No matter what happens. Don’t move. Don’t cry. Don’t scream. LuAnne, don’t even breathe if you can help it. Don’t let it be on my soul that something happens to you.’” 

LuAnne
got silent. Her hands twisted in her lap. “That’s what I did. For six hours I didn’t breathe.”

“You saw them lynch your brother?” Liz said, her voice trembling.

“I did.” She got up and walked over to the screen and looked out over the swamp. “I was wrapped so tight around that tree, I ‘bout grew bark, but my insides done froze so cold I thought maybe I be dead, too. All night long I stayed there, ‘til even the critters weren’t making any noise. When it starts to get light I tried to move, but my bones won’t unwind. Then bit by bit, first my fingers and then my feet and then my arms move, like I don’t even know how, and I start to climb down. I think I got to try to get Isaac out of that tree, but I can’t even look at him. Instead I start to run and run and run with my sobs chocking me and the tears coming so fast I can hardly keep up with them.”

Liz stood up and walked over to
LuAnne. She put her arm around her and cradled her head on her shoulder. They began to sway together, rocking back and forth. Liz began to hum
“Rock my soul… rock my soul….rock my soul…… oh Lord, rock my soul
.”  At first LuAnne sighed, and then her body went limp. As the sounds of the swamp penetrated the darkness,  they shared their grief in the arms of Abraham.

******

“There’s someone out there that knows Isaac Perry was hanged an innocent man,” LuAnne said after a long period of silence. “There’s someone out there been sittin’ on the truth for fifty-six years and as God is my witness, his day of reckoning must come, too.”

“Do you know who that man is,
LuAnne?” Liz asked.

“I suspect.”

“You think that man was Maggie’s real father?”

“I believe that.” 

“Do you think the Judge knew?”

“I believe Miss Sarah was
cheatin’ on him. I think the Judge figured it out, but he loved Miss Maggie so much the truth wasn’t important. I think he knowd his daddy had done the Perrys wrong. That’s why he came lookin’ for me.”

“And you went to work in their house?  Why?”  Liz asked.

“Weren’t nobody who’d give work to any of us Perrys after that.”

“Mr. Corbett came to me some years later
. By then his folks were dead. I was walkin’ along the road one day on my way back from Wednesday night prayer meeting and it started to rain. When a car pulled up beside me, I was scared. This white man inside says real nice, ‘LuAnne Perry, I’m told you’re good at keeping children and I’ve got a little girl who needs some looking after. I’d like to offer you a job.’ I just stood there in the rain shaking my head because I knowd it was Mr. Corbett Kendall. He waited. Then he says, still nice and all, ‘You think about it, hear?  You come see me at Cottonwoods if you change your mind.’”

“And you took the job?”

“I wasn’t gonna take it. I didn’t want to be workin’ for that hateful family in the big house, but my mama convinced me it would be best for us all. She sensed Mr. Corbett was tryin’ to send a message to the rest of the town folks. And she was right. After I started workin’ there, Molly got a job and then two of my cousins got jobs, and so did some of their family members. I think Mr. Corbett knew he had to try to right some wrongs, little as it was.”

“Things did get
better, though?”

“Better?  I supp
ose. I can’t say I wanted to work there, but I started to love little Maggie, and Mr. Corbett, I came to believe he respected me. I figure, God in his wisdom took Isaac from me and gave me Miss Maggie in return. Strange, ain’t it, God’s way of teaching us?”

“You helped the town heal,” Liz said.

LuAnne looked at Liz with pity. “It never healed, Miss Liz. That’s the problem with white folks. They think if everything is going along smooth like; as long as black folks doing their work and not getting uppity, they think things are  okay and then, just like that, you turn around and somebody’s killin’ someone and everything’s in a mess, and white folks open their mouths and say, ‘Why, why is this happening?  We was all getting along so good. Must be the black man’s fault. He ain’t ever satisfied.’”

In the absence of any way to respond, Liz reached over and filled LuAnne’s tea glass and waited. Finally, when it seemed apparent she wouldn’t continue on her own, Liz said, “Who was that man, LuAnne… the man who was in the back of the barn?”