A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton - Michael R. Phillips [84]
“I don’t know how to thank you, Jeremiah,” she said. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“I’m jes’ glad Miz Mayme’s safe,” he said, “an’ dat I could help.”
A moment of silence passed between them.
“Please …” began Katie after a few seconds, “you won’t tell … will you? Someday … maybe we can explain what is going on here. But for now, nobody can know.”
He stood looking at the serious expression on Katie’s face.
“I reckon I can do dat, Miz Clairborne,” he said slowly. “ ’Tis mighty strange, I gotter say, seein’ two coloreds an’ two white girls all livin’ in a big house like dat together. But I reckon I can keep my mouf shut fer a spell. But you’ll tell me someday, I hope, ’cause you got me mighty curious.”
“I will try to,” said Katie with a relieved smile. “Thank you, Jeremiah.—Do you mind walking back to town? I’d let you take one of the horses, or ride you in myself, but …”
“Don’ mention it, Miz Clairborne,” said Jeremiah. “Dat’ll give my pa an’ dose other folks in town dat was watchin’ us wiff dere big eyes a chance ter settle down an’ ferget what dey seen. I’ll jes’ sneak in a round’bout way so no one sees me.”
“Maybe you’re right,” laughed Katie. “Thank you again!”
A NEW CRISIS
43
MY NIGHTMARE WAS OVER, BUT ITS EFFECTS LINGERED for several weeks. I was exhausted and the wounds on my back were so painful I could hardly move for three days. Most of that time I spent in bed, relishing my freedom and never appreciating so much what it meant. The other three waited on me hand and foot. Once she saw my back, Aleta was all the more sensitive and compassionate.
The incident seemed to change us all. We knew this was no game. It was a risky adventure we had undertaken, and we were all in danger. If we hadn’t realized it before, we certainly did now, especially now that Jeremiah knew. Katie was deeply concerned about Emma and me and all the more committed to protecting us. Emma seemed quieter and more thoughtful, like she’d suddenly grown up several years in knowing that I hadn’t betrayed her, even when my own life had been at stake. I hadn’t really thought about it in those terms, but she kept saying over and over, “I can’t believe you did dat fer me, Miz Mayme. I jes’ can’t believe it!”
Aleta seemed most changed of all by what had happened. She didn’t seem like such a little girl anymore, but like she was really one of us.
But though the nightmare was past, we all knew the danger was still with us. It would always be with us as long as William McSimmons and his wife were worried about Emma and her baby. I think for the first time Katie realized just how much danger would be part of our lives from now on. But luckily, the man from the McSimmons place asking about black babies and pretending there was some disease going around never came back.
One thing I knew, and it made me sad, was that I could never visit Josepha again.
But though we expected trouble every day, no more trouble came for a time—at least of that kind—and I gradually recovered and got my strength back and began getting up and helping again with the daily chores. And after a while we settled into the old routine from before, though we were all more wary, always watching and listening for the sounds of horses coming.
September came and the crops all about Rosewood were ripening. Katie still had most of the ten dollars left from the gold coin she’d changed to smaller money and the two dollars she’d found in the pantry, and so money was the last thing we were thinking about. To girls like us, ten dollars seemed like enough to last us a lifetime.
And the fact that there was a loan coming due real soon, from when Katie’s mother had borrowed against Rosewood, was a fact that neither of us really knew what it meant. We knew that you had to pay back loans, but it never dawned on us what might happen if you didn’t.
So we didn’t think about it and didn’t realize we should be thinking