An Acquaintance with Darkness - Ann Rinaldi [92]
"You've been kind. I shall not forget it. I came to tell you, I'm going to spend every night from now until the seventh with my mother in her cell in Carroll Prison."
"Are you sure you want to do that, Annie?" he asked.
"Yes. My mother needs me."
"What can we do for you?"
"Just be there on the seventh. Stand with me, if she doesn't get a reprieve."
"We'll be there," he said.
She picked up her portmanteau and turned to me. "Puss-in-Boots is with a neighbor until I can return home again."
I nodded mutely.
She started to leave. I wanted to put my arms around her, too, before she left, but she walked right by me, head held high, shoulders straight. She had a carriage waiting, she said.
I couldn't let her go like that. I must do something for her, but what? Then it came to me.
"Annie, wait," I begged.
She turned. "I haven't time."
"Just a minute. Wait right there in the hall. There's something I must give you." I ran through the kitchen, took a knife off the counter, and ran out into Marietta's garden. The heat was beating down unmercifully. Where were they? Oh yes, there. The night-blooming cereus. I bent to cut two on long stems and brought them back into the kitchen. There I wrapped them quickly in wet paper and brought them into the hall where Annie was waiting.
"What are they?" she asked.
"Night-blooming cereus. They are nightflowers. Bring them into your mother's cell."
"Thank you," she said.
"Tell your mother hello."
She nodded, thanked me again, and went out the door.
That was Sunday, July 2. Somehow we got through the next few days without losing our senses. On the Fourth, Robert took me sailing on the Potomac. We were not as friendly as before. We were wary of one another, yet at the same time bound by secrets, shared experiences, and concerns. And he had a newfound respect for me. I could not ask for more.
He was a very good sailor. Maude had a supper of cold chicken, hot biscuits, jellied shrimp, and ice cream when we got home. There were fireworks afterward, down by the Sixth Street wharves. Robert took me, but when I looked up to see those colorful bombs bursting over the water I took no joy from them. And a couple of times when an especially loud one went off I saw Robert wince.
We walked home in silence. Robert left me at the gate and walked home. When I got inside, Annie was there, in the parlor with Uncle Valentine. Neither of them looked up as I came in. I took a chair and listened.
Annie was begging. "I need you to use your influence with Dr. Porter, the jail physician, to get them to release my mother's body to me. They don't want to let me have her."
"Why don't we wait and see what happens on the seventh before we talk about this?" Uncle Valentine said.
"I know what's going to happen on the seventh. They're going to hang her. Neither Mrs. Douglas nor Thaddeus Stevens could get anywhere with the president. She's going to hang."
"There is always hope for a last-minute reprieve, Annie. I heard that the president's secretary is going to keep a fast horse outside the White House door, in case Johnson changes his mind at the last minute."
Then of a sudden Annie stood up. "Dr. Bransby," she said in a clear firm voice, "I'm going to be standing outside the prison gates on the seventh. Stanton has told all the relatives of the condemned that he will not release the bodies. He wants them buried in pine boxes by the jailhouse wall. If you use your influence with Dr. Porter, if you get my mother's body released, I'll give it to you. For medical research. My mother gets migraine headaches, you know."
Uncle Valentine looked up at her, disbelief on his face.
"I mean it, Dr. Bransby. You can have my mother's body. I know you use the bodies of executed criminals. It's legal. I know that, too. My mother is no criminal, but I'd rather give her to you than have her buried on the penitentiary grounds."
My uncle nodded and