The Land: List 2

“I know about you and your daddy. He never spoke it to me, but folks know, and if a man wants to do that sort of thing, that’s his business long as it doesn’t get in the way of mine. I’ve done a lot of business with your daddy, but you lay one eye on any one of my girls, I’ll have your hide, your daddy notwithstanding. That understood?”

I had a knack for looking at something and figuring out how to put it together, whether I had been taught how to do it or not.

I was still considered an apprentice, but folks said my work was of journeyman quality, and some even said it was more than that.

When Robert didn’t say anything, Christian spoke up in his stead.

“I’m going to teach you a hard lesson and I’m going to teach it to you right now. You get those clothes off, or I’ll cut right through them.” My daddy said that and unfurled the strap.

“Walking around every day kowtowing to white folks, even my own brother?”

“Because they were here, and the thing is, with their being here, there was nothing else I could do but whip you. I didn’t chastise you, then maybe they’d figure they’d take care of you themselves...now or down the road. But whether they were here or not, it was time I did what I did just the same.”

“Something you wouldn’t’ve done if I was white.”
My daddy acceded to that. “I wouldn’t have had to..."

I woke to the sounds of my mama finishing up her Christmas dinner, to the smells of roasted ham and a chicken baking, and to the soft talk of Howard’s voice and his genial laughter as he kept my mama company.

“Bound to happen,” surmised George.

Hammond spoke soberly. “You know, Paul, our daddy always said George, Robert, and I were supposed to look out for you and Cassie because you’re our blood. Robert didn’t do that, so we figure he not only let you down, but all of us.”

Afterward, when the mourners had left us to ourselves, Cassie, Howard, their baby, Emmaline, and I sat at the table laden with food in my mama’s little house.

“No, you didn’t,” she agreed when my tears subsided and I pulled away.

My daddy had been doing a considerable amount of reading concerning horses coming out of Texas.

Folks around the fair soon heard about the upcoming race, and as I mounted Starburst, I saw that a goodly number had gathered to watch.

Harsh as that might sound to you, a whipping’ll be less painful to you than some crazy horse that could kill you or maim you for life.

“I said I’d make it worth your while, boy, and I will.” His voice was now testy.

Ray Sutcliffe’s face took on a look of exasperation.

Robert flushed, then let me go, and I went back to brushing the gelding.

The man was known by the name of Eddie Hawks, and we found him in a livery on a dirty pile of hay where a number of the colored riders were bunked.

You keep him back some, other horses ’head-a him, and he gets his dander up ’cause he can’t stand that!

Ray Sutcliffe looked me up and down, and I knew he hadn’t liked what he’d heard from me. But he gave me the leeway.

Throngs of people lined the road.

It was tumultuous, the win.

After more than an hour, though, when Ray Sutcliffe was still wallowing in his win, Mitchell said, “I can’t take no more of this. We got t’ get your money and go.”

I went over to that group of boisterous white men, even though I knew perfectly well this was not the time or the place to confront Ray Sutcliffe, but I also knew it was better I did it than Mitchell.

We made our way hurriedly onto the platform in front of the train sitting on the spur and hid behind some cotton bales.

I scoured the crowd beyond him but saw neither one.

Then they hid us from all view with their tremendous skirts. I was shrouded in darkness.

I lay still and tense waiting for a sudden halt, waiting for the women to betray Mitchell and me, waiting for us suddenly to be yanked from our hiding places and lynched from the nearest tree.