Flight of Fancy: Cora's Daughters (50 page)

Beneath the porch, peeking thru a gap between boards, ignoring the occasional drip and the puddle beneath him, he waited to be found. In the wait, he found himself peering through the porch slats, watching the arrival of three riders - white men – smartly dressed. One of them looked like Emma Byrd’s beau who’d come there for her over a month back. As they dismounted, they spoke in low tones, moving slowly towards the gate.

All thoughts of fun and games were quickly being replaced by concern over what he was seeing. They entered the gate, still talking low, but their words finally carried to him.

“The moment you see her, know that she the one – I want my pay. Rest up to you, expect to go thru the law, these Negroes educated. Can’t just take’em and run off.” He heard Emma’s beau say.

“You said they all Negro women.” One of the men returned.

“Smart women – they got book learnin’ I’m tellin’ you, but you do what you will – all I want is my pay for findin’ her.”

“How are we to get her? How do you get the ones you come after?”

“I romance’em. Women, no matter what color, lose all good sense at the right kind’ah attention, especially them that don’t have good sense to start with. As for the smart ones – well, not so easy, they look you dead in the eyes.”

“Insolent wenches! This Asiza… if she is the one we seek, how will we get ha’?”

“The law…”

Asa turned and crawled back through the muck and mud beneath the porch to the way he came. He could hear the {{Knock Knock Knock}} the moment he came to his feet, running for the back door.

He ran in, thru the kitchen, tracking mud the whole way, flying out the kitchen to Ms. Laney’s shrill shout, “Asa Wolf! Look at this floor! Boy!” She called in disbelief. Down the hall he ran, others looked up, “No running in this house – Asa, you know better!” he heard called out behind him as he took to the stairs. Millie at the top called out, “Asa Wolf, look at all that mud on you, Ms. Della gone get you boy!”

He burst into the room he shared with Asiza, “Men come here lookin’ for you! White men – three of them!” He cried out in panic, his little chest pumping from hard breathing. Asiza had been lying curled on her side, rocking, ill, listless, drained of all energy, fighting not to throw up. Asa’s words made her look – widened her eyes, made her sit up. “Men? White men… for me?”

“Yes ma’am – one of them that Emma Byrd’s beau, he back with them.” He gulped, eyes wide as well, fear mounting.

Asiza felt her head throb with fear, the beating of her heart and pulses climbing as she sat with her mind chasing what could be.

“What we gonna do?” Asa asked, afraid.

Asiza wasn’t sure - she slowly stood, walking, despite the room spinning around her.

A group of women were gathering at the top of the stairs, listening, looking down. They joined them, Asiza holding Asa by her side.

Della had been watching the men from the window - they always knew what it looked like, when something didn’t look right. Asa flying thru the house muddy and tracking the floor was a sign to get ready.

Della’s knowledge and education went far beyond any book. Having had the boarding house as long as it had been standing with her in charge, she was prepared for any occurrence and knew exactly what to do, and who to call on.

After shushing everyone for getting on Asa about the mud, she rushed to the back and sent Newt off to get reinforcements - she would not open that door until he was well off, maybe not even then. She looked from one woman to the next, holding her finger to her lips – all knew the gesture for silence.

Everyone went so quiet one could have heard a sewing needle drop. No one moved a muscle.

{{ Knock Knock Knock }} more forcefully that time.

Della waited a few more moments, giving as much time as she dared. Putting her ear to the door, she listened.

“They not answering,” One stated in low tones.

“They seen us coming. Short of breakin’ this door in, you won’t get it opened.”

“What we supposed to do?”

“Stand there, keep knockin’.”

“Damn north! They jus’a bunch a niggers – I never hear o’such nonsense.” One muttered impatiently and then, backed up a bit and started shouting out.

“OPEN UP THIS DOOR! YOU GOT YO’SELF A NEGRA FANCY, ASIZA IN THERE? YOU DO – SEND HER OUT! YOU HEAR?!”

All eyes turned to Asiza.

Asa whimpered, grabbing hold of her, holding on tight, his little arms around her waist.

Della came to the bottom of the stairs looking up, their eyes met, and again she held her finger to her lips.

{{Bang Bang Bang}} hard with fist this time.

“You wasting yo’time. They not gonna open that door.”

“The hell they won’t! We come all this way for that Asiza, and we not leavin’ without her.” The one speaking was Nathaniel Beck, the banker’s son. His father had been one of the men she’d killed. He’d paid out to almost three bounty hunters to find her – determined that she would be executed for what they believed she’d done. The first hired - Broc Wolf, the second had been an older bounty hunter, one far more seasoned for bringing in fugitives – and like the first, they hadn’t heard anything back.

Finally, they received a missive from this one, Jack Tanner – stating that he knew where she was, but they would have to come for her. He would be the third if in fact somewhere on the other side of that door, was the Asiza they were looking for.

He, along with Earnest Billow – a man who had actually seen the fancy Asiza with his own eyes, was there to collect her.

Due to fear of her and this Jack’s unwillingness to kill her for them, they were armed with pistols to shoot and kill her on sight, the moment they were certain she was the one.

“I’m tellin’ you, this place has many backers-…” Jack tried to warn them.

“They don’t open this door, we’ll burn this sonofabitch to the ground, backers or not!” Nathaniel swore, growing tired of it all, “They was south, wouldn’t be none of this I can tell you that now – niggers back home know they place.”

Jack leaned back against the porch banister, crossing arms and ankles, unwilling to say another word. He simply waited for confirmation and pay.

“You just gone stand there?” Nathaniel asked, clearly irritated.

Jack shrugged, saying nothing more - in truth if it wasn’t for his pay he would be departing this scene. He didn’t care for being seen with loud southern riff-raff, it could tarnish his northern reputation – but he wanted his gold. Nathaniel turned back to the door, banging and yelling out once more for Asiza to come out. Having had enough, Jack surged to his feet.

“You’re wasting time! Go to the law, get them out here!”

Nathaniel backed away, bristling in anger, looking the place over as if there was a hidden way in.

“Thank we ought’ah do what he say, go get the law.” Earnest finally spoke up.

Nathaniel stood a moment sizzling in heat, finally he turned away and angrily strode for his horse, mounting it, with the other two men doing the same.

To Ms. Della’s relief… they rode off.

She turned – all stood silent, looking from her to Asiza. Those new – never having been through it there, were immediately afraid.

From one to another, fear of what might come to them rang out in their words, “They gone burn us out Ms. Della?”

“What we gonna do, where we gonna go?”

“What if they come back?”

“Oh Lord - Jesus, please – what we gone do?”

“What if they come in the night?”

“They’ll be back – in the night, for sure!”

“Ladies – everyone, just calm down, we’re going to be okay.”

“They said they’ll burn us out, they will I know they will.” Another cried out, wringing her hands. “They were looking for Asiza,” Someone stated – not finishing her point, but they all knew what that was, falling quiet, looking her way once again.

Needing to gain control of the situation, “
Look
– at me!” She ordered them, so that they could stop drilling Asiza with their eyes, “Ladies… this way, look at me.” Della waited for all eyes to swing back to her. Fear had self-preservation coming to the fore in some, the very thing Della hated. Instead of standing up for and coming together, there were a few who instantly thought of throwing Asiza to the wolves. Turning to her, they once again fell silent, waiting.

“I want you all to get back to whatever you were doing. I want you also to understand that we will be fine, one and all. Now go.”

They started turning, but the murmuring continued, some of it from the older tenants reassuring the newer ones that Della knew what she was doing.

Della made her way up the stairs toward Asiza, meeting her at the top, “Let’s go to your room – to talk.”

Asiza nodded.

“Asa, you come with me, leave ya’mama with Ms. Della.” Millie took him by the shoulders guiding him down the stairs to occupy him while the two women spoke in private. She glanced back at Asiza, giving her a smile of reassurance, confirming whose side she was on.

In her room, Della started, “You okay? Know you haven’t been feeling well.”

Never one to dance around preliminaries, “Broc got me knocked - I haven’t been on since the first of the year.”

Della smiled, “Well, that explains it – sounds like good news to me.”

“You want me to go?” Asiza cut straight to it again.

“Asiza Wolf, why are you like that? Have I asked you to go-…”

“It just happened, you haven’t had time.”

“No! I do not want you to go – but – we do have to talk. They’ll be here soon, and I need to be sure of what we’re dealing with.”

“They?”

“Help. Reinforcements. The people who have endorsed us, who helped make all of this happen. They have provided more than, what you see. We have a lawyer for all who dwell here, along with other men who at a moment’s notice, will arrive and remain until the threat has passed.”

Asiza stared a moment, thinking about it, “I should go. I’ll leave Asa here until Broc returns and then-…”

“You – Asiza Wolf, aren’t going anywhere, do you hear? Now more than ever,
this
is where you should be. I need you to trust me Asiza, that we can handle this.”

“You can’t… they can’t…” Head bowed, she shook it, “You don’t know the full of it - why they have come this far for me.”

“Asiza, you’re a runaway. You’re from the south. You’re not the first, nor will you be the last. Believe it or not, there have been times when a master has chased as far as here, to get a certain slaves back.”

“I’m… it’s more than that – much more.” She confessed.

Della sighed, strolled over to Asiza’s bed and sat down. “Come on, over here, it’s time to tell me this –
more
. No matter what it is, we will handle it.”

Asiza stood in the middle of the floor. In the face of what was going on, the nausea had eased up. The good thing was, she was far enough along that by afternoon her nausea eased.

“Asiza… please, come talk to me.”

Slowly turning, she gazed at Della, taking a deep breath, she made her way to the bed across from her and sat down.

“Now, I want you to tell me everything, hold nothing back.” Della invited, and Asiza did just that, getting right to the quick of it.

“Before I ran, I killed my master and his two friends. I laid into them with a hunting knife, and did not stop until I was too tired to go on. I prayed to God for strength, and used as much of it as I could on destroying that evil.” Following that confession, Asiza’s green eyes set on Della’s brown. The whites of Della’s eyes showed around the brown clear and wide - in complete shock, her mouth slightly ajar, her heart pounding. That she was stunned did not escape Asiza, “Still want me to stay? Still think you can handle this one?” Della took a long, audible deep breath. In that second, she hated that she’d forgotten what they were all up against. Hated that in that second, she’d forgotten all that had been done to them – the Negro and Indians of that land. In that instant where her response had been obvious, she’d hated her reaction to hearing that someone, fought
back!
Hoping to repair the damage, she smiled. After all, back not so long ago, Asiza had been trying to tell her, but she’d stopped her, this time she would not.

“Tell me what happened Asiza – tell me what made you do what you did.”

“Ms. Della, I’m a fancy. I was bred for nothing more than to see to any and all pleasures a rich white man. It doesn’t matter what his pleasure might be – or how it might hurt, defile or even kill me. I was bought from the place where I was bred, Clover Grove plantation. A mayor from a town in North Carolina liked the fancies he got from there. He came often. He –
came
- one time too many and he chose
me
. After a week or more at his home, he sent one of his overseers to get me. I was bathed, dressed – prepared for him. We rode for quite a distance in silence.”