Orchard of Hope (28 page)

“Strawberry ice cream and dancing in the street?” Wes said.

“I don’t have to wait for my birthday for that. That’s happening tonight.”

“Who’d have thunk they’d have ever closed off Main Street in little holy Hollyhill so folks could dance?”

“Square dancing,” Jocie said. “Church people don’t mind square dancing. You just hold hands while you swing your partner and promenade. Nothing too close or wild. Leigh may even talk Daddy into trying it.”

“If she does, you be sure to have a camera at ready. We wouldn’t want to miss out on that top-fold picture.”

29

Cassidy didn’t like going to town with her mama. She’d have rather stayed home and watched Eli and Elise while her daddy was watering the apple trees. He’d watered them every day since they’d set the trees down in the holes he and Noah had dug. Cassidy and her mama had poured a bucket of water in every one of the holes while her daddy and Noah pushed the round hard dirt clods back in around the tree roots, but the ground just sucked the water up like it was nothing.

Her daddy said the ground was just too dry because of how hot it was, and so every night he asked her mama to pray for rain when she said grace at the supper table. Cassidy’s daddy didn’t go to church, but he believed in the Lord. He had to. Else he wouldn’t be asking her mama to pray for it to rain on their trees. There wasn’t any use in praying if you didn’t believe the Lord was listening. And Cassidy had heard her daddy say prayer was all that was going to keep those trees they’d put in the ground from dying if they didn’t get some earth-softening rain soon.

Cassidy shut her eyes and imagined the trees in rows across the field. She liked going down there and walking around the little sapling trees. She counted them over and over as she imagined them the way her daddy said they would look in a few years. All green and leafy and full of apples. He said she’d be able to just reach up and pick her off a big red apple to eat. When he talked about it, she could almost hear the pop of the apple when she bit down into it.

“We’ll have us an orchard, Cassie,” he’d told her. “Not just these trees but dozens more planted all over this field. We’ll pick baskets and baskets of apples and take them all over to sell.”

“To Chicago?” Cassidy had asked.

“Maybe even to Chicago.”

Her mama had been down there in the field with them and she’d laughed as she looked from Cassidy’s daddy to the little tree twigs sticking up out of the ground. “You don’t be thinking on any trips to Chicago just yet, missy. All your daddy has right now is an orchard of hope.”

“Your mama could be right,” her daddy said as he laid his big hand on Cassidy’s head and let it rest there a minute. “But hope’s a mighty fine thing to have. Your mama won’t argue with me on that one. As best I recall, there’s even something about it in her Bible. Faith, hope, and charity.”

Her mama had smiled at her daddy and reached for his hand. It made Cassidy feel all happy inside when her mama and daddy held hands like that. She didn’t like it when they fussed about that freedom train her mama was always chasing after.

That’s why Cassidy didn’t like going to town with her mama, because she never knew when her mama was going to run after the chance to work for that “greater good” Noah had talked about. They dropped Eli and Elise off at Miss Sally’s house, but her mama wouldn’t let Cassidy stay. Said she needed new shoes.

“You can measure my foot and order them from Miss Sally’s Sears Roebuck catalogue,” Cassidy suggested. She hoped her mama would like that idea, and that way she could stay at Miss Sally’s while her mama went to town.

“No, no,” her mama said. “They’re having a sidewalk sale in town. The shoe store had an ad in the paper with what looked like good prices, and it’s always better to try a pair of shoes on to get the right fit.”

Cassidy wanted to say that if it was a white person’s shoe store, they probably wouldn’t let her try on the shoes anyhow, even if her socks were straight off the clothesline and so white they practically sparkled. Cassidy knew. She’d been shoe shopping in the wrong stores with her mama before, but saying something like that to her mama was just like sounding the whistle of that freedom train. She’d be on it in a minute flat, pulling Cassidy right along with her. And that’s why Cassidy wanted to stay at Miss Sally’s, trailing after the twins to keep them from breaking her pretties, instead of going to town.

Miss Sally had a lot of pretties—glass birds and bells and angels and all sorts of trinkets, as Miss Sally called them. Eli had already broken one of the birds, but Miss Sally just swept up the pieces and threw them in the trash can and never said the first word to their mama. She told Cassidy not to worry about it, that Eli was lots more fun to have around than an old glass bird anyhow.

The street down through Hollyhill was closed off, and her mama had to go around behind where Noah worked at that newspaper office to park. Then they walked down through an alleyway to the shoe store. The stores all had tables full of stuff out on the sidewalk, and the dress stores even had racks of dresses hanging outside. At the shoe store, their sidewalk table was piled high with sneakers—just what her mama thought Cassidy needed for school.

The first pair of shoes Cassidy tried on fit, and the clerk even smiled at her when she asked Cassidy if she wanted to wear the new shoes and put her old shoes in the sack. The new ones were a pretty yellow, and Cassidy didn’t want to take them off, so her mama let her wear them away from the store.

If they’d just walked straight back to the car and gone home, things would have been fine. Maybe even better than fine. But her mama decided they were thirsty. They went in the little restaurant two stores down from the shoe store. Her mother took hold of Cassidy’s hand and started right for the soda counter where there were tall stools with red shiny tops fastened to the floor. Cassidy’s heart was already thumping in her chest even before the waitress stepped in front of them and said, “I’m sorry. We don’t serve coloreds up here. There’s a table for you all in the back.”

Cassidy looked at the white woman’s face. She didn’t look all that sorry. Everybody in the restaurant had quit talking and was looking at them. It was so quiet that Cassidy was sure her mama and the waitress would be able to hear how her heart was trying to pound a hole right through her chest. She pulled on her mama’s arm. “I’m not all that thirsty, Mama.”

For a minute, she didn’t think her mama was going to pay any attention to her, but then her mama looked down at her and smiled. “All right, sweetie.”

Her mama’s smile disappeared when she looked back at the waitress. “When I come back, you can be sure I’ll sit wherever I please.”

“You might sit down, but we can’t wait on you nowhere but that back table,” the waitress said. For a minute she did look a little sorry as she added, “It’s just the way things are around here.”

Cassidy cringed as the memory of the dog in Birmingham crept up out of the back of her mind and snarled at her. Sirens started going off in her head. They must have been going off in her mama’s head too.

“And why’s that?” Cassidy’s mama asked. There was fire in her eyes, but everything else about her turned stiff and cold as she stood tall and glared at the woman.

Cassidy gently tugged on her mama’s arm again. She didn’t tug hard, because when her mama turned to ice like that, Cassidy was always afraid her mama might just shatter into pieces.

“Let’s go, Mama.”

Her mama whirled without another word and went back out on the street. Cassidy had to hurry to keep up. When they passed the alleyway that led up to where they’d parked the car, Cassidy said, “Aren’t we going home?”

“Not yet, sweetie. I’m taking you to where Noah works. You’ll be fine there.”

“I want to go back to Miss Sally’s,” Cassidy said as tears began to trickle out of her eyes. “I want us both to go.”

Her mama slowed up, and her ice glare melted away as she smiled at Cassidy. “Now don’t you be worrying about your mama, sweet child. Your mama knows exactly what needs doing, and it’s going to get done.”

A little of the smile stayed on her mama’s face as she pulled open the screen door and stepped into the
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offices. A woman with hair nearly as black as Cassidy’s and covering her head in fat curls looked up from her typewriter. She peered out at them through dark-rimmed glasses and asked, “Can I help you?” She didn’t smile. Cassidy looked down at her new yellow shoes and wanted to go talk to the shoe store clerk again.

Her mama didn’t seem bothered by the woman’s face. Her smile just got bigger as she held out her hand and stepped over to the woman’s desk. “Hello, you must be Miss Curtsinger. I’m Noah’s mother, Myra Hearndon, and this is my daughter, Cassidy.”

Cassidy peeked up at the woman behind the desk to see if what her mama had said was going to make any difference in whether she smiled at them or not. The lady was smiling at her mouth, but there wasn’t much of it leaking up to her eyes. “A pleasure to meet you,” she was saying. She barely touched Cassidy’s mother’s hand before she jerked it away to pull a pink tissue from somewhere and blot her nose with it. She looked kind of scared.

Cassidy wasn’t surprised. A lot of people got uneasy when her mama fastened her eyes straight on them. Her mama was always telling her and Noah, “Don’t you ever be afraid to look somebody straight in the eyes. You be proud of who you are.” She had better luck with Noah than she did Cassidy.

“The same here,” her mama was saying. “I do so appreciate Rev. Brooke giving Noah a job.”

“David felt we needed the help with our regular hand out with a broken leg. We have to get the
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printed on time.”

“And Noah is enjoying the work. He says you’ve been working here since even before Rev. Brooke and that the Reverend says you’re the glue that holds the place together.”

“Well, I do my best,” Miss Curtsinger said. “I’m afraid David doesn’t always have the best business sense when it comes to the financial side of things. Sometimes he trusts in the goodness of people a bit too much. And though I hate to have to say it, people will take advantage of that.”

“That’s so true, although I suppose trusting in the goodness of people isn’t a bad failing for a preacher to have. At the same time, he’s fortunate to have someone like you to keep things in business order.”

The lady’s smile was easier now as she warmed to the praise. Cassidy’s mama knew how to put the honey on the bread when she needed to.

“I guess you’re here to see Noah,” the lady said. “He’s back in the pressroom with Jocelyn. Wesley and David were back there with them, but I think Wesley must have gone up to his apartment awhile ago for a rest, and David went down the street for a little bit. But he won’t be gone long. I’m sure Noah and Jocelyn are fine back there by themselves.” She couldn’t seem to stop chattering as she stood up and led them toward a door at the back of the room.

“Don’t you worry,” Cassidy’s mama said. “His father and I have taught Noah how to behave himself.”

“Oh, I wasn’t meaning to sound worried. Noah’s been nice as can be. I haven’t got any complaint at all about him.”

The lady was sounding flustered again, and Cassidy was glad when she just pushed the door open and called out to Noah and then hustled back to her desk. Cassidy and her mama went on into the room.

Noah looked up at them from the table where he was sitting beside the preacher’s daughter. “What are you doing here, Mama?”

“I came to get Cassidy some new shoes. And now I’m going to let Cassidy stay here with you while I go get something to drink.”

Noah stood up and stared at their mama. She stared right back at him, and Cassidy could feel her turning back to ice. Cassidy’s heart started thumping again, and the hot breath of that Birmingham dog was on her face. Still, she didn’t argue. It never did one bit of good to argue with her mama, but Noah gave it a try.

“Mama, you promised Daddy you wouldn’t do this here. You promised you’d let somebody else do the fighting for a while,” he said.

Cassidy looked over at the preacher’s daughter. Her eyes were big as she looked first at Noah, then at Cassidy’s mama. Cassidy looked around for a place she could crawl under to hide. Some place the dog couldn’t get to her.

“It’s not your place to tell me what I promised your father.” Her mama was using that voice that meant she expected her children to shut their mouths and not say another word.

Noah acted like he didn’t hear the voice. “Nobody else will fight with you here. They don’t mind sitting where they’re told to sit and going in the back doors. Why don’t you save your energy for when you go down south with the other freedom fighters?”

“I’m not doing that right now. I’m off the freedom train.”

“Then don’t get back on it here in Hollyhill where we have to live.”

Cassidy’s mama covered the distance to Noah in two steps. He was a head taller than their mama, but Cassidy knew who had the power. Her mama put her finger right in Noah’s face.

“Don’t you ever tell me what to do, Noah Alexander Hearndon. And you’re wrong about the other people here. Everybody wants freedom. It’s our inalienable right. And don’t you forget it. The Jim Crow laws have been thrown out everywhere, and if they don’t know that here, then it’s time they found out.”

Cassidy’s mama whirled around and headed back to the door. She was pushing on it before Noah said, “I don’t want to have to tell Daddy you’re in jail, Mama.” He sounded almost as ready to cry as Cassidy felt.

She let her hand fall off the door as she turned back around to look at Noah. “I’m only going to go get me something to drink. I would have already done it, but I couldn’t do it with Cassidy there. You know that. If it gets to be the kind of problem you’re imagining, I’ll come on back down here and get a drink of water out of Rev. Brooke’s sink.”

“Do you promise?” Noah asked.

“I promise. You just take care of your little sister till I come back.” She turned to smile a little at Cassidy. “Noah will take care of you, sweet child. Don’t you be troubling your head about anything.”

Cassidy’s mama turned and disappeared through the door. Cassidy listened to her footsteps across the front office and heard the screen door slam behind her as she went out on the street.