The Kitchen House (48 page)

Belle

A
FTER
B
EN TAKE
L
AVINIA AND
Elly to his house, I sit up all night in case Jamie shows up. I think of Beattie and how scared she’s got to be, waiting for morning. I think of Uncle Jacob, left in the big house with Miss Martha, and how he got to carry on by himself. I wonder how far they got, how Mama’s holding up. And where’s my Jamie?

In the morning of that first day when Lavinia’s hiding under the roof, Ben says he got to get out and work the fields. He knows that Marshall is likely coming over here, and he says we got to make this look like any other day. He tells Lucy and me to keep working and when Marshall comes, we’re to say, “Yessir.” Nothing else, just “Yessir.”

Late afternoon, Marshall does ride up. I’m taking milk down to the springhouse, but I hear him ride up and stay back so he don’t see me.

I wait all day, but after it gets dark again, I tell Ben I can’t take no more. I got to find Jamie. Maybe he’s laying somewhere needing my help, or maybe he just hiding in the trees. Worse yet, maybe he goes back up to Miss Martha. I know Marshall and Rankin are out far, looking for everybody, so I’m sure they’re gone for the night.

First Ben says no, we got to stay here, we got to wait for Will Stephens. I say I’m going anyway. Ben don’t want me going alone, so he says he’s coming with me.

There’s half a moon up when we head out, taking the back way ’round past the cemetery, then into the basement of the big house. We walk real quiet, like when we was little and playing at making
no noise. Heel, toe, heel, toe. I listen good before I open the door, the one leading to the hall. Everything’s dark, nobody’s around, so we get upstairs fast and go straight to Miss Martha’s rooms, where I know Uncle got to be. There’s one lamp burning, and sure enough, Uncle’s sitting beside the bed next to Miss Martha, who’s sleeping like a baby. Ben stays standing back at the door. I don’t know that he’s ever been up in Miss Martha’s room before.

“Uncle!” I whisper real quiet. He don’t hear me, so I say it again. This time he looks at me, but he just sits there, so I go on over. Then I stop. Something’s wrong. I stand there, looking ’round, until I make out that Miss Martha don’t look right. She’s too quiet, and when I get close, I see her eyes open, her mouth open, but she’s not breathing no more.

“She carry on somethin’ awful,” Uncle says. “I give her drops, but she still screamin’ for her Jamie, so I give her more. I never dose her before, so I keep puttin’ drops in the water and give it to her till she get quiet.”

“She gone,” I say.

Uncle Jacob just keep looking at her like his eyes are gonna wake her up.

“Uncle!” I shake his arm. When he looks at me, I say, “You go get Beattie. Tell her to get up here.” Uncle Jacob nods, but he don’t move. “You got to go fast, Uncle.” I kiss the top of his old white head, then pull him up and send him out the door. He walks past Ben like he don’t see him. “Go on,” I say, “go down and get Beattie. Send her up here.” He don’t say nothing, but he heads on down the stairs. I go back to check out Miss Martha.

“For sure she’s gone,” I say to Ben. I peek out the window, see that Uncle Jacob’s almost at the kitchen house.

“Come on, Belle! Let’s get outta here,” Ben says.

“Wait,” I say. Sure enough, I see Beattie come running out of the kitchen house, heading up to the big house. “Beattie’s coming,” I say to Ben. We head down the stairs and wait for Beattie at the back door. She comes in crying, she’s so happy to see us.

“You see Jamie?” I ask.

She nod. “I think maybe I see him one time,” she say, “other side of the barn. After everybody go, I go out lookin’ for him, but I don’t see him again.”

“You find him, you tell him to come to me,” I say.

“Belle! We got to go!” Ben says.

Beattie look up the stairs. “I goin’ up to see Miss Martha.”

“She’s gone,” I say.

“That’s what Uncle say. I go see for myself,” say Beattie.

Ben and me head out, same way we come. We go up and ’round the big-house cemetery, then down past the apple and peach trees, until we head past the quarters. It’s plenty dark, but we both know this land so good, we know just where to go. Ben’s the first to hear the horses, then we both hear the talk. We get down low.

“Uhhh!” Ben says.

“Shh,” I whisper, but I raise up to look at what he sees.

There they is, all tied together, Rankin and two men sitting up on horses, pushing everybody on. Everbody. Mama, Papa … then I see Jamie! He’s tied up, too. They’re heading them all to the quarters.

“You see Marshall?” I ask Ben.

“No. He’s prob’ly still out lookin’ for Abinia.”

“What’re we gonna do?”

“We got to go back to the big house, catch Beattie,” Ben says.

“What’s she gonna do?” I ask.

“I don’t know, but we got to think of somethin’,” Ben says, and grabs my arm.

By the time we get into the house, Beattie’s coming down the steps, carrying the lamp from Miss Martha’s room. She almost drops it when she sees us. “What you two doin’, scarin’ me like that?” she says.

“Shh,” Ben says, “put out that light. Rankin back, and they got everybody.”

“Papa, Mama—” I say.

“No!” Beattie says. Then she sit right down on the steps and starts to cry. “Marshall says he catch ’em, he sell ’em all, even Papa.”

Ben says, “Beattie, there no time for cryin’.”

“But they all gonna get sold!” She cryin’ hard. “Mama, Papa—”

“Stop cryin’ and put out that light!” Ben says. “We got to think of somethin’ to do.”

Beattie tries to work the lamp, but she’s shaking so bad Ben grabs it from her. Between them both, they drop the light. The fire catches the tablecloth, and we all got to stomp on it to put it out. Then Ben gets the idea.

“Beattie,” he says, “tonight you gonna get a house fire goin’ up here.” Beattie and me look at Ben like he’s gone in the head. But he keeps talking. “When everybody up here puttin’ out the fire, I cut everybody loose. This time they cross over the river by the smokehouse and head up that way. It hard, but it give ’em a better chance, ’cause Papa know the way.”

“How I s’posed to get a fire burnin’?” Beattie ask.

“It burn easy,” Ben say. “Belle and me get it set up for you. Then we go down other side of the quarters and we watch from the trees. All you got to do is wait till everythin’ is settled, then if anybody around, you say you got to check on Miss Martha, get up here, and start the fire. Get it goin’ real good and get out. When they see the fire, Rankin and the men get up here to put it out. When they doin’ that, we cut everybody loose. You get your boys and run with everybody.”

“Oh, Ben! You sure ’bout this?” Beattie say.

“What else we gonna do?” Ben say.

“Belle?” Beattie ask.

“We got to do something,” I say.

I
T SEEMS ALL NIGHT THAT
Ben and me is waiting in the trees, watching. Ben starts breathing hard when we see the fire going up at the big house. Beattie get it going real good, but the trouble is, Marshall’s still out looking for Lavinia, and Rankin don’t see nothing because he’s off getting drunk. The fire’s coming out the windows by the time Rankin gets there, and he’s so drunk his thinking ain’t good. First he runs up to see for himself, then he
starts calling for his men to carry up water. Ben and me, we don’t wait no more. Ben goes to the quarters to cut the ropes, and I go to help Beattie with her boys. But Beattie’s standing outside her kitchen door, crying. She’s saying she don’t know where Uncle got to. The fire’s whooshin’ and howlin’, and I grab Beattie, tell her to get her boys and come on, there’s no time, everybody’s waiting on her. But she just keeps crying, worrying that Uncle’s in the big house. The fire’s turning everything bright as day, and all I’m thinking is, We got to get out of here, so I hit Beattie and tell her to get her boys now!

When we get down to the quarters, Ben got everybody loose, and they’re getting ready to go, but Mama’s making a fuss. She says she won’t go. She says everybody gets caught the first time because she can’t run good, so she’s staying, and that be that. Then Papa says if Mama stays, he stays, too, but Mama gets mad and says he got to go.

Ben says, “Papa, you got to take them out, show them the way. They needin’ you for that.”

So Papa says he’ll get them on the way, then he’s coming back for Mama.

Mama say, “George. You go, stay, help Beattie and her boys. I gonna be fine here.” But we all know that Papa’s bound to come back.

The big house fire is wild, and it looks like my Jamie is thinking of going up. I go to him quick. “Jamie. Miss Martha, she’s gone,” I say.

“What do you mean she’s gone? How do you know?”

“I see her. She’s dead,” I say. “She takes too many drops. She’s dead before the fire gets going. She’s gone, Jamie.”

“Marshall did this! He killed her! It’s all because of him!”

“Come,” I say, pushing him off. “You go with the others. After you get away, you write me. I’ll send you money; you get your free papers.”

“Come on!” Ben say. “We got to go!”

Fanny’s crying, Beattie’s crying, Papa’s crying.

Ben says, “Each a you! Stop cryin’! Take the lil ones up and get goin’!”

Fanny takes up one of Beattie’s boys, Eddy takes up another. Jamie looks at me like he asking me what to do. He’s tall as me, but the way he looks at me now, he’s still my baby boy. “You go,” I say. “Quick, with the others. You write to me, I’ll send you money.”

Ben says, “Come on!” He pulls at Papa, and once he gets Papa going, everybody takes off running.

After they’re gone, Mama just sits. The sky is red, and the roaring coming from the big house sounds like a storm. I tell Mama to come with me back to Will Stephens’s, but she says she going up to her own place to wait for Marshall there. She’s looking too sick to get there by herself, so I take her, but she don’t even make it to the kitchen house before she got to sit down again. She says that her chest’s heavy on her, and I see that her breathing ain’t right. She keeps telling me to get out of here, that she’s gonna be fine.

“We’ll just sit here, Mama, here in the grass, until you feel better.” We sit, and she don’t say nothing. I put my arms around her and hold her up while she closes her eyes. When I get her going again, she only makes it as far as the kitchen house. By then the big house fire’s shooting up all over the place, and the roof is going in.

“You think it come down here, burn this kitchen house?” I ask Mama.

“No,” she says, “this place built far enough away so a fire start down here, it don’t set fire to the big house.”

I get Mama sitting down, and she tells me again that I got to leave. I know she’s right. I give her a hug, say to hold on until I come with Will Stephens to get her. I’m heading out the door when Mama calls me back. She’s taking off her head rag and pulling out pearls from her hair. I know them from the big house. They’re Miss Martha’s! Mama wraps them tight in her head rag and pushes it in my pocket. “You get this to the others,” she says.

I go to leave, but I hear Mama talking to herself. “My head feel cold,” she says, patting at her ears and looking lost as a little girl.

I take off my own dirty green head scarf and wrap it around her
head, then I kiss her and say, “You stay right here, Mama. I’m coming back for you.”

I know I got to go. At the back of my neck, I can feel that something bad’s gonna happen. I turn to the kitchen door standing open, and there I see him. His face is so black from the fire, I don’t hardly know who he is, but when he says my name, everything in me goes soft and my mind stops working. Next thing I know, Rankin’s pulling me up the hill, where Marshall’s waiting, rope in his hand, saying I’m gonna hang for setting fire to his house.

They’re about to tie my hands when up the hill comes Mama. She’s yelling at Marshall that he better stop, and he better stop right now! She’s talking to Marshall like he’s a child, and sure enough, he stops and listens to what Mama’s saying. She’s puffing real hard by the time she gets to us, but she knows what Marshall’s got in mind, and she comes right on over to pull me away.

“Marshall! What you think you doin’?” Mama says. “You don’t think you do enough already?”

Marshall comes to grab at me. I jump behind Mama. He’s got the rope in his hands, but Mama stays standing there, looking straight at him.

“Masta Marshall,” she says, “you gonna hurt the mama that takes care of you when you a lil boy?”

Marshall grabs for me again, but Mama gets in his way.

“Marshall,” she says, “you stop this now! What you doin’! The debil have you? Ever since that time lil Sally die, I see how that temper of yours hurtin’ people. You got to stop yourself! All this time you usin’ my girls like they some animals down at the barn. You make all those babies, they white, they cullad, but you don’t pay no mind. Your Elly, she a sister to Jamie, to Moses, to Beattie’s boys—they all her brothers! Yes, they is! But they all gone. They all run from you. Abinia gone, lil Elly gone, even my Beattie go with her babies, runnin’ from you. What you gonna do now?”

One more time Marshall reaches for me, and one more time Mama steps in the way.

“Marshall!” Mama say. “I say this enough! Now you wanna kill
Belle? She your sista! You leave her alone! It time you know that she your sista. First you have the chil’ with her, now you gonna kill her! You the debil himself, you kill your own sista!”

Marshall stands real quiet. He looks at me funny. I can see this is the first time he hears that I’m his sister.

But Mama don’t stop. “That’s right, Marshall!” she say. “Belle your sista. Your daddy love this girl, but not the way you and Miss Martha think. I there when she born, and I know that Belle your daddy’s chil’.”

Now Marshall is fixed on Mama. She keeps talking.

“That’s right, Marshall! You come at me! I the one who burn this house down. I the one hidin’ Abinia. I the one who tell Beattie to go, I even know where they run to, but I don’t tell you nothin’.”

Marshall is yelling when he grabs at Mama. I try to pull her away when he starts putting the rope on her, but Rankin hits me from the back and I go down.