A Virtuous Ruby (20 page)

“Thank you, Brother.”

Ruby pulled away in the car and tried not to look behind her to see Lona being dragged into the house and Solomon nearly inconsolable in the arms of Sister Jane. Solomon was surrounded by enough love—he would be fine. She hadn’t known her mother, though, loved her.

As she drove, Ruby thought about all that had happened in the past hour and marveled at how quickly her life had changed.

An hour ago, she hadn’t known if her mother loved her and had only thought about her as a reminder of a horrific crime committed against her. An hour ago, she hadn’t known if Adam loved her, but thought of her as some young woman he was trying to help. Now, she knew both of them loved her.

With this knowledge, she could face whatever she had to. She had the strength to do what needed to be done to save Adam, even if it meant facing the horror of a crime like her mother had faced or being lynched herself.

This is what love can do. Love.
It all seemed so simple, yet it was all so difficult to grasp. She set her chin and drove a little faster in the darkening twilight. Now she was ready. It was love, love from God, her mother and her man all formed into armor for this battle.

She could not, would not, let those who didn’t love win. She rejoiced to be a child of a loving God in this, the most difficult hour of her young life.

Chapter Nineteen

Her life had changed. Her life was in her own hands. She did not have to listen or follow what Lona said, just to get Lona to love her. She did not care anymore—she was grown now. There was great empathy in her heart for why Lona had frozen her out most of her life. She understood it but didn’t support it.

She would never, ever freeze Solomon out, and now, as an adult, driving her man’s car away to help him, it came to her in a rush of emotion that her desire to stay in Winslow was the fulfillment of a childish wish. If she stayed, she would remain a child and follow what everyone wanted her to do or say.

Winslow was home, but not her home anymore. Her home was with Adam.

God, please look out for him
, she prayed as she drove. Her eyes began to swim with tears as she thought about him and his potential danger. How in the world could she help him? As much as Ida Wells-Barnett wrote about the horrors of lynching and how they had to be stopped, she had never written a guide or manual about how to approach stopping one without jeopardizing one’s own life.

She swiped at her wet face. Now she understood. David had chosen rape as his weapon of choice, purposefully. She confided in him, foolishly, as a child would, about Ida Wells-Barnett. He used her own words about morality and truth against her, and tried to make her immoral. But it wasn’t her fault, and Adam did not hate her for her mistake, or for what happened to her, so she could deal with it. There was strength in that. She ran a hand over her silky black hair and gripped the wheel again. She had everything she needed, right with her.

The town’s lone police car was not visible along the path she had taken into town, but when she approached the courthouse, it was parked in front.
Whew
. She parked Adam’s car along side it and went into the side door of the ornate building Paul Winslow built in tribute to himself.

Sheriff Baines was in his office and he rolled his eyes. “Good gravy, girl, what do you want?”

Ruby stood as tall as she could at her height of five feet. “I want to post bail for Dr. Adam Morson.”

A sick feeling emerged in her gut as the evil grin moved across his face. “What makes you think he is here, gal?”

Ruby mind raced. A trickle of cold sweat dripped down the back of her neck. “There’s due process. Once you arrested him, he should be able to get a lawyer and a bail set.”

The sheriff leaned forward and fixed Ruby with a look. “There ain’t no due process for you people.”

“What about the fourteenth amendment? It say in the United States Constitution all American citizens are entitled to due process.”

“Ain’t the case in my county, girl.”

“Too bad, Sheriff. I always thought you was fair, but I see something different now.”

“He came in here, riding on his white charger like a knight to save you. Used all his connections, everything, just for you. Well, now since Winslow is gone, I’ve something to say about where he is going to be.”

“Where?” Ruby tried to draw herself up even more.

The sheriff fixed her with a look and made Ruby’s blood run cold. “Winslow said his boy would fix you, but you’re just as sassy as ever. Coming in here, making demands like you do. You don’t need to know nothing about men’s business. Go on home and take care of your little bastard, if you can.”

Ruby tried not to shrink at the insult to her baby. People were going to call him names if she stayed here in Winslow. She had to gather up her son, and leave here as soon as she could—with Adam if he were still alive.

“You haven’t lynched him, have you?” Ruby said with more confidence than she felt. “I’ll bring the full force of the NAACP into Winslow if you’ve harmed a hair on his head.”

The sheriff gave a harsh laugh. “I’m not interested in the ways you uppity coloreds think you can do something in my town, about my business. Go on home, before I arrest you again for interfering with the business of the sheriff.”

“I want to post his bail.” Ruby started to dig through a bag she bought. Her laundress money. “I have money.” But it wasn’t much, she knew. “And Dr. Morson’s car.” Which she knew was Paul Winslow’s but she would think about that later.

“There isn’t any amount of money or a car you got I want,” the sheriff stood over her and fingered a loose curl tumbling down on her shoulder. Why did her hair misbehave? Now was not the time to have loose hair. She did not flinch or move one inch as he came closer and closer and she could smell his breath.

“What do you want?”

“Stop making trouble in my town. Stop stirring up trouble.”

“If you help me find Dr. Morson, I will.”

The sheriff still stood over her, in her personal space and folded his arms. “How?”

“He’s going to take me away. I’ll leave Winslow with him and I’ll never come back, ever again. If I stay here and marry Dodge,” she swallowed and turned her brown eyes sideways to him. “Do you think he can control me? Please.”

The sheriff laughed and put the curl back on to her shoulder. “Dodge could be a real man once he got you into a house as your husband who have dominion over you, be master to you, and control you, sure enough. Break down your sassy ways. It might take some time, but it could be done. Winslow’s idea about his boy was wrong. He wasn’t the one to take care of you.” He moved the half inch closer and whispered into her ear. “I could break down them sassy ways. I surely could.”

Ruby did her best not to recoil at the sheriff’s hot, wet breath in her ear. “Where is Dr. Morson?” Ruby repeated, drawing out the words, as if she hadn’t heard him. As if she weren’t afraid he was going to take up what David hadn’t finished properly, according to him. “He’ll take me from here and you’ll never have to see me again.”

“What a shame.”

“It would end your troubles.” Her stomach gripped her with fingers of fear as she waited forever for him to say what had happened to her love, the only man she ever cared for as a woman would a man.

They stood there, facing off, seeing who was stronger, judging who would make the first move. Ruby did not flinch even a little bit.

The sheriff backed down first.

“I turned him over in the next county.”

“What do you mean?” Ruby’s heart began to race, thinking “turned him over” was some type of words for dead.

“I owed the sheriff in Calhoun a little favor. So, I sold off the doctor there. He’s over there working for him.”

Something in her head throbbed as she informed him, “Slavery ended fifty years ago, Sheriff. President Lincoln freed us.”

His sly, creepy smile came around again. He moved behind his desk like a snake. “Did he now? How come I am just finding out? And you the one who’s telling me.”

“You cannot sell a free man.”

“I can sell any prisoner I want to the chain gang.”

A cold wave of fear came over Ruby.

A chain gang.

It was almost preferable Adam be lynched. “He cannot do hard labor. He’s a doctor. An educated man. The chain gang wouldn’t work for him.”

“Then he should not have gotten into folks’ business. There is nothing worse than a stranger coming into town getting into other people’s affairs.”

“Since when do you care about who Negroes marry?”

“Since the Reverend promised he would keep you under control.”

“And you believed him?”

His gaze was hard and cold on her. “I’m sheriff in this town. No colored tells me what to do.”

Ruby leaned over and looked him in the eye for a second time. “That may be so. But I wonder what’ll happen when Paul Winslow comes back to town. I hope I’m here long enough to see what’ll happen to you then.”

She walked out the door. Then, when she was sure the sheriff did not see her, she grabbed a fistful of her skirt and ran to the car, got it started and hopped in. The drive to Calhoun was a long one, over bumpy country roads. She had tried to avoid being alone for this extended period of time, but Adam’s life was at stake. Life on a chain gang was too horrific to think about for a man like Adam. She had to find him.

Chapter Twenty

“Get over here,” the Calhoun sheriff barked at Adam, who went over to him, adjusting his glasses. Adam could tell this sheriff was in no mood to bargain or to negotiate. “Why haven’t you eaten your food?”

“It’s not fresh.”

This was the wrong answer.

The sheriff, who had eaten too much of any kind of food, put his face close to Adam’s and Adam could tell, from the scent of his breath, that the man had many dental problems. “I don’t like no uppity coloreds on my work crews. You eat, so you can work hard. I got to get my money’s worth out of you—do you understand?”

“Fine.” Adam picked up a shard of the smelly country ham and started to gnaw on it. The salty ham was a long, long way from Lona’s food, but he had to keep up his strength. An opportunity to get away might come up. He couldn’t stay here. Deep in a piney wood, where the gang was retrieving turpentine, he knew it was going to be difficult to find his way through.

The rough denim pants he wore scratched him and short white shirt they had given him was too tight. The clothes took him back to his childhood when he was exposed and open, often without enough clothing.

As soon as he could, he wore suits and ties because they underlined his status so he wore them relentlessly. These clothes were too ill fitting, and his chest looked strange to him. He had done hard labor before, while he was growing up and during the summers of college and medical school to earn extra money. And every time he did, he was reminded about why he wanted to be a doctor.

“Enough, captain.” A kind-faced man who was the color of warm cocoa spoke to him. “He ain’t looking now.”

Adam put down the shard of ham and sighed. “People would work better if they had better food—why don’t they realize?”

“They buys these pigs cheap, cook them fast, and give it to us.”

“People could get trichinosis.”

The man regarded him closely. “How did you get on this here gang, boss? What did you do? Kill your wife?”

Adam tried to see himself through the man’s eyes. He probably had not had close kind of contact to someone like him before. The other men in the room were waiting to hear his answer. “I was looking to ask a young lady to marry. I beat up someone who wanted to marry her instead. The sheriff in the other county sold me over here. That’s how I got here.”

“The other man dead?”

“No.”

“You musts made someone mad. They don’t puts no white on the chain gang for hurtin’ somebody.”

Adam took a deep breath. He released it, thinking about Ruby’s brown eyes and slightly parted pink lips, wondering if he would ever feel their warmth on his ever again. “I’m a Negro.”

“What you say?” All the other men leaned forward and looked at him.

Adam repeated the revelation, seeing the men elbow each other in surprise and wonder. The kindly man spoke up, “You about the whitest Negro I ever seen. You sure?”

“My mother was the maid in the house where my father was the son.”

“Whoa. Yeah. He one.”

“That explain it then. They wouldn’t put no white man in here for just any kind of reason,” the cocoa brown man offered his hand. “James. Nice to meet you.”

Adam shook it. “Nice to meet you.”

“What you do?”

Adam frowned. Some other man leaned forward.

James clarified, “No, I mean, what you does. For work.”

“I’m a doctor.”

The men breathed out. “I ain’t never heard tell of no colored doctor afore,” James breathed out.

“I knew he was somebody,” another man said under his breath, but the room was so quiet, everyone heard it.

Adam ran his hand over his short curls. “Well, I’m in here with everyone else. Trying to figure a way to get out.”

They all stared at him. “There ain’t no way off of the gang, captain. You got to work your time off.”

“Until when?”

“Until the sheriff say you can go.” Some of the other men shifted and laughed at James.

“What’s so funny?” Adam looked around.

“We don’t go. Some of us been here for years. Working from place to place. Doing whatever they say.”

“Don’t you know how much your debt is for?”

“We don’t know. It’s whatever they say.”

“How do you know then?”

“We doesn’t. They knows a lot of us can’t read or write. They just brought us here. We go from place to place, working, doing what they say.”

Adam had heard of chain gangs and peonage, but he never believed he would be part of it. Peonage sounded like a nightmare, being stuck on someone else’s say so and having to work however much someone else wanted.

Slavery, all over again.

The thought of going around and around Calhoun County without seeing Ruby depressed him, so he tried to clear his mind so he could think of another time and another reality.

“Was your girl pretty?” James spoke in a low register. “Was she worth it?”

“Yes.” Ruby was worth it. Without a doubt. The picture of Ruby in her big pink hat and white dress formed in his mind and comforted him. If he had the courage to ask sooner, maybe she might have worn the dress to marry him. He could see it, in his mind’s eye. Next time, he would ask her to take off the hat, so he could see her beautiful brown eyes shining at him.

“Ruby?” Adam turned his head at the sound of his beloved’s name on another man’s lips. He hadn’t even realized he had spoken her name.

“Yes, that’s her name.”

“Does she live over in the next county?”

“Yes, in Winslow.”

“I used to work at the mill. She be the little bit, coming around trying to get the workers together.” The other man’s face softened. “Feisty little bit, even though the boss man keep trying to throw her out. You see her all the time, and then she stopped coming around.”

“She had a baby.”

“Your baby?” All the men leaned forward. A muscle twitched in Adam’s jaw.

“No. They had someone take advantage of her to get her to stop going around organizing.”

“What you say?” James breathed out. “Awful.”

“It is. She had her baby and she loves him, but Winslow’s attack didn’t stop her.” Adam still couldn’t bring himself to believe Paul Winslow was his father. If Paul Winslow came to save him from this hellish existence as a Negro man, would he want him to do it?

No.

He could have a purpose in his life by being what Ruby wanted. Even though it meant she couldn’t be with him, and he would never see Solomon again, he would take comfort in being a Negro man.

“It’s mighty hard when you can’t protect your woman,” James said.

Many of the men around the table nodded, agreeing. “Don’t nobody blame you.”

“Thank you. While we are waiting here, does anyone need any medical help?”

The men presented, one at a time, almost shyly, one problem after another. There were a lot of upset stomachs and gastrointestinal issues—which didn’t surprise him if they had to eat this swill every day. He was able to help more with the cuts he saw they suffered on their hands from slashing the pine to get to the turpentine.

His hands were sore, but the pain was small compared to what these men had to suffer. Not using his medical training meant all his time and education would have been wasted. But then, as he patched up another cut on another man’s hand from the turpentine knife, it was all Paul Winslow’s money wasn’t it?

No. It was God.

There it was, the truth, right in front of him. All of the deception, lies and blood money it took to get his medical degree. To make it right, his education had to be turned over to serve God.

And even though, it hurt him to the core he couldn’t see his beloved, she would be proud of him for treating these men who had been treated so despicably. He could do this, he could perform this service, before they succeeded in breaking him.

But they wouldn’t break him.

The men turned at the rough door opening, letting in the hot steam of the Georgia day. “What is going on in here?” the sheriff asked and Adam’s heart sank. This was it, the beginning of the downward spiral. When and if he laid eyes on Ruby again, she would love him and be worthy of him. Just as he was making himself worthy of her.

Going home would be fruitless. Lona would cry and beg her to behave. She had to do something, but ever since the sheriff made his revelation, she didn’t know how. She hated the thought, but she had to go to the Winslows again. She didn’t know if Paul Winslow was home yet, but she had to check and see. This time, she made sure she went to the back door and Bob opened it.

“Ruby, what’s going on?” Bob and Agnes had been at the revival, too, Ruby remembered.

Ruby ignored his behavior from before at the train station and just said it. “The sheriff sold Adam to a chain gang.”

“Jesus, keep us near the cross. The doctor wouldn’t last on no chain gang.”

“I know. Do you think Mrs. Winslow would see me?”

Bob shook his head back and forth. “I don’t know. She mighty cross at you.”

“If I can get Adam back, I promised the sheriff I would go away with him and never come back to Winslow.”

Bob’s face became a mass of wrinkles. “Afore God, Ruby. Where would you go?”

Ruby’s eyes blazed. Now he acted concerned about her after his behavior at the railroad station.

The nerve.
Please God, help me to be patient. Bob is just a confused soul.
She calmed down. “I got places. The doctor said I could go up north with him and finish high school. Maybe even get to be a nurse and help him out.”

“Maybe he marry you, and be a daddy to your boy?”

Ruby lowered her head and blushed a bit. “I hope so.”

“I take you in.”

Ruby followed Bob in through the kitchen to the parlor where Mary Winslow sat. All corseted up and sitting in her chair, with a bit of needlework in her hands, Mary Winslow was in her own prison. Ruby had pain in her heart for her. Her entire existence was sitting there in her prim, grey dress and purposeless needlework in her hands.

“What are you doing here, Ruby?”

“Ma’am.” Ruby stepped forward and smoothed down her skirt in supplication. “I need your help. They’ve taken the doctor to a chain gang, and I don’t know what to do to get him out. Please help him.”

Something flashed in her eyes—she couldn’t label it. Was it sorrow? Sympathy? She didn’t know what to make of the look. When Ruby came close to identifying it, the empathetic look went away. Something aloof showed up in her eyes as Ruby knew she had reached her “I don’t know what you mean, Ruby. I cannot help you.”

“You can go to the sheriff and let him know he needs to get Adam back.”

“Why? If the sheriff sold him off somewhere else, I have nothing to say about it.”

Ruby narrowed her eyes. “I never said he sold him off. This must be a way of doing things, isn’t it?”

Mrs. Winslow had the grace to look shamefaced, at least. “Well, yes.”

“When is Mr. Winslow coming home?”

“The end of the week.”

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief. Any time he was on a chain gang was long. Still, but they couldn’t break him in three more days. They wouldn’t be able to get their money’s worth out of him. “Well, if you are convinced you couldn’t do something to help Mr. Winslow’s son—”

“David is Mr. Winslow’s son, or have you forgotten?”

“I could never forget. He’s the reason I have Solomon.” Ruby stood still and stared Mary Winslow down in her own parlor.

Mrs. Winslow stood up. “I’ve had quite enough of your coming in here and making trouble for my family. I’m sorry, I cannot help with your request.”

She was protecting her family, as Ruby would have. She couldn’t blame her. “I –I don’t have access to the kind of funds it would take to buy him out.” Mrs. Winslow’s blue eyes reflected her powerlessness with money.

Ruby believed her. She stood a little taller than her short height would let her. “Too bad. Whenever the doctor comes home, I’m going up north with him. I’m leaving Winslow for good.”

“Go north with him? Leave Winslow?”

“Yes, ma’am. For good.”

“You would take your baby? With a strange man? What about your child?”

And the same look of longing showed now in Mrs. Winslow’s eyes as when she first saw Solomon on the Bledsoe front porch. The look appeared again at the picnic. Mary Winslow wanted to be a grandmother to Solomon, but she couldn’t upset her little world.

Everything was in order, and for Mrs. Winslow, her world was a place of the nineteenth century. She still belonged in the old times, a time where women did needlework and waited for their husbands to come home to deal with financial matters, because they didn’t have enough means to buy people off of chain gangs. Mrs. Winslow’s blue eyes showed such sadness, trying to keep up the façade, trying hard not to show emotion when she shouldn’t.

Ruby understood now. They were complete equals. They were women who were concerned about their families. “He’ll be fine, ma’am. Even before the doctor came to Winslow, the world was changing. Took some time after slave times ended, but things are changing now, ma’am. Solomon,” Ruby spoke her son’s name softly before this woman so she could share in his name, just for the moment, “Solomon is part of a changing world. Dr. Morson has offered me a chance to finish my education. He says I have smarts, and I can get to be a nurse and help him in his work.”

Mrs. Winslow gave a little laugh. “And be what to him? A paid companion of some kind, no doubt.”

“No, ma’am. I would be his wedded wife. We would be married before God. He might not have had it in his mind when the sheriff come and take him away, but he has it now. We’re bonded in a way only God would come to know and understand.”

Mrs. Winslow’s face crinkled up in disappointment and confusion. “I thought, if you married the Reverend Dodge, you would stay here. He told me so.”

“It was very wrong of Reverend Dodge to tell you something about my life. I make decisions for myself.”

“I see.” Mary Winslow sat back down in her overstuffed chair. “You’ve certainly never done anything less. Well, this is a blow. That so-called Reverend took a donation for his church on his word.”

Ruby smoothed down her skirt. “I don’t know where Reverend Dodge is. If I see him, I’ll tell him you looking for him, ma’am. I’m going to go now. The revival going to start soon, and I want to go and pray. Thank you for letting me know when Mr. Paul will be coming back.”