On to Richmond (10 page)

             
Opal nodded and reached for her bag. 

             
“I’ll take it inside for you,” Sam said.  Not giving her time to reply, he gripped the small bag firmly and strode through the dirt yard toward the front door.

             
Opal turned and gazed at Fannie.   Her cousin was tiny - almost as tiny as Old Sarah.  She hadn’t expected that.  The strong letters that occasionally reached her through the slave grapevine had made her envision a much bigger, imposing woman.  Her short ebony hair was already taking on a salt and pepper hue.  Then Opal saw her strength.  The eyes gazing at her with so much warmth were eyes that had seen much suffering and come through victorious.  They were Sarah’s eyes.  Opal sighed, knowing she had come to a good place.

             
“Look the way you expected me to look?”

             
Opal shook her head and laughed.  “You looks ten times better.”  Feeling a burst of confidence and excitement, she reached out and tucked her arm through her cousin’s.  “Let’s go meet the family.”

             
Fannie smiled and turned to lead the way.  Opal gazed at the house.  Compared to some of the houses they had passed on the way here, Fannie’s home was small and run-down.  Compared to the tiny cabin in the quarters that had been her home all her life, Fannie’s home was like a mansion.  Fitting snugly against the surrounding two wooden structures, the wood was gray and weathered, rising up two stories.  The small porch, with three sagging steps leading up to it, looked like it had seen much better days.  The yard was small and barren of any growth.  Opal had just a moment to absorb her new surroundings before she stepped through the doorway. 

             
Instantly she felt at home.  Warmth and love seemed to be a living thing, reaching out to embrace her.  She saw Sam smiling as Fannie’s husband, their four children, and an older woman she hadn’t yet identified, rushed forward to envelope her in big hugs.  All was wild confusion and talk until they heard Fannie banging a big spoon against a large cast iron skillet. 

             
“I didn’t stand in a hot kitchen cookin’ all day, so’s that y’all could talk away the supper hour.  Y’alls can talk whilst you eat!”

             
In seconds, all were seated around the huge plank table and laughed happily as Fannie passed big platters of cornbread, cabbage and beans.  There was even fresh squash and tomatoes.

             
Opal stared at the feast set before her.  “Do y’all eat like this all the time?”  Visions of wanting fled from her mind.

             
Fannie laughed.  “As long as the garden produces, we do.”  She jumped up from the table to walk over and open the door leading outside.  

             
Opal smiled in delight.  The front yard may be barren dirt, but the back yard resembled the Garden of Eden.  Every square inch was taken up with growing things.  Large clumps of squash plants sported bright yellow blossoms.  Green beans climbed stakes that Eddie, Fannie’s husband, had pushed into the ground to support them.  Tomato plants vied for the center of attention.  Fannie let the door swoosh shut before she could identify more.

             
After that, silence reigned as the food was consumed.  In the distance, Opal could hear children yelling and the steady chugging of a train climbing the steep tracks to the main station on Broad Street.  Dogs were barking and roosters were crowing.  Opal relaxed as the familiar sounds of the country mingled with the new sounds of the city. 

             
Finally, she lay her fork down and looked around the table.  Eddie, seated next to Sam, was almost as tall as Moses, just not nearly as big.  He looked like he hardly ate.  The four kids were watching her closely as she ate.   Carl, the youngest at six, eyed her with the delight of finding a new toy.  Amber, the next oldest at nine, was merely watching her carefully.  Not unfriendly.  Just careful.   Her large brown eyes promised friendship if she felt it was due.  Sadie, budding into womanhood at thirteen, was going to be a real beauty.  It was Susie who held her attention, though.  At sixteen, she gave off confidence that was beyond her years.  Holding herself straight and tall, Susie ate slowly, all the time watching their newest house member.  Aware that Opal was watching her, she smiled, a warm smile that said she was her mother’s child.  Opal knew they would be friends. 

             
Fannie was the first to break the silence.  “Did you have a good trip here?”

             
Opal nodded.  “Sam was trying to train me how to stay out of trouble in Richmond.”  She laughed as she told them of Sam’s warnings.  Now that she was here, she was sure Sam had been exaggerating.  The warmth of their welcome had erased her fears. 

             
Eddie was the first to respond.  “Don’t be thinking Sam was joking, Opal,” he said somberly.  “Things in Richmond used to be pretty easy.  There’s been a lot of changin’, though.  The comin’ of war done made a lot of people nervous.  They especially nervous ‘bout us blacks.  When people get nervous, they try and get things back under control.  That can mean some rough times for us.” 

             
“Some people were real mean to Daddy!”  Amber burst out.

             
Opal’s heart pounded as she waited for Eddie to explain.  The fear that had disappeared during their meal had come back even stronger.  Eddie shrugged and kept his voice light.  “Seems I didn’t get off the sidewalk fast enough when some white folks were coming down it.  They took offense.” 

             
That’s all he said, but the worried look that sprang into Fannie’s eyes and the grim tightening of Eddie’s mouth spoke more than his words did. 

             
Fannie changed the subject.  “The children been doin’ nothing but talking ‘bout your coming.  They’ve made me tell the story over and over about why we’ve never met.

             
Sadie spoke up them.  “I think it was real mean of y’alls old owner to sell family away from each other.”

             
Opal shrugged.  “It happens.”  She had been too young to remember anything.  She had been only two when she and her mama had been bought by Thomas Cromwell.   Her mama and Fannie’s mama had been sisters.  When the plantation they had grown up on was sold, all the slaves went to the auction block.  The sisters had been separated but knew where each other was going. 

             
In fewer than six months, Opal’s mama had taken sick and died in an outbreak of scarlet fever.   Other women at Cromwell had raised the little girl.  When she had gotten older, they gave her the stack of letters that had arrived sporadically over the years since her mama had died.  Rose had read them to her.  Opal had cried the whole time.  It had been so wonderful to know that somewhere she had real family.

             
Shaking her thoughts back, she said, “It’s now that counts.  Now we can be together as family.”  It seemed too good to be true. 

             
Fannie’s mama had been hired out to someone in the city.  While she was working, she had met and fallen in love with a free slave, a bricklayer.   Determined they would be together, he had saved all his money until he could buy the freedom of his love and her little girl.  Fannie had been only five when she had come to live in Richmond as a free black. 

             
The next hour passed quickly as stories flowed around the table.  So little living could be crammed into letters.  Fannie and her family knew virtually nothing about Opal’s life.  She had learned to read and write only months before and had only been able to get two short letters to them. 

             
Finally, Eddie settled back in his chair and fixed his kindly gaze on his children.  “Why don’t you young’uns go outside and play for a while?”

             
A chorus of protests rose around, but one look from Eddie ended it.  In just minutes, there were only adults sitting around the table.  Adults and Susie.  The teen-aged girl hadn’t moved.   

             
“We’re glad you’re here, Opal,” Fannie said softly.

             
Opal knew what she meant this time.  “I want to help in any way I can.”

             
Eddie spoke softly as well.  “We probably shouldn’t be talkin’ now, but I wanted Sam to be here.”

             
Sam?
  Opal looked around in confusion.  She thought they had just met Sam.  Why would Eddie want him to be there? 

             
Sam chuckled softly.  “There’s a lot you don’t be knowin’ bout me, girl. I been knowin’ your family here for a long time.”  When Opal just stared at him, he continued.  “I made my decision to stay on the plantation and do the job I had to do.  Dat didn’t mean I quit helping my people.  It didn’t mean I quit dreamin’...

CHAPTER FIVE

             
Carrie rubbed a hand across her weary eyes and stretched to loosen her stiffened muscles.  A glance at the clock told her it was long past her dinner hour.  She turned back to the desk, made a final entry, and then snapped the record book shut.  It was her fault.  They should have been done weeks ago, but it was a job she hated and too often found a reason to avoid doing.   She needed to send a report to her father soon, however, so she couldn’t put it off any longer.  She had ridden the fields with Moses earlier that day and then had locked herself away in the office.  Pushing back from the desk with a satisfied sigh, she rose to her feet and smoothed down her dark green gown.                

             
When she pushed open the door to the office, she saw Sam standing near the front door and peering out the window.   “I’m starving, Sam.”  Her stomach growled in agreement.  “Would you please have Annie bring me lunch in the parlor?  I’m going to relax for a little while.”

             
“Don’t know ‘bout no relaxing,” Sam said mildly.  “It looks like you be gettin’ comp’ny.”

             
“Company?” Carrie echoed in surprise.  “I wasn’t expecting anyone.”  She moved quickly to join Sam by the window.  What she saw caused her heart to sink.  “It’s Louisa Blackwell,” she said, dismayed.

             
“Looks that way.  Want me to tell her you’re out?”

             
Carrie looked at him in surprise.  Her heart screamed for her to say yes, but she felt herself shaking her head no.  The hospitality code of the South wouldn’t allow her to do that – nor would her integrity.  “Show her to the parlor,” she said firmly.

             
Determined to make the best of what she was sure would be a difficult situation, Carrie escaped to the kitchen, drank down a frothing glass of milk and hurriedly ate a biscuit.  Whatever she had to face, it would be faced more easily with some food in her stomach.   She lingered just long enough for the warm familiarity and delicious smells of the kitchen to calm her heart and gazed out over the pastures as she finished her small meal. Finally, fortified and ready, she patted stray hairs into place and walked slowly to the parlor. 

             
“Why, Louisa, what a surprise to see you!  Welcome to Cromwell Plantation.”  She would at least begin this visit in a cordial manner.  It was really too bad.  She and Louisa had never been good friends, but the proximity of their fathers’ plantations had created a relationship that went back to their childhoods.  Carrie looked at her neighbor carefully.  She had not seen her since the Christmas ball six months earlier.  Their encounter then had not been pleasant.  The hardness in Louisa’s eyes warned her not to expect anything different today.

             
Louisa stood up to welcome her.  Her petite body encased in a charming blue gown, her blond curls, and blue eyes created a stunning touch to the picture she made.  She hurried forward and gathered Carrie’s hand in a warm clasp.  “My dear!  It is so wonderful to see you!”

             
Carrie wanted to laugh at the feigned affection gushing from the other girl’s lips.  She knew Louisa had no love lost for her.  Their differences seem to hold them constantly in conflict.  “Thank you,” she murmured and then moved away to perch herself on the rose love seat positioned by the massive fireplace, the focal point of the parlor.   What was Louisa up to?