Horrible Harvest

Silence was the order of the day or days – can’t say how many hours passed. I slipped in and out of light and dark as the world rotated beneath me. I struggled like the devil to keep my chin off my chest. I was near done in when Douglas planted himself in front of me.

“What’s it like?”

I worked to get an eye on him.

“You’re just about there – At the end of it all, I mean. You can’t make another day of it. What’s it like?”

I couldn’t make out what he was asking me.

“I think about my Ma sometimes. When I ain’t up on myself, feeling good about things, I think on her. When I took that bullet to the leg and nearly give out, I thought about her every tick of the clock. The ticks I can recall anyhow. That what you’re thinking about? Your momma. Y’all think she’s smart, but that dumb ol’ sow married Daddy. You think that’s smart?”

I shift my eyes to Kenneth, still floating in the shallows. Little wakes from the creatures of the lake give outline to his body in a growing state of bloat.

Douglas turnt to look at him and then back to me. “Him? That’s what you’re thinking on? You’re wasting away in the wind, and you’re spending your last on that plantation fancy boy?”

My mind flipped around, and I could see backwards in time, and she come to me in a thought. Virginia. I was unawares I’d said her name out loud – But it come out with a slur and a mumble.

“Virginia? Who the shit is Virginia? You got a gal, too? You a dog like that? You’ll plow near anything, man or woman – Probably beast, too – You that kind of demon, little brother?”

“Virginia. The girl – you kilt’er.”

“What the hell you on about?”

“You drownt her.” The words come out of me in drips and drabs.

“I drownt who now? Virginia?”

“In the Ashley.”

“The river? Back home?”

“I seen you.”

“I got no idea what you’re on about – ” He stopped when it come to him. “The little nigger girl?”

I give him the slightest nod ‘cause it was all I could muster.

He chuckled. “You think I kilt her?”

“Seen it.”

“You ain’t seen nothing ‘cause I didn’t kill that lil’ pup. Daddy did.”

I raised my chin off my chest enough to feel the strain in my neck.

“I come up on him – His jimmies and pole out – He’d took his liberties with her and squeezed her neck until she was gone from this world. I didn’t have no part in her killing.”

I felt a fresh sense of rage building up in me.

“When he walked off out of sight, I drug her into the marsh, so wouldn’t nobody find her – I did that. I surely did. I knew she belonged to some rich man, and he’d come calling looking for her this time or that. He’d either take Daddy or the farm in recompense. Daddy, I’d give in a trade without a thought, but I couldn’t risk losing the farm.”

I let out a roar – What I thought was a roar, anyhow. It come out more like a squeak.

He laughed. “Hell of lot a good it done. Lost the farm, and Daddy’s still out there’s somewhere.”

“I’m gonna kill Daddy.”

He laughed even harder. “You’re gonna kill Daddy? How you reckon you’re going to do that? Boy, you ain’t got but twenty minutes left in this world.”

He turnt and walked to the edge of the water. For a time he was fixed on Kenneth’s body. When he spoke, it give me a startle. “You ain’t gonna believe this, but I always felt bad for that girl. I can’t say why. I kind of felt – I don’t know – Like I weren’t that far off from her. Does that make sense? Does that ever come across your mind? That we ain’t that far off from being niggers? That we’s owned, too? I mean look at what a rich man done to us. You’re hanging from a tree, and I’m sitting like a dog ‘cause he told me to. Been sitting like a dog since the day Mr. Miller showed up on our farm.”

He turnt from the lake and walked back to me. Standing before me, he said,“I ain’t no dog, little brother.” He reached up and pulled the linchpin free that locked the shackles around my wrist, and I crashed to the ground.

He made his way to the tree stump, retrieved his haversack and tossed it on the ground next to me. “They’s hardtack and jerky in there – Whisky, too. I can’t give you no more than that. This ain’t mercy, in case you’re wondering. Don’t get that in your mind. For damn sure, don’t think that. I don’t give a fuck whether you live or die. Either way, I don’t want to lay eyes on you ever again. I’ll kill you for sure if I do.” With that, he disappeared into the woods.