Out From This Place Read Free Page B

set of underclothes was neatly folded on the table.
    Rose and Easter sat on the mattress. “There be a lot of change since you an’ Obi run away. Girl, I pray Master Jennings and his brother Wilson don’t find you. Wilson so angry at how you two get away he say he goin’ to kill Obi. Master Jennings say no, he ain’t lettin’ Wilson kill two thousand dollars. They look for you all up and down the countryside. Then they sell the farm and leave for the West.”
    â€œHow you know all that they say?” Easter asked. She knew that Rose liked a good story and often added her own little touches to the telling.
    â€œRayford tell me. He overhear Master Phillips talking about it.” Rose gazed at her worn slippers. “You remember Rayford?”
    Easter nodded. How could she forget Rayford, with his sparkling white shirt and pants that made his smooth black face look like polished ebony; Rayford, who stood as stiff and straight as Master Phillips; Rayford, who had secretly learned how to read and write. He had been Master Phillips’sproud personal servant. Some of the other blacks on the plantation called him Massa Rayford.
    Easter knew something else about Rayford. “Rose, I tell you a secret, but you promise not to say anything.”
    Rose moved closer to her. “Lip tight like a clam,” she said.
    â€œThe night me and Obi run, it was Rayford who help us. He and some of the people here is hidin’ guns and knives in coffins.”
    Rose laughed. “I know about that, Easter. I been to one of them fake funerals. Everything change all at once. Master Phillips take sick and die, then all we hear is that the Yankee is comin’ to free us, and the people run away from this place like mouse runnin’ from cat.”
    â€œI could tell things was different around here, Rose. Where they run to?”
    â€œSome stay in the swamp and the woods. Some get caught by the patterollers—they in the prison. Most we never see again. That’s when Master get sick, when all his property run away.” Rose lowered her voice to barely a whisper. “Mistress plannin’ to move the rest of us to Texas till the war over. But some of us ain’t going with her. That’s why Rayford an’ them been hidin’ guns an’ knives—so we can protect ourselves when we leave here.” Her round eyes were frightened and excited at the same time. “I know I could trust you with this news, Easter.”
    Easter nodded. “Where you runnin’ to?”
    â€œRayford and some of the other men have it all plan. Rayford been sneakin’ and readin’ the paper and he know everything that’s happenin’ with this war. Yankee take over the Sea Islands and that’s where we goin’. You free if you get where them Yankee is.”
    Easter grabbed Rose by the shoulders. “That’s where I want to go, to the Sea Islands! That’s where Obi is!” Her eyes shone with hope and excitement as she smiled. “I get Jason and we come with you.”
    â€œWell, we wasn’t plannin’ on takin’ Jason. He stayin’ here in his fancy clothes.”
    Easter’s smile vanished and the creases appeared on her forehead. “I come back for Jason, to take him to the islands with me.”
    â€œI sure Rayford won’t mind you comin’, Easter. Jason probably won’t want to leave here anyway.”
    â€œHe’ll come with me. I find my way back to the coast, just like I find my way here. But I ain’t leavin’ without Jason this time.”
    â€œHe won’t go with you, Easter,” Rose insisted.
    â€œWhere is he now?”
    â€œIn the sittin’ room with Mistress. He singin’ and she bangin’ on the piano. That’s what they do every evening God send.”
    Easter stared wistfully at Mariah’s rug lying at her feet. “Jason always love to sing.” Her head throbbed.