AFTER ALL THAT, RANDALL STILL HAD SOME FIGHT IN HIM. HE SHOT ME THE MEANEST, ORNERIEST LOOK, AS IF I HAD DONE SOMETHING BAD TO HIM INSTEAD OF SAVING HIS LIFE. I HAD ENOUGH OF HIS TRICKS. “NEXT TIME I WILL JUST LET YOU FALL AND SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT.”
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SUMMARY: THE STORY SO FAR…
Josiah, a young slave 12 years of age, lives in a cabin in the slave quarters of a Virginia tobacco plantation with Auntie Bee, Mose, the plantation handyman, two young children, Randall and Emily. He notices Mose leaving the cabin in the middle of the night and follows him to his secret workshop in the woods where Mose is building some sort of strange contraption. Mose tells him it is a machine that will fly him to freedom. Now that he knows Mose’s secret, he stays to help build the flier. After mishaps, false starts and setbacks—the flier tumbles down the mountain and is seriously damaged—they are attacked by snakes—mountain lions lurk all around them—they realize someone has been spying on them and they think their escape plan has been discovered. Finally, their time has come. Now they are in the air, riding on the wings of the wind.
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There was Randall on the other side of the flier with a strange look on his face, a mix of fear and desperation. He was feeling around the pocket of his shirt and he seemed to be in a panic.
This could not be good. The last time he reached into his pocket a frog popped out.
“What you got in there?” I asked him.
“Nothin.”
“Let me see.”
His hand went protectively to his shirt pocket and he turned his body away from me.
“Come on. I know you got something. Probably something you ain’t supposed to have.”
“Well,” he said, “you can’t see it.”
“So, you got somebody in there,” I said. “Is it one of your little creatures?”
“They ain’t hurtin nobody.”
“Let me see,” I said, reaching for his pocket, wary of what might jump out.
“Leave me alone,” he cried.
I did not like this. I could see trouble ahead but I had to pull back and try another tack. “Why don’t you just tell me what you got?”
“No.”
“Come on. I won’t do nothing to him. I promise.”
“You’ll throw them away just like my frog.”
I felt a flash of anger. “Hey, I didn’t throw the frog off. That stupid critter jumped by himself. He don’t belong here anyway. You should never have brung him.”
“He ain’t no stupid critter neither,” Randall said, hurt that I would say such a thing. He brought his hand to his shirt pocket and held it there.
“I gotta know what’s in there,” I said. “It could be dangerous. Let me see.” I made a grab for his shirt and tried forcing my hand into his pocket but he pushed me away.
I smacked his hand so I could get in. That made him furious. He went crazy and pushed me and started swinging at me. I shoved him back to protect myself and soon we were having a full blown rassle up there.
I held his arms and tried to pin him down but that only made him madder. He started kicking and thrashing his body, all the time hollering bloody murder.
“Stop it!” I screamed. It didn’t do any good. He didn’t care that we were a hundred feet up and if either one of us rolled another couple of inches the wrong way, we’d fly right off.
“Hey!” I yelled at him. “Watch it! You’re gonna fall!”
He didn’t hear me. He was too busy flailing away, mad as a hornet.
Then, suddenly, he was gone, at least half of him. His head and shoulders disappeared through the hole that caught me earlier that day. Only his two legs were sticking out, still kicking madly. The poor boy was hanging upside-down under the flier and screaming for his life.
I grabbed one of his ankles with both hands and tried desperately to hoist him up but I couldn’t get any leverage. His weight was pulling me toward the hole. I heard the sound of ripping cloth. The hole was growing larger. Soon it would be big enough to swallow us both.
I had to take a chance. I let go of his ankle with one hand and gripped the wood frame. Pulling with all my strength, I hoisted myself up and dragged him with me. He was still kicking up a storm, tearing a bigger hole in the process. He was tough to move. I tugged and pulled in spite of his resistance and somehow I managed to pull him out of the hole and back on the flier.
“Now you settle down,” I scolded him. “We almost lost you.”
After all that, Randall still had some fight in him. He shot me the meanest, orneriest look, as if I had done something bad to him instead of saving his life.
I had enough of his tricks. “Next time you go over maybe I will just let you fall. Then we’ll see how you like it.”
Randall crawled away, trying to get as far from the hole as he could. He pitched forward on his stomach and lay there crying. He was exhausted. I figured he was done fighting for now.
I felt sorry for the boy. “Look, I will never let you fall if I can help it. But I know you got something in your pocket that could be dangerous. We don’t want no snakes up here, right Emily?”
Emily laughed.
I figured I better be nice to him. If we were on the ground I could easily reach into his pocket and grab the fool thing. Down there I would beat him up if I had to. Since we were up here, flying higher than the trees, I didn’t want to be kicking up a ruckus. Somebody might fall off.
I decided I had better leave him alone for now. But from now on I would just have to keep a close eye on that boy.
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Monday, June 7th 2010 at 6:04PM
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