On their return from Savannah, Samuel expressed his disappointment that there were no little mulatta girls for sale at the auction. He’d been expecting a greater selection, as he was past tired of his current Young Friend, Leena; she was far too old for his tastes. He talked openly and casually about the cost of such little girls, and how he had used them over the years. He remarked he was fortunate to be a well-off man. As Samuel spoke, Matthew stomach was turned, understanding for the first time the purpose of the adorable cottage that sat on the left side of the plantation house. But why hadn’t Rabbit ever mentioned it? Suddenly he understood the insult—the outrage—that his offer to Rabbit had represented. When Matthew had asked Gloria who lived in the cottage, she’d told him, a princess in a tower. He had laughed as he always did at her odd phrasing. He did not love Gloria, but he had promised to marry her, the daughter of this disturbing man. And Matthew realized he was not outside this southern ugliness anymore. His sister Deborah had been right to scold him in her letters. He was firmly nestled inside the rotting carcass of the south.
When Samuel and Matthew arrived back at Wood Place, Lady delivered tragic news: while they’d been away, Gloria had fallen ill. The doctor had come and gone, but he could not alleviate her illness. She had passed away and already had been buried.
A Family Gathers
During the era that Rabbit lived, white women were considered to be frail and inferior to men. However, this perception of frailty never applied to Negro women, who were expected to thrive under any difficult circumstance, including ravishment, childbirth, and backbreaking labor in the fields. Rabbit had been reared on a plantation, and like every other plantation in the south, Wood Place did not treat Negro girls and women as precious. She had borne witness to the incredible requirements for strength that had been forced upon Negresses. As Aggie was fond of saying, “Root hog or die.” And women of her kind had to dig in whatever dirt was beneath them. They had to dig and never cease. This was the reality of a Negress’s life.
Though Rabbit grieved her separation from Matthew, she had never seen happiness allowed to flourish anyway. Not on Wood Place. The Franklins were an abased, angry group living in their knot of shabby cabins on the south side of the plantation, and though the Pinchards were wealthy, they, too, were demoralized and miserable. The Quarters-folks lived in fear that Samuel would catch a whim and sell one of their children, or that his son Victor would do the same, once his father passed away.
Rabbit didn’t allow Matthew’s insult to distract her from her purpose: she wanted to leave Wood Place with Eliza Two and Leena, and search for their father. She didn’t know what she expected after she left the plantation, but Nick was the sun and moon and every star in the sky for her. He would show her the way. And she was afraid that if she waited any longer that Samuel would die. True, he was a monster, but his crimes could be depended upon. Once Samuel was gone, however, a new master would have to be adapted to, and her opportunity for freedom could be lost. For now, Victor was an absence. He rarely spoke during the day, and at night, he roamed the countryside—no one knew in search of what.
One Sunday night in July, Rabbit gathered her family around her. She was afraid, for Aggie ever had expressed her fierce need to keep her family together. Yet when Rabbit told her family that she planned to leave—and wanted to take Leena and Eliza Two with her—Aggie told her that she already knew. She’d had a nighttime vision of a little girl she’d never seen before. In the dream, the child walked up to Rabbit and Leena, reaching out her hand. Then, from the corner, Tess roused from the chair, where she’d been sitting throughout dinner. Tess declared, sure enough, she’d seen that little girl in her dreams, as well. And Eliza Two shocked everyone by chiming in, the dream had come to her as well—and she didn’t want Rabbit to be sad, but she wasn’t going to leave. She wasn’t afraid: Wood Place was her home, and not only the folks in this cabin, but those who lived in the Quarters.
Then, Pop George stood and called the name of each woman in the room. His face was at once young and ancient. Timelessness rested there. Love rested there. A knowledge that had been brought from across the water, as he spoke to his family. He told them he would send prayers to guide Rabbit’s way, but before that, there needed to be fire.
The Night of the Fire
Samuel recovered quickly from the death of Gloria, if he even had mourned her at all. Yet his brief mourning was replaced by another such as he had never known before: in June, a plague struck his peaches, and dark spots covered the skins, changing the flavor to bitter.