The man was old, and it was late. Or early, depending upon perspective. He extended both hands and David helped him rise from the wing chair. They walked slowly toward the stairs.
I propped open the front door and walked out to the glider, given to the old man when his sister had passed away and his niece had been so upset, she couldn’t abide having her mother’s things in sight.
The screen door creaked. David poked his head around the door.
“Hey, girl.”
“Hey. Take a load off.”
He slipped through the door and we sat together as the dark lightened. His arm around me, my head against his shoulder, until he said he needed to get back. He couldn’t take another day off from work.
I knew he was going to kiss me. I’d sensed something alter between us as the birds forecast the day. And he did. It was even better than I recalled, not hasty or forbidden, but an exchange between two adults who weren’t breaking any rules or betraying anyone. But I was taken aback when he asked for my number in North Carolina, when he said he didn’t want to lose me again. It was a long-distance call, but he could afford it, if I could make the time. If I wanted to hear from him.
I told him he could have the number, but I’d decided to stay in Chicasetta for a while for my research. Dr. Whitcomb had told me I didn’t have to be in town to work on my dissertation. I could email him the drafts of my chapters, and David told me he didn’t know what-all that meant, but as long as I was in Chicasetta, that sounded real, real nice to him. And we sat there on the glider. And we kissed some more.
Every Strength
The spring after Uncle Root turned one hundred, Red Mound Church was designated an historical landmark. While they hadn’t won the fight to keep the whole thing private, David and the old man had managed to work out certain provisions with the state. The farm would remain private. And the mound would be off-limits to visitors.
There had been changes at Red Mound. There was a plaque out front that identified the founding year of the church. And there was a new ramp for wheelchairs. Our church elder had retired, but his youngest son had taken over. This new Beasley was the first pastor who’d graduated college and who possessed a master’s degree in theology. Frequently, his sermons focused on the beauty of nature: often on the mound in back of the church, where yellow sunflowers suddenly had joined the pink and blue wildflowers.
For the special dedication service, Elder Beasley the Younger asked Uncle Root to present the history of the church. It was only right: not only was he the oldest member, Uncle Root was the owner of the land on which the church resided. But Uncle Root asked me to do it. He was tired now, he told me.
Since I’d moved to Chicasetta, Uncle Root had been in and out of the hospital. He no longer hopped down from his bed. He could walk only a yard or two without leaning on someone’s arm. My mother had a hospital bed installed in his dining room, after the table and chairs had been removed. He asked her to place them in storage. Under no circumstances was my mother to loan any of his furniture to Uncle Norman’s wife. She might insist that she only wanted to borrow them, but once she got her hands on something, she’d never let it go.
That furniture was willed to me after he died, as well as the house itself. Every time Uncle Root talked about the items of my inheritance, I ordered him to change the subject. He’d make his silly face and tell me, since I’d commanded that he’d never die, God would certainly alter the cycle. He wasn’t angry, though. He kept his patience with me and talked about God frequently. He didn’t miss a Sunday service at church.
I didn’t want to take Uncle Root’s place at the dedication, but he’d scolded me. Other than him, who else knew more about the history leading up to the founding of the church? I’d read the papers of the Pinchard family. I knew the name of the first ancestor to arrive at Wood Place.
She was called Ahgayuh, also known as Aggie. Also known as Mama Gee. She married Midas and gave birth to Tess.
And Midas was sold, never to be heard from again.
And Tess married Nick and gave birth to the twins, Rabbit and Eliza Two.
And Nick ran away, but he lived and never forgot his family.
And Rabbit left Wood Place to seek freedom, left her twin behind, and changed her name to Judith Naomi Hutchinson.
And Eliza Two came to be known as Meema Freeman. And she married a man named Red Benjamin, and he took her last name. And Meema bore a daughter named Sheba.
And Red passed away, and his death made Meema a widowed woman. As gray strands began to wink in her hair, she found the Lord, who had been lost to her. She began to warn her daughter about religion, in hopes that the blood of Jesus would settle Sheba down.