“Now, the Franklins had always spread around that they used to own Wood Place, before the Pinchards had swindled it from them. I don’t know whether that was true or not, but I do know, they didn’t like how Big Thom had put certain Negroes over them, and now Tommy Jr. was doing the same. The Franklins were angry that my sister, Pearl, and her family lived in what most white people in this town thought was a big, fancy house, when the Franklins were living in run-down cabins and sharecropping on Pinchard land.
“But I was a young knucklehead! I didn’t care about those Franklins. And I didn’t think anything could touch me. So when Jinx called my name and put a ‘nigger’ behind it, I was ready to fight! I pulled out my switchblade and turned around. When I came at him, he tripped and fell backward, and that quick, I was on top of him!”
“Aw, dang! You let him have it!” David raised his free hand and the old man hit it. They laughed with deep, male sounds.
“I sure did! I straddled him good! I had my switchblade in one hand and was punching him in the face with the other. But those Franklins never did fight fair, and in a minute, two of them pulled me off and yanked the knife out of my hand. Another tossed a rope up over a branch of that there pecan tree. I was biting and kicking, and then Olivia woke up, and she started screaming, and all the Negroes who’d been in the store scattered. It was chaos!”
Uncle Root spread his arms wide. Seconds passed.
“What happened?” David asked. “Don’t stop there!”
The old man sighed. “Well. As I was saying my final prayers and preparing to meet my beloved mother in the afterlife, Tommy Jr. walked down those steps.” He gestured to the rotting porch of the store.
“He was a tall man, but unlike our father, he was rail thin. He called out to those Franklins, ‘What-all’s going on here?’
“Jinx wiped the blood off his mouth, and said, ‘This nigger jumped me.’
“And Tommy Jr. said, ‘Looks like he did more than jumped you. Looks like he whipped your tail.’
“Jinx and the rest started grumbling about uppity, half-white niggers, and Tommy Jr. said, ‘If you let that nigger get the best of you, that’s your business, but if you kill him, then you in my business, because that there nigger is my brother, and everybody here knows it. Y’all Franklins better let him go, or you can pack all your belongings on that wagon, and your women and children, too, and get off my land by sundown, which is about three hours from now.’ Then he walked back up those steps. I’m telling you that you could not hear those Franklins make a sound as they climbed back in their wagon.
“I went over and calmed Olivia, and we drove up to the house to see my family. When Tommy Jr. showed on Sunday to sit with Pearl on her porch like he always did, I told him I hadn’t appreciated his calling me a nigger, but he said I would have appreciated swinging from that pecan tree even less, and he wasn’t about to apologize. That’s how my brother was. A savior one minute, and a white racist the next. I have to admit, he protected me that day from those Franklins. But they did not forget what my brother did. That family has a long memory.”
He put a hand on David’s shoulder.
“And my young brother, that’s why you need to be very careful up at that liquor store, when you’re getting Lonny to buy your wine.”
My boyfriend looked down at his feet, and I squeezed his hand.
“I’m not judging you,” the old man said. “I was young once. But I told you this story for a reason, because Jinx Franklin is Sheriff Franklin’s daddy. That’s the kind of brutal stock that man comes from. And I don’t care how many years have passed; that man is just like his father. There are all kinds of stories out there about how that sheriff treats Negro men when he arrests them. Do you understand what I’m saying? Look at me, now. I’m not angry at you, my brother.”
David raised his head. “Yes, sir, Dr. Hargrace. I understand.”
“Good. Because this is a tiny town. Everybody knows everybody here. And that means that the sheriff knows who you are, and equally important, he knows who Ailey is. He knows Ailey is part of my family. That her granny lives in that house Big Thom built for my mother. Even now, Sheriff Franklin is one of the few in his family who made it out of poverty. You can’t tell me that doesn’t scrape him wrong. So I don’t want either of you in danger. The both of you have to be careful. You hear?”
We nodded, and Uncle Root told us, all right, he was done lecturing.