“Hum, I never looked at it like that Charles,” Drew commented as he cut Charles off before asking, “What’s next?”
Harry said, “I am going to teach them to read.”
Charles asked, “why.”
Harry replied, “It will build their minds to be thinkers, a little education will make them better workers. Boy, before this war none of my slaves left because I would teach them.” Harry paused for a moment, he saw Moses talking to Paula, he smiled, and continued, “they don’t mind being a slave as long as they can learn to read and write, make them feel equal to their Master.” Harry got caught up lying and said, “my daddy’s slaves ran all the time…”
Charles looked confused and cut in asking, “your daddy had slaves? I thought he owned a steel mill.”
Harry walked-ran from his boys towards the house, when he leaped on the porch, Vance asked if he could use one of his horses and a small carriage. Harry consented.
Drew and Charles watched Harry run to the house, “Hum,” Drew muttered to himself before saying, “Charles, I remember dad talking about a mill. That might be something we should look into.”
“Why did he call his hired hands, slaves?” Charles asked and concluded, “another matter to investigate.”
*******
The next day early in the morning, Vance entered his lopsided shack, bursting with joy. Deb, his wife, went ballistic, she bombarded him with questions. “Where have you been? Was it with a woman? Did you get too drunk to come home? Did you get lost? Where were you? You know I don’t like staying in these woods by myself.” She slapped him, she calmed down and asked, “why didn’t you come home last night. I was worried.”
Vance went over to the table and emptied out his pocket. Harry had paid Vance in dollars and not change. Vance spread the money on the table.
Deb stood silently as Vance talked. When Vance took a breath, Deb ran into the askew bedroom her husband had built and got her two dresses and another pair of undergarments. The rest of her belongings, she had on. Vance went into the bedroom and grabbed his other pair of pants and shirt. Deb asked as she put their clothes in the frayed bag her mother had made for her, “how are we going to get there?”
She looked around the cabin and got the tea set her mother had given them, it was still in the box. there was nothing else Deb wanted to take. They had two each, tin plate, forks, cups, and one pot. Vance said, “let me show you.” Vance took the bag and tea set and placed them next to the door.
He grabbed Deb’s hand and took her outside. Vance said, “in Harry’s carriage.”
Deb marveled at the carriage, then went to the horse and rubbed its head. She looked at Vance and said, “honey, you’re the best.”
Vance and Deb fed and brushed the horse down, Deb ran in the cabin got the extra cover, she returned outside where Vance helped her spread it over the horse.
Eight o’clock the next morning they took one last look at the shack then pulled off, Deb said, “we’ve lived in this cabin for twenty years.” She looked back and watched their home disappear, then said, “I hope we stay humble and never forget our modest beginning.”
Vance looked at Deb and said, “we will.”
Deb suggested, “let’s give it five years and not stay the full eleven.”
“I was thankin’ the same “
Deb was excited about their adventure, she asked, “how long will it take to get there?”
“With this horse, we will arrive in town by four o’clock.”
Deb said, “I packed us a lunch.”
Deb was from Indianapolis. She ran away from home the night her stepdad entered her room and tried to have his way. Sixteen-year-old Deb surprised him, she clawed, kicked, scratched, then her knee got him right in the groin. She leaped out of bed and ran to her mom’s bedroom with him limping behind her. She told her mom what he tried to do. He called Deb a liar. Her mom said, “go back to bed child and stop fibbing.”
Deb was not about to let him get away with what he tried to do, she yelled, “those scratches, bite marks, is proof I had to defend myself from this wasted pieced of trash you married.”
When she turned to leave her stepdad slapped her hard in the back of the head. Her mom asked the man, “why did you do that?” She got up and followed her daughter.
The stepdad yelled, “she nothing but a troubling liar.”
Deb had a big bag in her room that her mom had made a few years back. Deb said, “I have to get out of this house.”
“You’re sixteen now,” her mom said as she helped Deb pack the bag, then said, “by the time I was your age I had two boys and pregnant with you.”
Deb half hazard dumped stuff in the bag; her mom would take it out, fold everything neatly then put it back. Deb stopped and watched her mom undo the mess she was doing, she looked at the bag and said, “you made me this when I went to see grandma.”
Deb’s mom had made the bag out of potato sacks, yarn that was yellow, red, and green yarn. The handle was made from pine wood, the interior lining from an old dress she could no longer wear. When the bag was all packed, Deb and her mom went to the kitchen, she gave her daughter the jar filled with change and said there are about twenty dollars in the jar. Deb’s mom looked around the room, went to the bottom of the stairs and looked up, then tiptoed back to the kitchen. Deb watched her in confusion and asked, “what’re you doing.”
Her mom opened a drawer, reached in the back and pulled out one hundred dollars and handed it to Deb. She said, “make a better life for yourself.”
Deb hugged her mom tight. The woman waved as her daughter was leaving, she said, “Deb, write.”
To survive Deb lied about her age to secure bar jobs. She never stayed in a town longer than four months, Deb wrote to her mother about her adventures as she traveled deeper into the South. After three years going from one town to the next, Deb tired of being homeless, she wanted stability. She landed a barmaid job in Ogville where she met Vance. He was a short unassuming gentle twenty-year-old man. Deb, in contrast, was a loud rough nineteen-year-old. Yet, something clicked when they met.
A few months after meeting, Deb and Vance got married, Deb wrote to her mother announcing that she was married and had an address. Over the years being with Vance, his loud rowdy wife calmed down and became a loving caring spouse.
On their fifth anniversary, Vance asked Deb to tell her mom to come to visit or move in, since her husband had passed away. After Deb wrote the letter, Vance got busy and began building a back room for her mom. A few months later, her mother sent a letter stating that she was on the way.
Deb’s mom packed her things and was on the next stagecoach going to live with her daughter and her son-in-law. She had purchased a gift for the couple. It was a tea set with sunflowers painted on the cup and saucer. She couldn’t wait to see her daughter’s happy face when she opened the box. Deb’s mom was so excited to see her daughter, she was overly talkative to anyone that was close enough to hear.
A month later, a stranger knocked on Deb and Vance door, he had bad news. The man told her that the stagecoach driver was going too fast around a mountain, the coach flipped over and crashed at the bottom. He sadly looked at Deb and said, “your mother was in the stagecoach,” he looked at Vance then back at Deb and said, “ma’am I am very sorry, there were no survivors.”
Deb asked, “how you know it was my mother.”
He handed Deb a package and an envelope, her mother wrote that she was happy to see her daughter after so many years. At the last minute she decided to bring the letter and package, she wanted to be the one to hand them their gift. Deb opened the box, not one dish had cracked or broken. Deb fainted. Fifteen years later, she was going to meet Harry for the first time and start a new life. Deb was happy, every time a run-a-way knocked at the door, she relived the man standing in the doorway giving her bad news about her mom.
Harry’s carriage road smooth as they traveled down the dirt road, Deb smiled and said, “this is nice,” she looked
at Vance and asked, “where are we staying?”
“You’ll see.” Vance smiled proudly.
Around five, Deb was giddy when they road through town, and astonished when she saw Harry’s mansion, Deb said, “It’s big and beautiful.”
Vance went around back where a hired hand took the horse to the barn, a second man took their bag. When Deb saw the cabin, she loved it even though it was rustic and old, it stood upright and was larger than their two-room small shack that leaned to the side. Vance smiled as he watched her eyes light up with joy.
Deb said, “It’s perfect.” She looked back to see how close they were to Harry’s mansion, she said, “I cannot see it.”
A forest separated the cabin from the mansion, a line of trees stood like toy soldiers along the path that led to Harry’s home. A shabby fence went around the cabin, the backyard had enough room to grow a big garden and to raise chickens. Deb looked at Vance and said, “we will have chicken, fresh eggs in the morning. We will repair the fence.”
Vance said, “don’t have to, Harry is building a two-story cabin for us.”
“Brand new,” Deb asked in excitement.
When they went inside Deb loved the four-room cabin, it was furnished and had a bed with a store-bought mattress. In their old cabin, Deb and Vance slept on a straw mattress. She went through the cabin that had soft furniture, real dishes, silverware, pots and pans, curtains at the window and not paper.
She looked at Vance and said, “it’s going to be a little hard for me to be humble in this cabin. I’m feeling a little proud.”
Vance and the man laughed.
As she ran from room to room the man and Vance just stood in the living room, waiting for her to calm down. When she did, she said, “I love it. I wish mom was here.”
*******
Harry commenced watching Moses closely, he was different than the others. One day when Charles was in the hired hands living area, he saw Moses working on his cabin, he went inside to see Moses handy work, he asked, “Moses, what type of work did you do?”
“I’m an architect, Sir.” He showed Charles his certificate.
Charles returned home and told his dad about Moses handy work. Harry went to Moses shack to see for himself. He looked around the interior of the shack, Harry saw skills in Moses that he wanted to use. He did not want to suffocate Moses capacities like Henry did Billy. Moses showed Harry his graduation certificate. Harry returned home, sitting in the library looking at the H.B. Metropolis plans, he said to himself, “I am a blessed man, Billy and Moses are two coloreds that are making me rich.
To keep his precious Metropolis a secret, Harry planned to eliminate anyone that had anything to do with building H.B. Only his sons would live.
VII
Last Phase of H.B. Metropolis
The forest, cabins, and ditches were planted, dug, and built; it took the hired hands seven years to complete the projects according to Moses’ designs. The steel plates and rods took longer than Harry anticipated. While Harry irritably waited, he took a stroll among the cabins. They sat in rolls of fifteen across from each other on two different roads. A light bulb went off, he had the men to make two clearing thus creating a wide path for Charles and Drew Road.
He had them to build a cabin that sat by itself, with its front door facing the two roads.
One day Harry was sitting on the side of his bed, reviewing the letter from Billy about Stella killing herself. He cried, he no longer had a friend, and the possibility of being with someone that was wealthy was gone.
Baerbel was walking past his room, she entered, and was surprised to see him in such a tormented state, she asked, “are you crying?”
Harry did something he did not believe in, he punched Baerbel so hard it knocked her out.
Years ago, when Harry hit his adoptive mom, he walked away feeling guilty. It was as though he had slapped himself, he wanted to say sorry but did not believe she would accept his apology. Harry didn’t want her to like him, he wanted her to not be afraid in her home. Every time his adoptive mother locked her bedroom door, Harry cringed with sorrow. Whenever Henry was home, she emerged from her room, and halfway hide behind her husband. Looking at her apparent fright of him, Harry vowed he would never hit a woman again. He taught his son’s to never put their hands on a woman, he said, “they are too fragile.”
He looked down at Baerbel, stepped over her and left the mansion. Outside on the porch, he said to himself, “Baerbel is no woman, she’s an evil beast.” He got on his horse and slow galloped to the slave area.
When Baerbel came too, one eye was the color and size of a plum.
There was one last building for the men to build while waiting on the iron rods and plates. It was a huge edifice, the size of an airplane hangar. The outside walls of the building were tin sheets and wood walls inside. The construction of this building was in the Southwest corner of the plantation, in the center of the forest. Once all the trees and bushes became like a wall, the massive structure would be hidden. While waiting for the rods, Harry had received several castle designs from the designer in Europe, he didn’t like them. For that reason, he asked Moses to design a castle. Harry liked Moses because he didn’t ask questions, he simply got the work done.
Moses went home to his new cabin that was tastefully decorated. He had the women to make him seat covers stuffed with cotton. The coloreds nor a great number of the poor whites had ever heard of a slave having seat covers. The women made seat covers for all the cabins. Two white women that had been indentured servants/slaves for a candlestick maker had acquired the skill. They taught some of the other women. Moses trained a few of the young teenage boys how to carve candlestick holders. These were skills that followed from one generation to the next.
Moses had never seen or heard of a castle, he got a book on European castles from a shop in town, the wife of the storekeeper allowed him to use the book for a few days. From the pictures Moses drew several ideas, he returned the book to the shop on the day agreed. Moses took his drawings to Harry, one castle was round, another square, the one Harry loved the most was in the shape of a V. Still, Harry was not satisfied, he told Moses the design he wanted, inside and out.
Two weeks later Moses took his drawing to Harry, he was flabbergasted at Moses skills, he shared the drawings with Charles and Drew. Charles fell in love with the castle, Drew liked the plantation house that he called the Brown Mansion, Harry smiled at the difference in his sons. Charles had gigantic size dreams, while Drew took after the MacCall’s, who were rich but comfortable with status quo.
Harry sent the blueprint of his favorite castle to Europe. Months later the company traveled to America with a small crew, as the administrators of the construction. Harry had sixty of his best men with Moses to be the construction crew.
Finally, the gate rods and plates arrived. Over a hundred men dug thirteen by thirteen and a half foot trenches, while another group placed the plates against the wall. Then concealed the plates by covering them over with dirt. Harry had another large group of men to dig six-foot holes a half inch apart, to install the rods. Each rod was placed a half inch apart and stood six feet into the ground and sixteen feet above. When the men finished with the trench they helped dig and install the outer gate, dividing gate, slave gate, and children gate.
One day, Moses got his wish, he was invited inside Harry’s home, where he saw Paula planning a social event with Mrs. Brown. When he entered the kitchen, he paused and watched the women for a fleeting moment. Harry said, “Moses follow me.”
Paula almost jumped out of her skin, she was embarrassed that Moses had seen her, she gave him a cute shy smile. Harry and Baerbel looked at each other then back at Paula and Moses, when the couple eyes met, they engaged in an unspoken admiration for each other. Harry cleared his throat to get Moses attention. He took Moses to his library when they entered, Harry showed Moses the map of his metropolis. The two men had several disagreeable meetings about the design of the cabin. Moses wanted fou
r rooms and Harry one. To win the battle, Moses decided to play around with Harry’s ego. He explained that the four rooms would show that Harry was a loving caring master. Harry agreed with Moses and believed in his professional skills. From that day forward Harry made Moses the commander of designing H. B. Metropolis.
Harry had several of his hired hands to scatter and go to different forest throughout the south. They gather wood to build a new barn and sixty cabins for the slave complex, a new cabin for Vance and his wife Deb, two for the overseer’s, one for children, and sixty for the slaves.
Moses designed the interior and exterior of the cabin, Vance cabin had five rooms, two upstairs and three down. The outside of the cabin was painted white, with dark gray exterior plantation shutters accenting the cabin.
The overseers' cabins had three room on one floor. The children cabin was big, it had four rooms, one for the boys, the girls, the nurse, and teacher slept in the same room. There was a great room for everyone to gather. The children’s rooms had fifty pallets on the floor. Harry wanted to always have one hundred children being raised as the next generation of slaves. These cabins were painted white.
Though, in the 1900s, a kitchen and two indoor bathrooms were added to the children cabin.
The slave cabins had four rooms, two upstairs and two downstairs. The outside of their cabin was painted white with dark gray accent painted around the windows, which matched the gray tin roof.
All the cabins had a tin roof, wood floors, a porch in the front, and wood foundations. Moses with his training refused to build any building, flat on the ground.
Omitting Vance, the men made furniture and real beds for the slave cabins, Harry ordered mattresses and glass for the windows. The women made curtains, quilts, bedspreads, and throw rugs for the floor. Moses designed all the cabin as the same inside and out. Though the women decorations for the cabins were different yet similar. The hired hands dreamed of staying in the cabins, but they knew it was for the museum.
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