Before entering the house, he remembered waving goodbye to Charles as he left for a new life in Boston. Sadness overwhelmed Drew. He entered the house, standing in the doorway of the drawing-room, he looked around and said, “this is where it all began.”
Drew sat in Harry’s gargoyle chair and cried. Duke nor Drew spoke of Charles or Cody, ever again.
Duke grew to look and sound just like Charles, it was as though they were identical twins.
On a bright sunny day, Duke was talking to his son in the mansion drawing-room, Drew heard Duke but thought it was Charles. A spark of joy that he did not know existed, leaped in his heart, He opened the double doors and yelled in a joyful manner, “Charles!”
Duke’s heart pumped with happiness, he asked in excitement, “is my dad here?”
Silence filled the room. Duke and Drew stared at each other for a moment, Drew left and Duke said, “let’s go to the slave compound.”
It was at that moment that uncle and nephew knew, they both missed Charles.
BB was sick and tired of living with a person that did not speak to her, she threatened if Drew did not share with her about his work, she would go to the sheriff. Drew said, “walk with me, I want to show you what my pops built.”
He took her to the outer gate and shot her, she was buried in the divider gate forest.
At age seventy, Drew left H. B. Metropolis to Duke. He got a hotel room in MacCall that was over a bar, where he ate little and drank a lot. When Drew left, Duke was already lonely in that big castle, he became depressed. Every evening, before going to bed, Duke would take the pictures out of his drawer, he lined them on his nightstand and said, “goodnight dad, goodnight Cody. I love you both.” He placed the pictures in his drawer and tried to fall asleep. Duke muddled through life in an isolated depressed state of mind.
Charles youngest son Cody grew too looked like a handsome Italian. Cody graduated from college, a few years later he got married. His first born was born 1914, he named the baby, Duke. Like his brother, Cody had three children and carried a permanent sorrow in his chest due to the division of his family. Cody’s wife was a lawyer, his three children attended college. Charles was proud of his son, Cody ran for Mayor in the city of Ogville, and won.
In MacCall, Duke had a meeting with the Brown family company’s, he saw Cody’s picture in an Ogville newspaper that a boy was selling. The article was about Cody winning the election. He recognized Cody’s face but not the name. Duke said to himself, “Good job dad, you started a whole new life.” He took a second look at Cody’s picture that included his family. Duke laughed out loud when he read that Cody had named his first born after him, Duke Paddleton. He said, “I love you too little brother.” Duke never showed the article to Drew, he took the newspaper to the mansion attic and locked it in the chest.
Cody’s, children grew to be successful. His son Mason Paddleton became a senator. His middle child, Mark a lawyer, and his baby girl, Gwen became a doctor. Charles remarried, and lived a long happy prosperous life, despite losing half his family. His new wife was a medical doctor, she desired to care for people of all races, Charles gave her money to open a clinic.
He wrote a memoir about his escape from his brother and the history of H. B. Metropolis. To keep the papers safe, he put them in a chest that was kept in the basement with the two keys to the gates.
When Charles returned to MacCall from Boston, and before Drew tried to kill him, Charles waited until Drew and his wife were in town at a bar. In the castle, Duke and Cody were fast asleep. Charles took his fastest horse and galloped to the mansion, he entered Harry’s room and got the key to the chest.
Charles went up to the attic, in the chest he dug through newspaper articles about how wonderful Harry was, even the article he had written. He found the keys, Drew had put them on separate key rings and labeled them, master and divider. Charles took one each, and a copy of Harry’s plan. He also took his son’s and his birth certificates. He shut the chest and locked it, returned the key in Harry’s room, and returned to the castle.
Several years after escaping from his brother and son, Charles searched for Duke, he missed his first born. Had Charles approached Duke, he would have learned that his son loved him deeply, suffered from depression and loneliness. Duke would have accepted Charles with opened arms. His grandson Cody would not, Cody reached back three generations and was meaner than Harry’s mom. If Harry was alive, he would be afraid of his grandson.
Charles was amazed that his sons named their first born after each other. He said to himself, “that’s love.” Charles never looked for Duke again. His heart was breaking with every breath he took, but he had to let his first-born go.
Harry’s sons, Charles and Drew at no time saw each other again, yet, they both died at eleven o'clock on September 29, 1929. Charles was eighty-two and Drew eighty-one. Charles caught the flu and did not recover, he died in the hospital. Drew died of alcohol poison in his hotel room.
1960, Duke was diagnosed with heart cancer, he was eighty-five. His wife died in 1958 of breast cancer. While Duke was in the hospital his children came to visit, yet, the night he passed, Duke was alone. Duke sat up in bed and said: “finally, it’s over.” He thought the cancer was going to stop his heart, he would close his eyes, and his life would be over. Instead of dying peacefully, cancer pain was agonizing, and he had a heart attack. The ache caused him to convulse. His face was distorted, he slobbered, his eyes rolled back in his head, he tried to call out but was unable, he panted for air, fifteen minutes later, it was over. After the second shift nurses’ reports, a nurse entered his room. Duke and his bed looked like a karate fight had taken place, and Duke lost.
Cody and his wife lived in the castle Charles built. On Cody’s seventy-fifth birthday, he hired a driver to drive him and his wife around. 1970, Duke’s brother, Cody Paddleton, was killed by a drunk driver, he was ninety-three. One evening they were on their way home from a social event, a car full of drunk teenagers were speeding on the wrong side of the road. The collision killed all but the teenage driver.
Donovan Bright discovered H. B. Metropolis in 2017, he was twenty-three years old. Charles Brown was the plantation master when Donovan made his discovery, he was fifty-five.
XVI
Two Slaves and One Friend Got Away
Vance took a train going west, traveling through all the different states and cities, he chose to make his home in Oklahoma, Oklahoma, the double name intrigued him. Harry had paid Vance and his wife thousands of dollars, plus he had the money he stole during the shindig. Vance settled down and bought a house in a wealthy region of town, as he walked around the house, he knew that his wife would fall in love with it. He said to himself, “she would be, too proud.” Thinking about his wife, Vance moaned softly, the house had ten rooms and not the six his wife desired. He bowed his head and said, ‘yes this would be too much for her.
After purchasing his house, he met a pretty single woman that was a few years younger than him. Her husband was killed while in combat during the Civil War, he left his wife with two young children.
Vance began dating the widowed woman, her children, thirteen and fifteen loved and respected him. The woman’s parents threw the couple a big wedding, for their honeymoon he took his new bride to Dallas, Texas. His new wife was kind and loving, she liked to travel, yet had never been outside the city. She was a loving caring wife, excellent cook, and housekeeper.
His father-in-law owned a motel, Vance wife said one day, “my father is happy I married again, being a female and his only child he was going to close down the motel when he got too old.”
Vance asked, “why?”
“Father doesn’t feel that a woman should own a business, nor know how to run one. My mother feels differently. Once when dad became ill, mom ran the motel, successfully.”
Vance said, “I will run the motel for him if he teaches me.”
“That is exactly what dad wanted you to say, but you teach me and the kids.”<
br />
“I will because life is not guaranteed.”
His wife father trained Vance in the motel business. Easy going Vance got along with his wife’s mother and father splendidly. Twice a year, Vance took his family on train rides to visit other states, the children loved him, they called him pops. Vance and his wife lived a long happy life.
Sometimes Vance wondered about H.B. Metropolis and the two brothers, he hoped Charles was doing fine and living in Boston with his wife and son.
Like Charles told Drew long ago, they would never see or hear from Vance again, and they did not.
*******
June 1900, Bella passed away. She and family made it to St. Louis, she purchased her dream home, a three-bedroom house, with a kitchen, living room, and an extra room she turned into a sewing area. Her new home had a big yard for her garden, a front porch that went across the house, and a back porch. In the backyard, she had a grapevine, vegetables, and an herb garden. Bella joined a group called, We Made It, the group consisted of elderly women that had escaped from slavery. Their slogan was, We’s made it out of slavery, we’s free to help others now and always.
The women made clothes for school children and homemade bread that they sold to a local grocery store. Joe, a carpenter made their furniture, Bella and Clara made soft seat cushions for the chairs that Joe made. They slept on store-bought beds and mattresses. A local store owner saw Joe’s work, loved it and hired him as a furniture maker. Clara got a job working in a dress shop while Bella stayed home to raise the children, she saw to it that they received an education. They flourished, all three became medical doctors and started a clinic in their neighborhood. Bella’s grandchildren married and blessed her with great-grandchildren.
Bella was blessed and was a blessing to anyone she met.
*******
Paula didn’t fare as well. She left H. B. Metropolis hoping to join Bella in St. Louis, her trip took over two years. Paula was under the influence of Mama Faye; they wasted and flaunted their money. A man called the women whores, Mama Faye said to the boys, “you neva’ let nobody talk’s ta’ yo’ mama like’s dat, git’ dat man. Paula’s older son got into a fight with the man. Mama Faye pushed the youngest boy off the wagon and said, “hep’ yo’ brother.”
The youngest son was the carbon copy of Moses in appearance and temper, he gave Mama Fay a defiant look and said in his child deep throat voice, “don’t touch me.” He got back on the wagon.
Mama Faye backed away from the boy, she said to Paula. “he ain’t nothin’ but trouble.”
The remaining of the trip, Paula’s younger son faded to black, he didn't speak, he ate when they had food, he collected rainwater to quench his thirst, he shared with his mother and brother. He told Mama Faye, get ja’ own wata.”
She did and left the young boy alone.
To help finance their journey north, Paula sold the horse and buggy. They walked the remaining two hundred miles, unknown to Paula, to New York. Along their way, Paula asked individuals for direction to St. Louis, since she was on the east coast, she was given directions to New York. When she learned that they were in New York, and not St. Louis, she cried.
They arrived in New York with just enough money to acquire a cheap four-room apartment in the red-light district. As soon as they settled down, Paula’s youngest son asked her to enroll him in school.
Paula couldn’t get a job, so the old woman turned their apartment into a whore house and added two other women. Paula became a drunken depressed slut. Her oldest son joined a gang and adopted their personality, he was rough and vulgar. His crew went to war with their adversary, sadly, his gang lost the battle, many were brutally injured, and a few did not recover. Paula’s son was one of the boys that died, he was fourteen. Paula signed her youngest son up for school, she wrote his name down as Son 1. On their way to what Paula thought was St. Louis, a man that had given her directions to New York, his name was John.
Paula youngest son asked the teacher to call him John. The young boy, excelled in the colored school, even though the schoolhouse was a shabby dilapidated building, and lessons were inferior to whites. John desired to get away from the alcohol, parties and opened erotic acts in their apartment. He left at age eleven and got a job selling newspapers on a street corner.
After classes, he sold the newspapers, ran errors for the owner of the paper, and for a while lived on the street. When winter came a janitor that worked in a high school, saw the boy shivering in front of a store, he cleaned out a backroom for the young boy. Paula’s son could not remember how to pronounce his father's African name, though he remembered it had something to do with light. Paula never called either of her sons by their African names. She did not talk about Moses or the plantation. Unfortunately, the memory of John’s father and their home was slowly fading. The few things he could remember was the place was very green, they lived in a clean pretty house, and his mother cried late at night.
John’s teacher asked the young boy his last name, John could not remember his dad’s name, he knew it meant light or bright. John chose Bright.
John graduated from college with a doctorate in history and became a professor at an upstate New York University, where he met and married a high school teacher. Within the course of five years, he and his wife had two children.
The day John left home, he did not look back, he never saw Paula again until he was married and had kids. John for the first time since he was eleven went to see his mother. He had learned that she had syphilis and was living in the same filthy apartment that John used to call home. He knocked on the door, the Janitor answered and recognized the young man as soon as he walked in the apartment, he said, “hey young man, look at you Mr. College Graduate wearing a suit and tie.” He felt the material of the suit then said, “it ain’t cheap neither.”
John was very surprised to see the janitor. He shook the man’s hand before either could say anything, Paula laying on the couch raised her head and yelled, “Who is it?”
“The little boy I took care of years ago.”
“Tell em’ I have no money.”
“Hello, mama.”
Paula sat up in total surprise.
“Mama,” the janitor said.
She slid over, so John could sit on the couch. The couch was disgustingly filthy, he smelt the stench of vomit, blood, and alcohol, and other smells he didn’t recognize, he said, “it’s okay, I’m not staying long.” He remained standing, and said, “I stopped by to give you this.” He handed her two twenty-dollar bills.
She snatched the money and did not say thank you, she blamed John for his older brother’s death, made fun of his new name, John Bright. Paula told him that she wished they had never left the plantation because she and her boys would have fared better. John disagreed with her, he told her that he had a college degree, was teaching at a university, owned his home, and was not living in the slums. She blamed John for her messed up life. The janitor stopped Paula from accusing the boy of the wrong decisions, that she had made. John looked at the man and said, “thank you for giving me a place to stay and food to eat.” He handed the janitor two five-dollar bills.
“Son this is not necessary, you already thanked me,” he said as he took the money. The janitor reached out and gave John a hug, and continued, “you grew to be a fine successful young man. I hope I had something to do with that.”
Smiling John said, “you did, had I stayed here,” John looked back at his mother...
“I understand, son.” The janitor replied softly.
Paula stood as though she was in pain, she said, “wait, stay right there, got something to give you,” she walked funny and held onto the wall, as she slowly went into another room.
While Paula was gone, John asked the janitor if he was sick as well. He answered, “naw’ son, I never slept with the women, I make sure she has everything she needs until the end. Mama Faye was the first to die, then the other women, that’s when I start taking care of Paula. I think yo’ mama hange
d on to see you.” He scratched his head and said, “why didn’t you tell me she was your mama?”
“Would you have told me to go home.”
The janitor thought for a moment before saying, “no, I would have her to meet us in a park. I disagreed with her lifestyle.”
John said, “thank you.”
Paula entered the room carrying a picture and piece of paper, she slowly eased down onto the couch. On the paper, she wrote a message and her name on the back of the picture. She wrapped the picture in the paper and handed it to John, “something to remember me by.” She looked at John and said, “sorry for the way I brought you up.”
“It’s okay mama,” he kissed her on the forehead.
Paula watched her son exit her home, she could not fathom how one son could be so evil and the other like an angel, when they both were raised by the same sinful unfit mom. The janitor closed the door behind John. Crying out loud Paula said, “it’s another part of me gone.
Paula had a twin sister; the baby girls were sold separately on plantations that were in different States. Paula survived the trip, but her sister died on the road to her new master. The twins were one month old when they were sold. The janitor asked, “what ja’ talking about?”
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