A Most Precious Pearl

by Piper Huguley

  She saw that his breath was measured. “I shared that with you because you told me about Travis and the fact that he died in your arms. I thought that it would matter to you that I had been through a similar kind of experience.”

  Mags shrugged her shoulders. “Why would it matter to me? And what was similar about it?”

  “They were both people who were very dear to us and they died in our arms.”

  “Travis and I were a love unfulfilled. We were never able to get anywhere. He wanted to marry me. I was never sure of that with him. He was a farmer. I knew in helping my mother, I had enough of that kind of life. You, you were going to marry her.”

  “I had asked her.”

  “And she had accepted you. That makes it quite different from my situation.”

  “If that is the case, then why must you avenge his lynching?”

  “Because he didn’t deserve to die,” Mags said heatedly, more than a little angered by his lack of understanding.

  “And what made you think that Aline deserved to die? Because she was white?” Asa retorted.

  The silence between them thickened and overwhelmed them both. No, it wouldn’t be very difficult to let Brother Carver and Sister Jane know Mr. Thomas was no one who was any kind of potential husband to her. He had too much anger and love for another woman to ever make any room in his heart for another, let alone her.

  Now she understood.

  So why didn’t she feel better?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Her heart rejoiced to see Brother Carver and Sister Jane. They were getting so old, that she was always afraid that one year they would say that they couldn’t come, but here they were—two years after the last time. “Margaret, love. So good to see you,” Sister Jane said, embracing her in her warm cushiony arms.

  After they exchanged greeting, she took them over to the car. “We can drive you home in the car.”

  “That’s a blessing. Who this?” Brother Carver asked with his friendly round face looking at Asa with curiosity.

  “Asa Thomas. So good to meet you both.” Mr. Thomas stepped and forward shook hands with both of them Mags noted and she made way for Brother Carver in the front.

  “He’s a vet from the war and came to the mill to supervise us.”

  “What? You still working in the mill? I never thought you would, honey…” Sister Jane’s face was a puzzle.

  Mags laughed. “Well, things change, just like the war changed things.”

  “For instance, she runs the mill.” Asa slid into the front seat next to Brother Carver after he cranked up the car.

  “Not really. Mr. Thomas came and took that job from me, so I’m back on the line. Just where a Negro woman belongs.”

  “Oh, I won’t be staying here long. You can have your job back.” Mr. Thomas’s voice sounded light and far away.

  “I’ll be glad to have it back.”

  The Carvers seemed a bit shocked at the bickering that she engaged in with Asa. She knew the reprimand was coming, especially from Sister Jane who was never one to hold back her words. She would just wait for the right moment and after a silence, Sister Jane said, “This man isn’t just your boss is he, honey?”

  “Yes ma’am. He really is my boss.”

  “Ain’t no way you be talking back smart to no boss man if you wants to keep your job. You gots a lot of emotion in your voice when you talking to him.”

  “Just things happening here. I’m fine. And so glad to see you, and the rest of the family will be as well.” Mags squeezed her hand, but Sister Jane had a hound dog way about her.

  “We be glad to see them too. We saw Ruby and the family just before we come. She’s all round and pretty.” Sister Jane’s face reminded Mags of a nicely browned pie crust. She smiled at her. “I prays for her every night that she be all right.”

  “Mama’ll want to hear every bit of what you say. She’s been feeling so upset that she can’t go up there and see to her herself, since Ruby has been having a hard time having babies with her husband.”

  “Do tell. So hard to know how things work in the Lord. She had Solomon so easy right off.”

  “Yes, but apparently, not with Adam.”

  “He done put her on bed rest. He’s hired someone to be looking out for her and her little son ’til the baby come.”

  Mags felt a little chill. She should be with her sister, not some stranger. Maybe she should leave now, and go to give Adam and Ruby some relief. She could just stay for the revival and then maybe Brother and Sister could escort her up to Pittsburgh. That way, she could be taking care of more than one thing. She wouldn’t have to be down here in Mr. Thomas’s space all of the time and Paul Winslow would have to figure out what could be done without her. Both of them deserved one another.

  They reached the Bledsoe farm and the whole family came out on the porch to greet them. Mags went inside quickly to see what could be done to help her mother, but she was chagrined to see everything was ready. Lona’s face filled with delight and she seemed happier than she had been in a while.

  “I want to hear all about Brother and Sister, so I got things done early. We can set down to eat.”

  Her mother had pulled together a special meal of fried beef steaks, potatoes and beans to go with the peach cobbler. She may have been weary of peaches, but Brother and Sister ate as if they couldn’t get enough. When Lona and John heard that they had been up north and saw Ruby, they were ecstatic. When they had wrung every single detail out of Brother and Sister, Mags brought her plan forward as they lingered over coffee. “Since Ruby is on bedrest, then maybe I should go up sooner to relieve her. I can go on up with Brother and Sister if they’ll have me.”

  The look of open hope had disappeared from her mother’s face and instead, Lona’s brows remained arched in a triangle on her face. She knew why. Ruby was on bedrest. Her mother would not want her there.

  Sister Jane didn’t seem to notice. “Bless your heart, child. You know that we would like nothing more than to go back up north with you, but after we leave here, we’re going back south.”

  “Florida to see our son and his family. We be down there for a few months.”

  She tried her best to hide her disappointment. How could she get away from Asa? And Paul Winslow? “There’s plenty bad going on here in Georgia and in other places,” she spoke up.

  “Lynchings. In the country. The cities.” Brother folded his arms over his belly, satisfied with his peach cobbler.

  “Our boys have come home, just like you Mr. Thomas, and they’s asking for more changes. Whites don’t like it.”

  “We came through here because we love you all, but we aim to get on away from here as soon as possible after the revival.” Brother Carver shook his head. “Feels different here.”

  “Part of the reason that I’m here is to investigate these occurrences for the NAACP.”

  “Ruby let us know,” Brother said. “I hope you find out things to help.”

  “I already have. Mags has been of invaluable help in my investigations,” Mr Thomas said and she whipped her head at the sound of her name.

  “Mighty glad to hear that,” Sister Jane simpered. Dear Lord.

  She stood to clear the table. Sister would want to hear every little detail and that newspaperman would oblige her.

  Mags stayed in the kitchen and cleaned. She cleaned all of the dinner dishes, pans and pots and began to get an early start on cooking the tongue for tomorrow afternoon’s sandwiches. Nothing of a butchered calf went to waste around here. She startled when Mr. Thomas approached her to come back to the room off of the kitchen. He was giving it up to the Carvers despite their protests that they could stay in the barn. “Gotta clear a few things out so that Brother and Sister will be more comfortable in here.”

  “You could go back to your mill house. To satisfy Paul Winslow. See what Katie is up to.
”

  “I’m going to stay out on the porch. Your father has a cot and it is warm enough.”

  She bit her lips, not liking the thought of Asa on the big porch just outside her window. Still, it was something that happened from time to time in their capacity as borders for Negroes in Winslow. “Whatever satisfies you.”

  He stopped and regarded her. “You’ve been a big help. We could make one more trip before I leave.”

  “You could be better alone. We don’t seem to get along that well.” She averted her eyes. Maybe they got along too well.

  “Anything that happened is my fault.”

  “No, I just, I think that we come from different worlds. That’s all.”

  “You sure that’s it? That you aren’t afraid?”

  Of course I’m afraid. She shook her head.

  “We’re doing a great work. I need your assistance. Please.”

  “I’ll think about it.” If you would just leave me alone.

  “You cannot leave without me, Mags.” He moved closer to her in the hot kitchen.

  She stepped away from the stove and now, she looked him squarely in the face. “You might be the big boss man at work, but you don’t boss me anywhere else.”

  He moved right along with her, almost as if they were in a dance. “I do care for you, Mags. You know that, right?”

  No one was more than stunned than she when he reached an arm out, wrapped it around her waist and pulled her close to him, kissing her full on the mouth once again.

  He didn’t drink. His mother brought him up as temperance. Still, when he was kissing Mags, he sipped on the finest liquor and his head spun at her sweet taste and the juiciness of her lips. Then, when he thought it couldn’t get any better, he realized that she was kissing him back and the melding together of their mouths sent his mind to reeling.

  “Oh, Mags, you is kissing him!” Delie shouted out the words by the kitchen door.

  They instantly broke apart and Asa turned around to see the entire cohort of the Bledsoes, along with Sister Jane and Brother Carver, clustered in the doorway.

  She stepped apart from him and poked at something in her cooking pot. He didn’t know whether to admire her or to feel insulted at her cool under their scrutiny. The unruffled Mags said, “The proper verb, Cordelia May, is are. You are kissing him.”

  Delie had the good grace to look ashamed, while her two younger sisters giggled. Since there was nothing to see, the family started slipping away from the doorway and he heard Brother Carver laughing and saying to John Bledsoe, “Look like you better be asking his man what his intentions are, Johnny.”

  His heart plummeted to his stomach and he stepped forward to Lona, whose eyes looked just like Ruby’s when she threw his cane at him. “I apologize. I’ll leave and stay in the mill house.”

  John looked sympathetic since he already knew what his intentions were. However, Lona was not. “I’ma have you to know no one ever come up into this house—God’s house—with the intentions getting at one of my daughters like a fox in the hen house. We trying to raise our girls proper here.”

  Her angered tone reminded him about his potential inadequacies as a husband for Mags and he ducked into the room to gather his things to leave.

  Mags stepped forward. “Mama, I believe that I have some say in this.”

  “You most certainly do not. I have never been so scandalized in all of my life.”

  Mags confronted her mother. “I seem to recall Ruby having her share of encounters with Adam.”

  “They may have had some times together, but it was not up under our roof, I’ll have you to know missy.” Lona sputtered as Sister Jane grabbed her mother by the shoulders.

  “Calm down, Lona. There’s be plenty of us to see to the young people while we are here. We can make sure they stay respectable, right?” Jane nodded at the two of them, and guided her mother out of the doorway.

  The small kitchen slowly emptied out until it was just Delie standing in the kitchen looking at them. “Get out of here,” Mags hissed at her little sister.

  “No way. I’m staying to get me some lessons.”

  Mags chased after her with a kitchen towel and Delie left the kitchen until the two of them were again by themselves, door wide open. Mags stood in the doorway, slightly winded from chasing her young sister around. “I think you owe me an explanation, Mr. Thomas.”

  “For what?”

  “For why you keep doing that.”

  “Kissing?” Asa spread his hands. “Why does a man kiss a woman? To know how her lips taste. To be close to her. To let her know that he cares.”

  “To marry her,” she said. Silence from him. “Yes, that is what I thought. You’re just down here to have a good time. You would marry a white woman, but you’re down here to have a good time with me.”

  “That’s not true. And I don’t call writing about Negro men being lynched as fun.”

  “Okay. I mean in between the reporting. You’re having a good time.”

  He folded his arms. “Well, yes. Aren’t you?”

  “No.” The sound of her no weighted heavy on his heart. “You confuse me. As someone who knows her mind all of the time, you’ve come in here and messed that up and I don’t like it.”

  “What do you want me to say, Mags? I’m sorry.”

  “That’s a start. But I also want to know what your intentions are with me.”

  Asa spread his hands again. “You’re intelligent, beautiful and charming. You have been very helpful to me in my investigation. The time we have spent together has been a wonderful balm to my heart. Any man would be lucky to have you as his bride.”

  “But not yours.”

  He would endure the pain of being shot all over again, rather than hurt her. “I cannot.” He made a helpless gesture. “Forgive me, God, but I cannot.”

  “Cannot, or will not?”

  “I cannot. I’m sorry.”

  “Maybe it’s my forgiveness you should seek. When it is time for you to leave, you can go back up north and find some other, lighter woman who will suit you.” She untied her apron and he reached out to grab her arm.

  “That’s not it. Please, Mags, believe me.”

  “Then what is it?”

  Asa cleared his throat. “You deserve better than me, Mags, don’t you see it? Your mother even said it. I don’t mean to take advantage of you, but there is some man out here who can be the man you deserve.”

  “Why don’t I deserve someone like you?” The truthfulness in her question and in her eyes caused his heart piece as if wounded.

  “Mags, please. Just know that whatever I do, I did it so that you can find happiness elsewhere.” That didn’t come out right. Please God, help me explain it to her.

  “You have a funny way of showing it.” Mags crinkled her nose and the skin on her smooth brown forehead winkled too. God, she is adorable.

  “Maybe, but it is what I intended.”

  “You’re a cad.”

  “Far from it.”

  “Well, that is what I’ll tell Ruby when I get to her. I’ll let her know what a cad you are, going around and trifling with young country girls and their feelings. I hope that your mother and sisters are proud.” She shook herself free of his hold, walked out of the kitchen.

  The very air holding him up left him.

  Watching her walk out of the room, tall and able to escape his hold, he was sorry he had ever said anything to that white officer. If he hadn’t said anything, he would have a whole leg. He would have been able to court Mags, propose to her and be a full husband to her.

  Instead, he could do none of that and now Mags hated him.

  Some of the feeling he had in his room at his mother’s house crept in at the edge of his consciousness.

  Mags went through the front room, sweeping past her family and the Ca
rvers and into her room, seeking the comfort of her Bible. She opened it to her favorite place. She liked to read of the sacrifices that her namesake, Ruth, had made in following her mother-in-law’s people and how Ruth’s courage had led to the founding of Israel.

  Could she be a vessel like that one day? No. Instead, she was relegated to staying in her father’s house and serving him and her mother all of the days of her life. She lay down on the bed and felt hot tears soak into the pillow as she rested and fell asleep.

  She must have been really tired, because when she woke up there was morning light peering into the windows and it was time to get Sunday breakfast ready. She woke up and tiptoed through the front room and across to the kitchen and lit the stove to get ready for another day. Surviving, going on, that was her specialty.

  She sat at one end of a pew during the church service and Mr. Thomas sat at another. She did not seek out his company for the rest of the day. When he said he was going to the mill house to write for a bit, she shrugged her shoulders and acted as if she didn’t care. She couldn’t help but stare after him as he drove away.

  “Where’s he going?” John stepped up to her as she swept the front yard.

  “He says he is going to write at the mill house. He’ll be back for supper.”

  “Do you care for him, daughter?”

  Mags swept harder. “He was just someone different to come into our lives. Soon, he’ll leave and go back to his home and all will be as it was before.”

  “Do you believe all that?”

  “Mostly.” She leaned on her broom. “I’m just looking for things to be as they were before he came.”

  John shook his head. “God put him into our lives for a reason. We’re made different by his light. We’re changed now and we can’t ignore that.”

  “I can.”

  “It don’t do to deny that you care for him.”

  “He denies it about me.” She kept up her sweeping furiously, trying not to have her pain at his rejection of her manifest itself into tears.

  “Daughter. He still trying to cope with the loss of his leg. He feels like he can’t be no man or husband to you without it. He still trying to find his way. Be patient.”