The Prodigy Slave, Book One: Journey to Winter Garden: (Revised Edition 2020)

by Londyn Skye

  Once the audience’s long-standing ovation and tears ceased, the dancing shadows returned again for the rest of the show. Their elegant movements in front of elaborate lighting gracefully glided across the sheer tapestry, telling stories through dance, driven by the rhythm of Lily’s brilliantly written classical pieces. For two nonstop hours, every stagehand, every dancer, every student orchestra member, William Werthington, and Lily had come together to complete another spellbinding show that riveted a sea of people, finally ending Lily’s musical journey in the United States. After delivering the gift of her music on Christmas night, well over six-thousand pairs of hands continuously applauded for a genius woman. The delighted audience was on their feet, cheering on and on for a prodigal woman, who, by law, was only considered three-fifths of a human being, who had no right to vote, no right to own land, no rights to education, no right to learn to read or write, nor any of the other basic freedoms they all had when they walked beyond the doors of the theater they were in. In the eyes of the law, the creator of The Dream Symphony was a woman who was still figuratively bound by chains, but, despite those ugly truths, as she took her final bow at Winter Garden, Lily Adams felt as free as a bird in a summer sky.

  After absorbing the unbelievable ovation of the crowd, the curtain finally closed, truly symbolizing the end of Lily’s unbelievable journey to Winter Garden. But, ironically, instead of it feeling like the end, it felt more like a new beginning to her, something she was eager to celebrate with a particular man that she had not seen in days. Lily turned with a smile and watched the stagehands lowering the sheer tapestry behind her while all of her close friends mingled around it in different modes of celebration. While she searched for who she really wanted to see, Lily was greeted with huge bear hugs and innocent kisses on the cheek from many of the orchestra members as she made her way through the chaotic scene. Her happiness and enthusiasm were fueled after listening to the sounds of everyone’s cheers and champagne bottles popping around her as they celebrated not only another flawless night, but their excitement over soon drifting off to the Old World.

  After being hugged and congratulated by nearly everyone in the crew, Lily had yet to spot James. While she had the chance, she retreated to her dressing room to retrieve a Christmas gift that she had wrapped for him. Before she could grab it, though, Landon caught her there. “Lily, do you have a moment?” he asked, peeking his head inside of her door after knocking.

  “Sure.”

  “I have a few people here who have requested to meet you, if you don’t mind.”

  Always having a true appreciation for those who attended her shows, Lily never once turned down an opportunity to meet anyone who wished to speak to her afterward. “Absolutely! They’re more than welcome!” she exclaimed.

  After giving her permission, Landon brought in a tall slinky man with a rugged beard and a top hat that made him seem even taller than he already was. Tagging along with him was a much shorter woman with a round plump face, dark hair, and two young boys that held tight to her hands.

  “This is Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary, and their two sons. Mr. Lincoln was once a member of the House of Representatives in Illinois, and he happened to see your show in Chicago. He’s currently campaigning for the presidency here in New York and has brought his family along to experience the show with him this time,” Landon explained.

  Hearing that Abraham was such an important person suddenly made Lily a little nervous, but, as always, she quickly pulled herself together.

  “Ms. Adams,” Abraham began, extending his large hand toward her. “Mr. Von Brandt is correct. I had the pleasure of seeing you perform in Chicago not long ago. I told my wife and children about it, and they’ve been eager to see your show ever since. I thought it would make a wonderful Christmas present for all of them.”

  “Thank you. That’s very kind of you to say,” Lily replied, gently shaking his hand.

  “And I must say, seein’ your show truly has been, far and away, the best gift he’s eva’ given me,” his wife smiled, walking up and giving Lily’s hand a dainty shake as well.

  “Best gift I’ve eva’ gotten too!” their oldest son concurred.

  “How do you make all those shadows dance?!” their youngest son asked, speaking with a severe speech impediment that Lily was somehow able to decipher.

  The curious little boy looked to be no more than five-years-old, so Lily knelt down to his level before answering. “It’s magic!” she said, waving her hand in front of him. “You believe in magic, don’t you?”

  He nodded, gazing at her in wide-eyed fascination.

  “What’s your name?” Lily asked with a warm smile on her face.

  “Thomas … but everyone calls me Tad,” he explained through his impediment.

  “Well Tad, magic starts right up here.” She pointed to his tiny head. “Whateva’ you dream, if you put all of your heart and your soul into it, and you work real hard, you can bring it all to life.”

  Tad nodded again, still staring at Lily like he was mesmerized. He even had a huge smile on his face, which was something his parents rarely saw him do, since his older brother always poked fun at the deformity of his teeth: a side effect of his cleft pallet.

  “Always rememba’ that, okay Tad?” Lily continued.

  “I will,” he replied, suddenly wrapping his little arms around her neck.

  Lily brushed her finger against his nose before standing up and being greeted with the warm, appreciative smiles of his parents.

  “I read that you were once a slave, but that you’ve since earned your freedom by playin’ the piano,” Mary said to Lily. “Afta’ seein’ you play, I unda’stand now why your owna’ felt you deserved to be freed. Somebody with your level of skill should neva’ be forced into slavery,” she smiled, attempting to compliment her.

  “Well, in my mind, yes, I feel free. But on paper, I ain’t no more free than any slave workin’ in a cottonfield at this very moment. Truth be told, whetha’ any of us can play piano or not, I think we all deserve to be freed.”

  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend,” Mary replied, feeling a bit embarrassed after realizing her mistake.

  “Quite alright, ma’am. None taken. Forgive me, I was just expressin’ my opinion.”

  “Papa, how come only brown people are slaves?” Tad suddenly wanted to know after paying close attention to the conversation. He gazed up at his father with curious, big brown eyes, waiting for a reply.

  Abraham nervously looked down at him then up at Lily. They held each other’s gaze as the wheels turned in his head. He did not want to answer the question in front of Lily. However, he quickly realized that even if she were not in his presence, he still would not have had a logical explanation to give to his inquisitive son.

  Lily scrambled to ease the tension of the situation when she saw the look of extreme embarrassment on Abraham’s face. “Do you boys like chocolate?” she finally thought to ask.

  “Yeah!” they both announced in unison.

  “Mrs. Lincoln, would you mind if they had a piece?”

  “No, of course not. Only one piece, though, okay boys?”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” they promised as Lily handed them a bowl of candy to sift through.

  Once the boys were occupied, Abraham turned his attention back to Lily. After learning that the newspapers had embellished the truth about her freedom, he was suddenly curious to hear the truth about her life. He wanted to hear in her own words how she had come to play piano in such an elaborate show. In response to that initial question and many more that followed, Lily began to satisfy Abraham’s curiosity with the details of her long, turbulent life journey to Winter Garden. She was very open about the fact that her father had sold her, her unique friendship with James, and how she had secretly taught herself to play piano. She went on to explain how James believed in her talent so much that he had taken her to meet William and that he had even built her an amphitheater. She talked about Landon paving the way for
her tour, the ups and downs of her journey along the way, the ridicule and rejection in the beginning, and finally being embraced and accepted in the end. Lily was not shy at all about sharing the vivid details of the events that eventually led to the rise of her musical success, as well as emphasizing the fact that she was still nothing more than a slave.

  Abraham had hung on Lily’s every word as she spoke. He was absolutely intrigued by the entire phenomenon, as was his wife. However, Mary had become fixated on a particular part of Lily’s story. Being a woman, she could easily sense Lily’s emotions and hear the sentiment in her voice when she spoke of James, and she suddenly could not help but want to know more about him. “The piano piece that you played … the one about love. Is James the one you played it for?” she asked.

  There was a gentleness in Mary’s voice that made Lily feel as though she could trust her with the answer. Whether she could or not, though, Lily suddenly did not care if the Lincolns, or any other person, was appalled by the fact that she loved a white man. She was not ashamed of her relationship with James and wanted to feel free in expressing how she felt about him. She knew they would be sailing away to Europe soon and felt confident that no harm would come to her between now and then anyway. Lily stared at Mary for a moment before answering. She felt a mutual understanding being exchanged between them in their eyes, expressing that her words would remain between the three of them. “Yes ma’am, he is,” Lily finally answered.

  A smile illuminated on Mary’s face, and she encircled her arm around her husband’s and snuggled closer to him. “That song was beautiful,” she replied. “Simply beautiful.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “I’d sure love to meet this James you speak of … and Mr. Werthington too. I’ve been to several of his symphonies when I was just a girl.”

  “Well, come right this way!” Lily gestured with her hand toward the door. “I can certainly arrange that,” she smiled. She was beyond eager to see James too anyway.

  “Come on, boys,” Abraham beckoned to his sons, who had both disobeyed their mother and were indulging on their fifth piece of chocolate.

  “Yes, sir!” they said, their voices muffled by the chocolate that they had quickly shoved into their mouths.

  Before exiting, Lily picked up the Christmas gift she had meticulously wrapped for James, wanting to share it with him there at Winter Garden while everyone still celebrated in the back halls. She wanted to give him more than that, though; her deprived body was begging to erotically prove to him how badly she had missed him. The thought of it brought a mischievous smile to her face as she escorted her guests out into the hallway.

  Lily walked down the hallway with the Lincolns, answering their questions about the production of the show while she went in search of William. The conversation, however, came to an abrupt halt when Lily stepped around the corner and gazed down the corridor. She immediately froze where she stood. There, straight in front of her, stood the man whose gift she held, a man she had just admitted to loving just a few days before, a man who had gone above and beyond the clouds to prove that he loved her, and was responsible for helping her to seize this rare moment at Winter Garden. Lily’s eyes immediately widened, and she became weak all over. But her reaction had nothing to do with James. She owed her moment of shock to the person standing beside him, a person whose presence immediately brought profound memories of her childhood flashing back to her, a person Lily thought she would never again see in her lifetime. She stared in silence and utter disbelief as tears began to well in her eyes.

  “Why the long face, girl?! You mean you ain’t happy to see me?” Jesse snarled, glaring at her while standing wedged in between two deputies.

  The hatred Lily had harbored for Jesse instantly ignited every nerve in her body, rendering her incapable of even replying. Paralyzed, she simply stood there and stared at the man she believed was the devil himself.

  After Lily failed to reply, Jesse stepped toward her with his face twisted in anger. “I’d‘ve snatched y’ur ass clean off ‘a that stage had I not stopped and realized I’s finally gettin’ a return on my investment,” he told her, standing a hairsbreadth away from her face, while holding up a briefcase full of her hard-earned money. “’Cause Lord knows y’ur cookin’ and cleanin’ ain’t been worth a goddamn penny all these years!” he growled.

  The blood in Lily’s veins began to go cold as Jesse loomed over her, letting the anger in his eyes and body language continue to speak on his behalf. His proximity, the growling sound of his voice, his vulgar stench, and the sudden flashbacks of the countless times his open hand had made its way across her face as a child, all held enough weight to crush her in a matter of seconds. The woman that Lily had blossomed into over the last few months, with confidence, strength, and courage, instantly shriveled and died. She quickly reverted back to the submissive shell of a woman that Jesse had violently molded her to be. She immediately dropped her head after not being able to withstand the menacing look on his face that she had seen in times past, a look that was often followed by grave pain. As Lily looked down, her eyes drifted to the briefcase filled with thousands of her hard-earned dollars, money that Jesse now declared as his own. She then glanced over to the papers in his other hand, documents that legally declared him as her rightful owner. At that very moment, Lily conceded to the fact that it was all truly over.

  Landon, Wilson, Emerson, and William all suddenly approached and stood in a circle around Jesse, Lily, James, and the deputies, as if in a standoff. Their eyes were all darting from one to the other, each waiting for someone to speak. Easily sensing that something was horribly wrong, Austin, the other students, Elijah, Isabel, and the Lincolns, all slowly gathered on the outskirts and watched on, wondering who this strange man was berating Lily with his words and his devilish presence. They watched and waited, somehow knowing by the look on everyone’s faces that a war was likely to erupt if someone did not intervene, but fearful to do so because of the presence of the deputies.

  After staring at the ownership papers in Jesse’s hands, Lily finally looked up at James through a haze of tears that had yet to fall. He just stared back at her with no expression on his face whatsoever. He had yet to move, or say a word in her defense, or attempt to stop his father from making any claims over her. While Lily was holding James’s gaze, Jesse suddenly snatched her by the arm, twisting her skin tight. She inhaled sharply, cried out in pain, and dropped James’s Christmas gift to the floor, shattering the contents inside. “Come on here!” Jesse snarled as he grabbed her, his fire-red eyes piercing through her. Without another word, he yanked Lily along and began to walk with her down the corridor, still holding her arm in a death grip.

  “Sir, please, I beg you to let her go!” William interjected, his heart racing after watching Jesse handle Lily like a meaningless object. The realization of what was happening was setting in hard for William as Jesse dragged Lily further away. He immediately began to fight to regain control over the situation since it seemed that nobody else cared to bother, not Elijah, not Austin, not either one of the Lincolns, who stood horrified by what they were witnessing … not even James. William was the only one who proved that he was not deterred by the deputies nor by the evilness that Jesse exuded.

  “Who the hell’re you?!” Jesse demanded to know after stopping for a moment to look at William.

  “Please, sir, I just beg you to turn her loose!” William pleaded again, his hands visibly shaking.

  Jesse responded by tightening his grip on Lily and yanking her toward him. Again, she cried out in pain.

  “Please! You’re hurting her!” William erupted.

  “Shut the hell up!” Jesse shouted at Lily, his face turning a darker shade of red. He began to stomp away again when William refused to answer his question.

  The thought of Jesse taking Lily away sent William’s mind racing to find a solution. “Sir! It’s my understanding that you’ve appointed your son to take care of matters involving your slav
es, correct?!”

  Jesse stopped. “I’m gonna ask you one more time, Brit! Who the hell are you?!”

  “Just someone who wishes to help resolve this matter…”

  “I got my resolution,” Jesse replied, holding up the briefcase full of money and shaking Lily hard with the other. He then proceeded down the hallway.

  Yet again, William jumped in front of him and blocked his path. “There must be a better way than this!” William continued to plead, his tone oozing desperation. “Can you please speak with your son?! Please?!” he begged, pointing to James, who had still done nothing but stand there silently staring at Lily as she begged for his help with her eyes. “Please allow James to work things out with you! I beg you not to do this!”

  “My son,” Jesse replied, turning around to look at James. “My son?” he repeated slowly, saying it in a way that sounded as if he questioned whether or not he truly was his own flesh and blood. Jesse suddenly walked toward him. James had already divulged to his father how and why Lily had ended up at Winter Garden. But Jesse suddenly felt the need to know where his youngest boy’s loyalties truly lie. Jesse wanted to test his son in front of all the people surrounding them. “Maybe this ol’ fucker is right. I gave you control ova’ Lily,” Jesse said, approaching James with his face still crippled by a menacing expression. “So, tell me, son … what do you think is best, huh?” He stood face to face with James. “You decide.” He dropped the briefcase full of cash in between them. “Do we take my property home where she belongs?” He shoved Lily toward William. “Or do we hand ’er ova’ to this ol’ fucker, huh? If you wanna hand ’er ova’…” He held up Lily’s ownership document. “I’ll sign ’er papers right now and set ’er free right where she stands. The choice is y’urs … son.”