Read Online An Acquaintance with Darkness by Ann Rinaldi - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Ann Rinaldi
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like bells at rest. At dusk they turn up to the evening sky to bloom all night."
"Nightflowers," I said.
"I have a whole garden in back. I'll show you later."
"Why did you try to drown yourself?" I asked.
"I jumped off the Navy Yard Bridge." We were paused in front of the parlor door. "I'm one-eighth Negro. I come from below Richmond. I was a slave. My master was my father. But he had three other white daughters, my half-sisters. When their beaux came around they'd always ask, 'Who is that pretty girl?' My half-sisters weren't so pretty. It was a curse that I was. So I had to be sold off. The girls demanded it. I was sold on the block in Richmond. My own half-brother bought me. He was running off to join the Union army. He was so against slavery. He'd fought with Father about it and purchased me as an act of rebellion. He brought me north with him, to Washington, and said, 'Now you're free. And now, so am I. You don't have to go home again and neither do I.' He left me some money, and I lived for a while in a small roominghouse. He went off with the army. He was killed in the Shenandoah Valley last August."
Her calm recitation gave me the chills.
"I ran out of money and had no place to go. I had no way to make a living. I had a choice: Become a fancy woman or drown myself. So I jumped off the bridge. The water was so cold. It was first light. All grayness and mist. No one about, or so I thought. Next thing I knew these two little dwarves were swimming beside me, pulling me out."
I blinked. "Dwarves?"
"I thought I was dreaming. They worked on me. Got the water out of my lungs, then one of them ran off and came back in a little while with your uncle Valentine. He brought me here and Maude took care of me. He gave me a home, got me a tutor, and now I'm instructing the little freedman children at the Ebenezer Free School."
She smiled. "School is out because of the end of the war, and their parents are working. So I brought some here today. He lets me do that, your uncle Valentine. This is the parlor."
All I could see was this girl standing on the block, being auctioned off.
One-eighth Negro.
She did not look Negro. How had she looked up there on the block? I'd heard about slave auctions. Annie had told me of them.
They pick up a girl's dress and show buyers what they're getting.
That's what Annie had told me.
And sold by her own father!
I made myself look at the parlor. It was elegant. In the circular area that formed the bottom tower was a piano. The windows overlooked a side garden and were graced with yellow satin curtains that dripped like tears. The floors were highly polished and there were one or two Persian rugs. There was a cherry highboy, a desk, a gathering of chairs around a round table.
"You like it. You are drawn to it," Marietta said, again reading my thoughts.
I stared at her.
One-eighth Negro. Some of them have powers.
Did she?
I must be careful.
"It's peaceful," I allowed.
"Dr. Bransby likes it that way. Come on upstairs, I want to show you something."
I followed her up the wide, uncarpeted stairs and gasped when she opened the door to a room that was the second-story tower. There was a cushioned window seat in the tower. In the middle of the room was a Sheraton four-poster draped in blue. Again, there was an elegant plainness about it. There was a small ladies' desk, a dressing table with a gilt-framed mirror, a chiffonier, a shelf filled with books. Lying across the blue-and-white bedspread was a blue velvet dressing gown.
"This is your room," she said.
I drew back, angry. "I'm not moving in."
"You don't have to. It's your room when you want to visit. He had it redecorated in blue and white because he knows blue is your color. Go and look at the books in the case. Go on."
Gingerly I stepped into the room and went to the bookcase.
Sir Walter Scott;
The Adventures of Roderick Random
by Smollett; the plays of Shakespeare; John Ruffini's
Laviniaâall
three volumes;
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte
"Nightflowers," I said.
"I have a whole garden in back. I'll show you later."
"Why did you try to drown yourself?" I asked.
"I jumped off the Navy Yard Bridge." We were paused in front of the parlor door. "I'm one-eighth Negro. I come from below Richmond. I was a slave. My master was my father. But he had three other white daughters, my half-sisters. When their beaux came around they'd always ask, 'Who is that pretty girl?' My half-sisters weren't so pretty. It was a curse that I was. So I had to be sold off. The girls demanded it. I was sold on the block in Richmond. My own half-brother bought me. He was running off to join the Union army. He was so against slavery. He'd fought with Father about it and purchased me as an act of rebellion. He brought me north with him, to Washington, and said, 'Now you're free. And now, so am I. You don't have to go home again and neither do I.' He left me some money, and I lived for a while in a small roominghouse. He went off with the army. He was killed in the Shenandoah Valley last August."
Her calm recitation gave me the chills.
"I ran out of money and had no place to go. I had no way to make a living. I had a choice: Become a fancy woman or drown myself. So I jumped off the bridge. The water was so cold. It was first light. All grayness and mist. No one about, or so I thought. Next thing I knew these two little dwarves were swimming beside me, pulling me out."
I blinked. "Dwarves?"
"I thought I was dreaming. They worked on me. Got the water out of my lungs, then one of them ran off and came back in a little while with your uncle Valentine. He brought me here and Maude took care of me. He gave me a home, got me a tutor, and now I'm instructing the little freedman children at the Ebenezer Free School."
She smiled. "School is out because of the end of the war, and their parents are working. So I brought some here today. He lets me do that, your uncle Valentine. This is the parlor."
All I could see was this girl standing on the block, being auctioned off.
One-eighth Negro.
She did not look Negro. How had she looked up there on the block? I'd heard about slave auctions. Annie had told me of them.
They pick up a girl's dress and show buyers what they're getting.
That's what Annie had told me.
And sold by her own father!
I made myself look at the parlor. It was elegant. In the circular area that formed the bottom tower was a piano. The windows overlooked a side garden and were graced with yellow satin curtains that dripped like tears. The floors were highly polished and there were one or two Persian rugs. There was a cherry highboy, a desk, a gathering of chairs around a round table.
"You like it. You are drawn to it," Marietta said, again reading my thoughts.
I stared at her.
One-eighth Negro. Some of them have powers.
Did she?
I must be careful.
"It's peaceful," I allowed.
"Dr. Bransby likes it that way. Come on upstairs, I want to show you something."
I followed her up the wide, uncarpeted stairs and gasped when she opened the door to a room that was the second-story tower. There was a cushioned window seat in the tower. In the middle of the room was a Sheraton four-poster draped in blue. Again, there was an elegant plainness about it. There was a small ladies' desk, a dressing table with a gilt-framed mirror, a chiffonier, a shelf filled with books. Lying across the blue-and-white bedspread was a blue velvet dressing gown.
"This is your room," she said.
I drew back, angry. "I'm not moving in."
"You don't have to. It's your room when you want to visit. He had it redecorated in blue and white because he knows blue is your color. Go and look at the books in the case. Go on."
Gingerly I stepped into the room and went to the bookcase.
Sir Walter Scott;
The Adventures of Roderick Random
by Smollett; the plays of Shakespeare; John Ruffini's
Laviniaâall
three volumes;
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte
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