Read Online Black Angels by Linda Beatrice Brown - Free Book Online Page B

works.”
    And Mamadear said, “Your own flesh and blood! Everybody knows Gran Susie tried to kill herself once. Do you want that to happen?” and something about “going to hell.”
    Papa said, “those dresses and carpets you love” and “business.”
    Mamadear said, “Gran Susie’s son, Gran Susie’s son,” louder and louder.
    Papa said “hysterical” and “Niggers don’t love, they . . .” and then he said a word Caswell didn’t understand.
    â€œHow dare you speak to me like that!” Mamadear said. “Your wife! Is that how you talk to your Negra women? How many slave wenches do you have? How many?” she shouted.
    Then there was a big crash in the room like something broke. And Mamadear was crying and she said, “How many others and which ones?” And then something else broke, and she ran out of the room and back upstairs. And that’s when he fell and cut his ear on the tin bucket.
    He was scared and he wanted to run up to his Mamadear, but he knew he wasn’t supposed to be listening under the stairs. So he ran into the kitchen. He was crying and holding his ear, cause it was bleeding and it hurt bad. Gran Susie was in the kitchen. He didn’t want Gran Susie to die. He loved Gran Susie.
    Later that night, his Mamadear let him sleep on a pallet in her room, because he had hurt himself, and she asked Gran Susie to sit up with her till she went to sleep because she was upset and didn’t want to sleep in the dark alone.
    Papa was downstairs smoking cigars. Caswell smelled the cigar smell. Papa never came upstairs till late. Sometimes Caswell would wake up in the night and hear him walking down the long hall.
    There was no story or anything that night. And then Mamadear started crying, and she asked Gran Susie to stay with her and not go down to the kitchen where her pallet was. Gran Susie sat in the rocker.
    Mamadear said, “You know I know who Michael is.” And she said, “How many other girls are there, and who are they?” Mamadear said again louder, “Who are they?” Caswell couldn’t see because he was supposed to be asleep, but he heard Gran Susie’s rocker squeak three times, and Mamadear said, “Don’t make me make you tell.”
    Gran Susie was whispering then, and she said, “Three that ah knows of, ma’am.”
    And then Mamadear was quiet, and she cried some more, and then she said, “And who are they and what are their names?”
    And Gran Susie rocked some more and she said, “Please, Miz Loddy.”
    Mamadear said, “I can make you tell me, you know. I can get Overseer Aycock to make you.”
    And Gran Susie said real low, “Annie, Amelia Ray, and Cestina.”
    And then Gran Susie’s chair was still and Mamadear was crying, and she turned over and cried and cried, and that’s all he remembered except he never saw those Negra girls again.
    Maybe he’d tell Luke and Daylily about it someday, and ask what it meant, “flesh and blood.” His Mamadear said Michael was Papa’s “flesh and blood.” Did it mean somebody you loved? And if it did, did Papa love Michael? And why did Michael have to go away from Gran Susie because he was her only child? Maybe Papa was right and Negras didn’t love.

CHAPTER 11
    LIFE IS BIG
    Luke kept at them if they complained of being tired. All he knew was that they had to keep heading north or they’d starve soon. But after a long morning walking, all they wanted to do was sit, Luke included. It was the middle of the day. The sun was high in the sky. Luke stopped and plopped down, and the others followed.
    Nobody said anything. Caswell was about to go to sleep, and Luke was thinking. It was a warm day, and the sky was entirely blue. They were resting under the biggest oak tree they had ever seen. It was too hot to sit in the sun. Daylily coughed roughly.
    Luke looked at