Read Online Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor - Free Book Online Page A

found a side door and we all went in. Following a narrow hallway, we came to double doors which opened to the main corridor. A man and woman, walking briskly as if they were afraid they might miss something, hurried toward us and turned into a room midway down the hall. Two more people did the same. The rest of the corridor was empty.
    Christopher-John nodded toward the open doors where the people had entered. “You s’pose that’s where they got T.J.?”
    “Most likely that’s the courtroom,” I said.
    “Where’s the outhouse?”
    I sighed irritably. At the moment Little Man’s mind was on only one thing. Leaving the protective cover of the doors, we ventured down the corridor looking from side to side, not really sure what kind of structure we were looking for.
    “Look there,” said Christopher-John with a nod toward a man in the last stages of buttoning his pants coming through a door marked “Gentlemen.” Without a word, Little Man dashed down the corridor and through the door. Christopher-Johnfollowed him. The man took no notice of either of them as he too headed for the courtroom.
    For several moments I waited outside the men’s room, then, drawn by the open doors, went down to the courtroom entrance where I tried to peek between the spaces not filled by people, several deep, lining the back wall. I thought about squeezing in and working my way around to where Reverend Gabson and the Averys were, but before I could make up my mind to do so, a man stepped to the doors and closed them. It hadn’t been such a great idea anyway.
    With nothing further to see, I turned and headed back down the corridor. As I did, a young woman came from an office and bent over a water fountain. I watched her drink, the water arching toward her like a colorless rainbow. When she stepped away from the fountain, she saw me watching her. She glanced at me somewhat oddly, then crossed the hall, her high heels clicking noisily against the wood floor, and went back into the room. As soon as the door closed behind her, I hurried over to the fountain and twisted the knob. The water shot up, slapping me coldly across the face. I jerked back, startled, then tried again.
    “Cassie!”
    I looked around. Jeremy Simms stood at the main entrance of the courthouse staring down at me.
    “What’s the matter?” I said.
    Walking, then running, Jeremy came toward me, his arms waving frantically. “Cassie! Get away!” he hissed in a whispery cry which filled the empty corridor.
    “Boy, jus’ what’s the matter with you?” As Jeremy reached me, I could see that his face was flushed. “You sick or somethin’?”
    Jeremy didn’t answer as he looked nervously around him.“C-Cassie, you can’t—you can’t drink from there. Ya best get ’way ’fore somebody sees ya.”
    “You crazy? You ain’t Stacey. You can’t be tellin’ me what to do—”
    Before I could finish, Jeremy grabbed my arm and pulled me several feet from the fountain. I jerked loose, furious. “Boy, you jus’ wait till we get outside—”
    “Cassie, Cassie,” he murmured hoarsely, waving his hand to silence me. There was an urgency in his manner as he turned away and stared down the corridor. I followed his gaze. Three farmers had just entered. They plodded heavily to the courtroom, opened the door, and disappeared inside. With his eyes still on the door, Jeremy asked where Christopher-John and Little Man were.
    “Jus’ don’t you worry ’bout where they are, ’cause boy, you done torn your britches with me.”
    Jeremy looked at me now. “Where, Cassie?”
    Again, there was that urgency.
    “They in there,” I said, pointing to the men’s room.
    Without another word, Jeremy rushed over to the door and swung it open. Before the spring had pulled it to again, he was at the entrance with Little Man and Christopher-John in tow. With his right arm outspread, keeping Little Man and Christopher-John securely behind him, he searched the corridor. Finding no one