Read Online There's a Dead Person Following My Sister Around by Vivian Vande Velde - Free Book Online

exhausted and defeated, to the floor. He wrapped his arms around himself and let his gaze also fall to the floor, as though he was saying, "Take me. I am too tired to try anymore.
"
I stood there in the barn loft thinking that he was a desperate fugitive and that I endangered my life not to call out to Theodore. Perhaps as soon as I turned my back he would lunge at me.
But he did not look capable of lunging. He did not look capable of walking. He looked cold and starving and frightened.
Still, I backed away from him rather than turning from him, and I kept the baling fork up for as long as I could till I reached the ladder going to the lower level.
"
Stay there," I said, because he had not yet looked up at me and he might not even be aware that I was leaving. "Don't come near me.
"
At my words, he did look up, the skin of his face darker than any I'd ever seen this close up, but his eyes the same as anybody else's.
Back in the house, I decided that I could cause no hurt by making the man some food. Even if the slave catchers had followed him and were about to descend on our house, he had to eat before they brought him back South to whatever place it was he'd run away from. I also decided that Theodore had enough old shirts that surely one could be spared. And if the Negro man should happen to wander away while I prepared food and sought clothing for him, so much the better.
But as soon as I walked in the door, I realized I was still holding the baling fork. Theodore, who'd been slicing the breakfast bread, looked up at me with concern and shooed the children away.
I worked at preparing a sandwich with thick slices of cold pork so that the children would not guess that we were talking about something we didn't want them to hear, which would fetch them underfoot faster than anything else in the world. "There is a runaway Negro slave in our barn loft," I whispered.
Theodore sighed. He said, "He was probably looking for the Stearnses' farmstead.
"
The Stearns are Quakers and everybody knows Quakers are all abolitionists.
I said, "He was looking for Canada.
"
"
Any sign of federal marshals or slave catchers?" Theodore asked. I shook my head, and he said, "One of us must ride out to fetch them.
"
"
I know," I said.
"
Otherwise," he pointed out, "with that new law, we
are responsible.
We
could face a thousand-dollar fine. Building this house cost less than a thousand dollars.
"
"
A thousand dollars is a great deal of money," I agreed.
"
And six months in jail," Theodore said.
"
Six months is a long time," I agreed. I pulled his heavy work shirt off the hook by the door and slung it over Theodore's arm. I handed him the sandwich. "Perhaps, if we're lucky, he has gone," I said.
But he wasn't gone.
And when Theodore saw that the Negro man's shoes were entirely worn through so that he'd been walking in the snow with what were essentially bare feet, he invited him into the house.
And when the man took off his ragged shirt to replace it with Theodore's shirt and we saw the whip scars, some discolored, some with the skin raised like permanent welts on his back, we told him he could spend the day, and at night we would put him in the cart and drive him to the Stearnses' farm.
All day long we waited for the slave catchers to come and catch us at what we were doing.
They came just as I was putting supper on the table.
Rebekka, who is very responsible for eight years old, had been staying in the front room so that she could catch an early glimpse and warn us of any visitors. She came running into the kitchen shouting, "Three men on horses.
"
At that time the runaway Negro was in the root
cellar, where they would be sure to find him if they forced their way in and searched the house.
Theodore told Rebekka, "Take Jacob downstairs and choose some fine juicy apples for supper." Rebekka nodded solemnly, knowing what was behind the words. To Jacob, Theodore said, "Do you think you can help your sister?" because four years old is too young to