Low Country by Anne Rivers Siddons

Author:Anne Rivers Siddons [Anne Rivers Siddons]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9780061747137
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2005-01-09T13:00:00+00:00

8

In fact, he had done just that. When we got to the general store, I saw the motorcycle deep in the tangle of scrub and kudzu out back, hardly showing at all. Only its crusted headlights were clearly visible. But I was looking for it, and had no trouble spotting it. I do not think that Sophia Bridges saw it. She had begun photographing when we reached the sand road that led in through the woods to the settlement, leaning out the window and imploring me to go slower. When we rounded the last curve and the general store was in sight she was intent on capturing a back view of an old man leading a spavined mule down the road. Both wore straw hats. Mark may have seen the cycle, though. I heard a soft gasp from the backseat that I somehow did not think was alarm, but whether he was intrigued by the motorcycle or the chapeau-clad mule and its owner I did not know.

As we approached the old man and the mule I put a hand lightly on Sophia’s shoulder and said, “I wouldn’t photograph them head-on. Not right now. They’re very shy about strangers until they get to know them, and they don’t like cameras. Later on, after he gets used to you, he’ll probably pose for you all day.”

She turned a glowing face to me.

“They don’t by any chance think the camera steals their souls, do they?” she breathed reverently.

“Not since they got here from Africa a couple of hundred years ago,” I said acidly. “It’s just not considered polite. I think the soul thing was that tribe in New Guinea that had never seen a white man, anyway. Maybe you ought to leave the camera and tape recorder here the first time out.”

She did not want to do that.

“I want to be very clear about what I’m doing,” she said. “Really up front with them. I don’t want to seem as if I’d just come to gawk.”

But I thought that without the tools of her trade she felt uncertain, somewhat at sea, and perhaps afraid that the people of Dayclear would not perceive her authority and expertise at first.

“You’re with me, and they know me a little,” I said. “That’s the only entree that’s going to work, believe me. You better hope Ezra is around. That’s the best way, by far. Next to being long-lost kin, to be known by a native to the village is the most acceptable way to come into a Gullah community. Their sense of family is tremendous; we don’t have anything like it in our culture, not really. The family structure, the ancestors, the tribe…it’s everything. Mark will be a real draw, too, even if he doesn’t want to say a word. They won’t care about that. Children are almost magical to the Gullahs. Back in Africa they were the responsibility of everybody in the village. Hillary Clinton’s right about that.”

In the end she left the camera and the

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