Price of Passage final by Larry Sommers

Author:Larry Sommers [Sommers, Larry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DX Varos Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Maria sat down, drank tea, and received a good deal more of Mistress Lake’s sympathetic yet hardheaded advice. Then the two of them walked to Søtstrøm together through the dawn-pinked landscape. Mistress Lake brought along a bag of herbs, medicines, and cures.

Anders stirred, eager to get up and start plowing.

Mistress Lake pushed him back down. “Let us tend to your injuries, Mister Gunstensen. My husband and sons will begin your field work.”

The old woman examined Anders gently. Besides the damage to his face, she said, he probably had cracked ribs. His swollen left foot made it seem one or more bones had been broken there as well. “He won’t be walking much for a few weeks.”

Lake and sons began plowing, manuring, and harrowing the fields. They worked all day while Mistress Lake cared for Anders and talked with Maria about the wickedness of slavery. Near sundown, she went home with her menfolk, promising to come back often to check on Anders’ progress.

Maria remained, with Anders and Tante. Anders slept. Tante offered Maria bread and a bowl of soup. Bone tired, Maria sank into the chair and took her supper.

Tante sat down on the other side of the table and tilted her square head toward Maria. “In dizzy times, the butter still spoils.”

In the silence that followed, Tante’s words buzzed around in Maria’s head, contending with her need for sleep. Dizzy . . . butter . . . Butter!

Now she remembered. It was not just one of Tante’s sayings. Butter sat in the pantry, churned yesterday before the slave catchers came. Butter and some cheese as well. Had not Anders been beaten last night, he would have made one of his trips to town today. He would have taken the surplus butter and cheese with him and sold them to Mister Eliot for resale in his store. The small payments from Eliot for butter and cheese were an important source of cash. Butter would not go rancid in a day or two; still, it had to be fresh. Maria had almost forgotten.

Anders had always handled business in town. Maria had never set foot in the Sweetwater General Merchandise Company store. But tomorrow, she, not Anders, would take the butter and cheese to Mister Eliot.

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