Protectors 2: Heroes: Stories to Benefit PROTECT by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Goombah Gumbo Press
Published: 2015-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

Moon over the Midwest

Elizabeth Amber Love

* * *

The first time I looked out over that field, all I saw was freedom. There were twelve planes scheduled to be in the air show, but there was only one that I cared about. I don’t know nothing about planes, but I know that one; it belongs to the only person I think can save me from this Hell.

They say our slavery to the white man ended decades ago, but for a girl like me who’s got Indian and Negro blood, I haven’t even felt free among my own family. I’m the youngest girl. Opal is sixteen, five years older than me. Joshua isn’t even ten yet. The family treats him special. Not sure if it’s on account of him being a boy or because he don’t act like everyone else. That’s what Momma always calls him, “special.” He don’t talk. He smiles once in a while. He didn’t learn to walk until he was three. Opal is the prize. She’s pretty and she sings like an angel. That’s why they always make her sing in church.

I don’t have none of that. I just want out. There has to be more to my life than being scared every time it’s dark or every time I’m told to stay in a room with one of Daddy’s friends. He don’t think I know what’s going on, but I see them giving him money. The first time, I kept telling myself it wouldn’t never happen again, but it does and I’m ready to get out of here.

When I first heard about Bessie Coleman, I didn’t believe a word of what Junior Knox was saying. He told me there was this Negro woman who flew planes just like any man. Better than a man, he said. Junior kept swooping around with his arms out wide talking about Bessie flying in circles, looping around the sky, and even going right through barns.

It’s crazy, I told him. No way could a woman learn to do that, especially a Negro woman. The day Junior Knox told me about Bessie, all I wanted to do was meet her.

Looking across the Knox field at their biggest barn, I had the hardest time thinking about what my life could be if only I could get lucky. My dreams are nightmares. Every time I’m lying in bed next to Opal, I wonder if the door will creak and my father’s hands will pull me up. Gotta keep quiet, he says each time, don’t want to wake Opal or anyone else. No way Momma can’t know what goes on.

All those planes lined up and ready for take-off look like the most magical thing I could ever imagine. That’s when I begin to think that maybe I can hide in one and go some place new. Some place where I’m not Primrose Rivers. It doesn’t take long for me to pick a new name. My grandmother’s name in English means “clear springs under the moon” so the folks just call her Moon River.

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