Lowcountry Spirit by Ann Hite

Author:Ann Hite
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Star Books

When the sun sunk into the trees, I got my place in line for the evening rice. Celestia slid up beside me. My heart flipped over like we’d found each other after years of looking. And you would have thought things got good from there. All the field hands that would have nodded her a greeting two weeks before turned their faces away, like somehow she had done bad to them. I looked her dead in the eyes. Something cold and hard pushed through my chest. “You be having fun today?” The words was like pieces of ice that fall sometimes in the coldest winters.

Celestia blinked once but smiled anyway. “Liza gets to do a lot ’cause Young Master Thomas likes her.”

“So that be how things are?” This came out even louder and more hateful. “And you with Young Mistress, combing her hair, and helping her dress?”

Celestia looked me over with her kindness. “You mad at me?”

“You be different, girl,” I shot, but the nasty lie hurt my throat.

She stood straight and frowned. “No need to bother with me then.” Her words were proud. “I just wanted you to know I heard the bell. I’m scared for you. You is all I have left, so I know it be you.”

“I’m just a plain old field hand with scars on her hands. Go on back to that nice life of yours with your fancy cook. You got her.” I looked away. The others looked at Celestia.

“You all know she been making the rice taste better. She been doing that on her own, and she’ll get a beating if she’s caught.”

No one made a sound. Not one of us said we knew.

“Just watch yourself, Emmaline.” That kind, careful girl turned and left. My one and only sister.

Word among field slaves rippled like the still water in the marsh when a fish jumped. Tarry didn’t find me until I was eating my last bite of rice, trying hard not to think about the small chunks of crabmeat and the butter. The air was thick with a storm out at sea.

“You talked to Celestia?” Mama looked me up and down like it had become a natural thing.

“She did the talking.”

“I guess you got her told good, then.” Mama’s voice had a sharp edge.

“I sure did. I let her know I was just as good as her. That I was tough, where she was soft.”

Mama stepped in front of me. “She be just like your sister, girl. You ought to be ashamed. When I’m gone, she’ll be all the family you got.”

“You ain’t going nowhere,” I said.

“We slaves. Ain’t no telling when one will be taken away. Happens all the time. Did you hear what Celestia had to say?”

“She heard the bell.”

Mama’s face went calm. “That be a serious thing.” The gray light just before night was spreading across the yard.

“She probably made it up just to be mean.

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