Stella Stands Alone by A. Lafaye

Author:A. Lafaye
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR
Published: 2008-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Auction Block

Wandered the trees, praying I’d stumble into a way out of the mess I’d gotten myself into, but the only thing I could keep in my mind but a second was what the Lord had told me, “Find the man who needs what you have.”

What I had was nothing. Not even my own ideas.

But when I saw the people start coming down the road, I knew I had to face my mistakes, maybe find me a bidder in that crowd forming by the gin. They planned to do the auction from the storehouse. With the doors open, Mr. Markham, the banker and auctioneer, had himself a stage where he could see all the bidders down below. Also gave the people a good view of the fields and the house and all that. Just as I’d figured, people swarmed over the place like Mama’s bees. Thought of breaking open her hives to really give those people something to buzz about. Smiled over the idea of all those fan-flapping, hat-turning folks running this-a-way and that-a-way, their arms a-flailing, the bees a-stinging.

But no, they just stuck their heads in doors, knocked on support posts, and went on about how Daddy might have crooked ideas, but he had him a straight transom. I’d like to straighten them out with a transom upside the head, but the Good Lord frowns on such things. Didn’t stop me from thinking them though.

“What’s that building for?” asked a fellow with nothing but sweat on the top of his head. He pointed to the meeting house.

“Oh, now,” Richardson stepped out, fingers in his vest pockets acting like he done bought Oak Grove already. “If you’ll believe it, Mr. Sebastian Reid built that eyesore to hold meetings with his coloreds.”

“What for?”

Richardson laughed. “The man actually thought they should have a say in how the place was run.”

“Like them darkies know the first thing about farming,” said Hendersen, cleaning his teeth with a pick. “Won’t a one of them do a lick of work if you don’t put the screws to them.”

I stepped up to have a word, but that book-loving Yankee who made me mad enough to chew glass just up and beat me to it. “Appears to me they look quite ready to bid on some good farmland.”

He nodded to the folks from Oak Grove standing just beyond the gin, waiting on a chance to bid. I felt a rush of good fortune. God had done sent me a man who would stand up for the folks of Oak Grove. He weren’t no Daddy, but he sure was the best I’d come across all day.

Ellis, the lawyer, came around Hendersen snarling as usual. “A bunch of uppity darkies, thinking they can bid in this here auction.” He spit on the idea.

Hendersen said, “Darkies don’t think! They only do what they’re told.”

The Yankee said, “My father always said, ‘A man wed to his ideas is as good as chained down. You, sirs, appear veritably imprisoned by your backward thoughts. Give yourself a little freedom by trying a few new ideas.

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