The Cottoncrest Curse: A Novel

Chapter 50

176 Chapter 50 The children had woken before dawn and silently slipped out the door. They knew their tasks. The older ones went to the lean-to shed, retrieved the scythes, sharpened them on the whetstones, and headed out into the fields to start cutting the cane. The younger ones fetched the water and left the buckets outside the back door for their mother. They brought the wood for the stove from the chopped and split pieces on the woodpile. Then they followed their older siblings out to the fields. Their task was to stack the cane that their brothers and sisters sliced down so that it all could be loaded onto wagons and taken to the Cottoncrest mill to be processed. All of them worked with the utmost caution while near their house. The oldest wasn’t yet fourteen. They didn’t dare wake their father. They had seen the bruises on their mother’s face, and although she had told them she had just been careless and had slipped and fallen, they knew better. They could see the way she cowered when their father approached . They knew the signs when their mother fell silent whenever their father was in the house. They did not want to anger him and feel his wrath. The sky had started to brighten when Tee Ray got out of bed and observed, to his satisfaction, that the children had already left. They were good kids, he thought. This would be last season they would ever have to cut cane. This would be the last season they would have to fetch wood. From now on someone else would do it for them. From now on they would be able to go to school, to dress in fine clothes, to live in a house that wasn’t tiny, like this cabin, but was magnificent in all its splendor. It was what all of them deserved. Tee Ray stretched, yawned loudly, and then pulled on his trousers 177 and boots. The anger from the night before was gone. He felt good. He knew exactly what he had to do today. Mona had heard the children leave but had not dared move in the bed. She had felt Tee Ray get up and pretended to be asleep. Now that he was moving about the cabin, she still kept her eyes closed and tried to maintain the slow and steady breathing of one still deep in slumber. Tee Ray opened the door to walk to the woodpile and was pleased to see the children had already brought the wood and water. He stoked up the stove and started to prepare coffee, dropping two large scoops of inexpensive chicory blend into the black porcelain pot. They couldn’t afford pure coffee now, but soon they would, and he swore to himself they would never drink the chicory blend again. The aroma filled the small cabin, and Tee Ray went to the side of the bed and softly shook Mona’s shoulders. She continued to pretend to be sleeping. “Wake up, ol’ girl,” Tee Ray said. Mona was surprised at the tone in his voice. It was actually gentle. “Come on, Mona, the coffee’ll be ready soon, and I’ve got to head down to Lamou to catch the Jew Peddler, but when I do, all our troubles’ll be over. You’ll be able to dress a fine lady. You’ll be able to sleep until noon if you want. But we got to get movin’ now. The children are already out in the fields, and they’ll be comin’ back for breakfast before you know it, hungry as a black bear comin’ out of hibernatin ’. Mona was amazed. All the anger was gone. He was back to his old self. He was the Tee Ray she had fallen in love with. She rolled over and pushed the hair out of her eyes, ignoring the bruises and the pain. “You promise?” “The young ones hungry? No need to promise. You know it to be true.” Mona smiled, “Go on, you. I know that. I mean dressin’ like a fine lady and sleepin’ ’til noon if I want.” “No need to promise that either. It’s as good as done. All I gotta do is give that Jew to Raifer, dead of course, and that’ll be it. The Jew killed the Colonel Judge and his wife, and ain’t no nigger gonna get Cottoncrest .” “But she didn...