if i had done what the klan sent me out to do,

i’d be in jail a long time. but i didn’t. i couldn’t.

leanora sutter was looking straight at me.

i remembered her

racing that train

and she was still a colored girl

but she wasn’t just a

colored girl,

and i couldn’t poison her well,

so i ran.

and now instead, I’m accused of doing something worse.

of trying to shoot mr. hirsh.

i wouldn’t hurt mr. hirsh.

he gave me galoshes to bring to

my girl, mary, when he heard about her walking halfway across the state,

trying to get back home.

they were good galoshes.

mary grinned when she saw them and threw her arms around me.

they’re the ones the girls wear open so they flap.

mary was so pleased she strutted around the orphanage

like she was some kind of queen.

i wouldn’t shoot someone who did that for

mary.

but i’m not going to jail at all.

leanora sutter came to constable johnson

and told him i couldn’t have put that bullet in ira hirsh

because she saw me at her well that night.

constable johnson asked if that was true.

yes, sir, i said.

and what were you doing at the sutters’ well?

the klan told me to poison it.

you poisoned the sutter’s well?

no, sir, i told him.

i couldn’t. that’s why i left town.