when i saw merlin at the well that night,

i knew he meant no good.

when our eyes met he looked like

he’d been caught in a trap.

i could have come forward and cleared his name from the first.

i could have told that detective from boston.

i could have leveled with constable johnson.

i didn’t.

someone had to pay for me being a colored girl in a white world

i thought.

merlin ought to pay. so i waited.

but then mr. field said,

leanora, no way to pay a debt

by stealing from someone else to do it.

he’s pretty smart, mr. field,

for a skinny, half-blind, old white man.

so i told my story to constable johnson,

and told it again inside the courtroom.

funny thing merlin said the other day when i asked him why he

came back.

i didn’t know if he’d talk to me at all.

but he did.

he said he came back to town cause johnny reeves

had been tailing him, showing up in every town he stopped.

should have seen merlin’s face when he heard the news

about johnny reeves jumping from the top of the arch bridge.

looked like he’d seen a ghost.