In March, Lucas signed up for classes at Delta State in aquaculture. Eula commended him and arranged for him to have night duty so he could make daily classes. It was one more hurdle for Willy to manage, Luke sleeping in the afternoon when he wasn’t doing his homework for Delta State. It was a harrowing schedule with the ministry, managing the two boys, settling the new house. Willy’s sister came from across town when she could to help with the kids, but it was always tight.
But for the first time since leaving the plantation, her man was happy. The courses on aquaculture seemed to rekindle the excited young man Willy remembered from the early days when he first took the reins of the plantation from his father. There was excitement as he expounded about the bright new world of water agriculture that was beginning here in their Delta. Willy watched her husband embrace the new information, making plans and plotting strategies. “It’s going to take hard work, boys, but we’ll do it together. This is brand new!” He had looked fondly at his sons. “The days of plantation droughts and floods are the bad old days! That was my daddy’s business, and it was my business. That’s not going to be your business. It’s going to be another world for you both to understand.” He pulled them closer. “Your grandpa would never recognize it. There’s going to be so much for us all to learn!” For the first time in a decade, Willy saw her husband totally and happily engaged in the future. Her Luke was no longer grappling with a past that had nearly destroyed him.
On the drives home from Parchman Prison, as the rising sun would anoint the endless cotton fields, Luke could almost see what was coming. The first catfish pond will be right there, he thought, about twice the size of a football field. The outbuildings just beyond. Going to take financing, maybe a proposal to Burroughs at the bank, because this could grow. And there will be a sign. He squinted as the sun rose to flood his windshield. Yeah, a large sign. Color for the name, black and white for the rest. He could see it clear:
CLAYBOURNE AND SONS
Catfish Farmers
Shiloh, Mississippi