24

THE RUDE AWAKENING

THE TEENAGE BOYS TRANSFERRED FIVE large burlap sacks of corn into the old woman’s hut. They soon disappeared with the empty wagon without a sound.

Leaving the door open, the old woman turned to Lilly and snapped, “First things first. Start shuckin’ whil’ we still gots light. Hurry now. Don’t give me no lip.”

Lilly squatted down on the clay floor and pulled an ear of corn to shuck. The woman turned her back and busied herself boiling potatoes for the evening meal.

The woman took a peeled corncob from Lilly’s growing pile and broke it in half to throw in the pot with the boiling potatoes. “Shor good for sompin’ else ta eat.”

Lilly had often assisted Moxie, so pulling the layers of tassel, leaves, and silk back to expose the golden corn was a familiar chore. After four husks were completed, she neatly wound the extended tassels together to hold the stalks as a unit. She wondered if the old woman expected her to shuck all the corn before nightfall.

“Empty dat bag, and ya can sleep on it.” The old woman chuckled softly. She began singing, “Turn out here and shuck this corn, Oh! Oh! Oh! Biggest pile seen since I was born, Oh! Oh! Oh!” It was the refrain to a song slaves sung at harvest time when shucking was a slave community event. Moments later, she pushed a tin plate toward Lilly. It held a few hunks of potato and the other half of the cooked corncob. The old woman ate with her hands while watching Lilly’s face greet the meager food. “Don’t never eat like this before, does ya?”

Lilly smiled meekly and pulled the plate under her chin, mimicking the woman sliding food into her mouth off the plate with her fingers, grateful for the sustenance to quiet her growling stomach. Moments later she pushed the empty plate back toward the woman without a sound and continued the task of emptying the bag to have a place to rest.

Lilly fell asleep with her body leaning against a bag of corn. She had not completely emptied the bag, but she awakened with a thin blanket over her shivering body. The cold, damp air awakened her. The light coming in from the chimney and from the crack under the door told her it was daybreak. The woman was asleep near the small fire that had gone out hours earlier. Then a loud, menacing clang of metal was heard in the distance.

The woman awakened and slowly rose to her feet with difficulty. “These ol’ bones sure ain’t much use no mo.” She put a finger to her lips to silence anything Lilly might be apt to say. “Never can tell where overseer goes. He be around everywhere, and he see jez bout ever thing.”

Lilly figured the overseer was someone in charge of the workforce, but the way the old woman spoke of him, it didn’t sound as if he was a nice person.

“Gimme dat dress. Ya stand out like a fox in a hen pen.” The woman tossed her a course pair of boy’s pants, a soiled shirt, and a floppy, wide-brimmed hat. “Put them britches on,” she commanded. “And don’t never take dat hat off for nothin’.”

Lilly wondered whose clothes she was wearing but said nothing as she stripped down to her handmade undergarments in quiet obedience.

“Land sakes! Those sho is fancy!”

Lilly felt immodest and grabbed the clothes to quickly dress. After placing the hat on her head, she looked at the woman, feeling apprehensive. “I need to . . . I need to go. I don’t see a chamber bowl. Where does one go?”

The woman shook her head and opened the door. “Ya gots to learn our ways now. See the woods down yonder? Come with me. I sho ya how we do.”

Lilly wasn’t used to going barefoot. The sticks and pine needles hurt her feet. When they reached the edge of the forest, several children and grown women were already squatted down to eliminate without an ounce of modesty. It was primitive, and her cheeks burned with embarrassment. She had a lot to learn about becoming a slave.