All minds were fixed on getting out of Georgia. It took two months before they were anywhere near South Carolina. Louella was starting to breathe a sigh of relief, but then she heard Robert yell from two wagons behind them, “No! No! No!”
“What in tarnation is he yelling about?” Louella asked William.
William pulled on the reins to stop his oxen. “Don’t know, but I’m gon’ find out.” When the wagon stopped, he climbed down. The other wagons and walkers stopped as well.
Robert was hyperventilating when William reached his wagon. His horse, Elmira, lay on the ground moaning in pain. “What happened to her?” William asked.
“It’s her leg,” Robert said. “It’s broken. She stumbled over a rock and then went down.”
“No, not Elmira.” William got on his knees next to the horse and rubbed her mane, soothing her. “I’m sorry, Robert. I know how much she means to you.”
“The journey was too much for her.” Tears drifted down Robert’s eyes as he kicked at some of the rocks on the road. “I shouldn’t have come . . . shouldn’t have come.”
Walking toward them, Louella could hear terrible moans from Elmira. The tears on Robert’s face shocked her, gave her compassion she hadn’t felt for him in a long time.
Louella put a hand on Robert’s shoulder. “Is there anything we can do for her?”
Robert shook his head, wiped tears from his face. He then went to his wagon and pulled out his rifle. “I’ve got to put her out of her misery.”
Louella’s heart broke for Robert as she saw the pain in his eyes. His chest heaved up and down. Robert aimed the gun at the horse. Louella glanced at Elmira. The horse’s moans had turned to whimpers as William kept rubbing her mane.
Robert lowered the rifle and wiped his eyes again. Louella lifted her hand. “Give me the gun, Robert. You go hold Elmira.”
He looked at her a moment, then lowered his shoulders. “Thank you.” Robert handed Louella the rifle and went to Elmira.
People were standing around, whispering to each other. A few men took their hats off, holding them to their chests. Some looked away, eyes downcast.
Sucking in air, Louella allowed Robert a moment to put Elmira’s head in his hands. He kissed the horse. Louella raised the rifle. Elmira whimpered. Louella’s heart clenched. She blew out the air that had gathered in her lungs, then positioned herself about six inches away from the horse. “I’m sorry,” she told Robert, “but you and William have to move away from her head.”
Robert looked up with questioning eyes.
“I need a shot to the skull so she won’t suffer long.”
Robert gulped. He and William moved to the body of the horse and held her tight.
Bang!
Louella put the gun down on the ground after firing the shot. Elmira convulsed a few seconds, then all movement ceased. Louella went back to the wagon as William put an arm around Robert to comfort him.
Robert wailed out his sorrow at losing his best friend, and Louella leaned against the wagon and cried like she, too, had lost something precious, something irreplaceable. And at that moment she realized that moving forward would never stop the pain that came to those who have loved and lost.
* * *
They made camp at the spot where Elmira died. The men dug a hole and buried the beloved animal. Somber faces sat around the campfire that night. Grumblings grew as some questioned whether they’d made the right decision to travel so far away from Mississippi.
Louella stood to say something to the weary travelers, but her mouth was dry, her tongue weighted down like it was filled with lead. She sat back down and silently prayed. God, please help us. The journey is too much.
As they were eating potato soup, a man rode up in his buggy. “Whoa.” He pulled on the reins, bringing his horse to a complete stop. “I wondered why God directed me this way tonight. You folks look like you could use some Christian comfort.”
William went over to the man. They clasped hands. “You’re right about that, Mr. . . .”
“I’m Reverend Ezel.”
William’s eyes lit up. “I’m Reverend William. It is good to meet you.”
Reverend Ezel sat down and partook in the soup with them. Louella asked, “You live around here?”
“I live where God sends me. But He mostly has me traveling and preaching to folks in South Carolina. I rarely cross the Georgia line, but like I said, I felt led to come this way.”
William told him, “We come from Mississippi, picked up some of our travelers in Alabama and Georgia, but a few of us were originally from South Carolina.”
Reverend Ezel stood. “Thank you for the delicious soup. I best be heading out. But before I leave, I’d like to pray for you all if that’d be all right.”
Louella lifted her head to the sky and exhaled. When prayers went up, God was listening. She was thankful that Reverend Ezel stopped by to remind her of that. Standing with the rest of their group, she clasped hands with William and Reverend Ezel as he went before God on their behalf.
A refreshing wind blew in the camp that night as a heavy burden lifted from road-weary travelers. After Reverend Ezel’s prayer, they had a mind to go on and see what the end would be like.
Louella and William walked Reverend Ezel to his wagon. As he was lifting himself back into his seat, Louella asked, “Did you live in South Carolina before becoming a traveling preacher?”
He nodded. “I was once enslaved there.”
“My mother was sold to a plantation in South Carolina. I’m wondering if you ever ran into a woman by the name of Brenda Bobo.”
He scratched his head, then lifted the reins. “Can’t say that I have. But if our paths should cross, I’ll let her know that her daughter grew up to be a beautiful woman inside and out.”
“Thank you, Reverend.”
Reverend Ezel then clicked his tongue at his horse, and the animal trotted off.
* * *
The next morning, they got back on the road, again moving forward, leaving behind what they had lost but holding those things in their hearts forever.
“I was praying last night after Reverend Ezel left,” William told Louella, “and I truly believe our journey is coming to an end. God is moving us in the direction we need to go.”
Louella was thankful to hear that. It had been a little over eleven months since they left Mississippi, and they still had no place to call home. She put her hand over her belly. “That’s good, ’cause I’m carrying life again.”
William’s hand slipped from one of the reins. He picked it back up. Turned to Louella. “You sure?”
“It’s for sure and true, William. I wanted to tell you a few weeks ago, but I kept it to myself so you wouldn’t refuse to let me help sell the liniment.”
William laughed at that. “Louella Bobo Montgomery, I don’t know what to do with you.”
As they entered into South Carolina, Louella said, “Love me; that’s enough.”
“You’ve had my love since the first day I decided to tutor you.”
“You mean to tell me that while you were giving me reading and writing lessons, I was unwittingly giving you love lessons?” Louella beamed as she set her eyes on William like he was the sun to her moon.
“I guess you were.” William slapped the reins down on the oxen so they would pull up the hill faster. “I hope I’ve given you a few love lessons.”
The fluttering in her heart wouldn’t let her deny the truth of the matter. “That you have, darling. You’ve been the one to teach me most of the good lessons I’ve learned.”
He laughed at her. “You can’t even say it, can you?”
“I can say it.”
“Then let me hear it. Three simple words: I. Love. You.”
She grinned, put her arm around his, and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Are you excited about seeing the people you grew up with again?” They were headed to the low country in South Carolina. The town William and Robert had once lived in before Montgomery decided to set up his plantation in Mississippi.
“I am, Louella. I am,” William replied.
* * *
After about three more weeks of travel through South Carolina, they were close to the place Robert and William grew up. Robert took the lead, claiming he knew the way better than William. He now had a mule rather than his beloved Elmira pulling his wagon. Louella wondered why they had gone off the trail, but she decided to sit back and see where Robert was taking them.
She received the answer a few hours later when they made it to Cross Anchor, South Carolina, and Robert’s wagon came to a stop in front of a one-room log cabin. The rest of them pulled in behind him, making quite a spectacle with over a hundred of them lining the streets in these former quarters of enslaved people.
A young woman opened the door and came out to the yard. She wore a long tan skirt with a gray wool shirt. Her eyes were brown and searching. “Y’all not from ’round these parts.”
William climbed down from the wagon and walked over to her. “We used to be.” He pointed toward the shack that was right next to the one she’d walked out of. “Used to live right there eighteen years ago.”
The girl glanced over her shoulder at the house William pointed to. “I was told my uncle used to live there.”
The grin on William’s face shone bright. He nodded. “I did.”
The girl blinked, then blinked again. She looked a bit confused, then Robert came down from his wagon, opened his arms wide. “Elmira, girl, come give your daddy a hug.”
Elmira swung around. Robert kept walking toward her. He then wrapped his arms around the girl and swung her in the air. “If you ain’t a sight for sore eyes.”
“Daddy?” She said the word like a question as they broke the embrace. She stepped back and squinted. “Granny said you looked like a white man.”
Robert laughed. Took the hat from his head. “Maybe if I go hatless, I’ll get a little more sun.”
“Are you serious? Am I finally laying eyes on my daddy again?”
“I’m here. Wish I hadn’t left you all those years ago, but things being what they were, I had no choice.”
William put his arm around Elmira’s shoulder and walked her over to where Louella still sat in the wagon. “Let me introduce you to your aunt.” He pointed toward her. “This here is Louella, my bride.”
Louella blushed and waved a hand in the air. “We’ve been married a year and a half. Can’t exactly call me a bride no more.”
“You’ll always be my bride. What foolishness you talking?” William helped Louella down from the wagon and then made introductions. “This is my niece, Elmira.”
Louella eyed William like he had some explaining to do. This was the first time she was hearing anything about Robert having a child . . . a grown child for that matter. Louella hugged the young woman and then asked, “How old are you?”
“Nineteen.”
Louella glanced over at Robert as he made his way over to them. She didn’t understand how Robert could have a nineteen-year-old daughter that no one knew anything about. She then glanced at the house and wondered how many more of Robert’s kids might come running outside. Then Louella wondered how many of those tears Robert shed had to do with the loss of his horse and how many were for his daughter.
William whispered in her ear, “Remember, we lived in this town before moving to Mississippi.”
“Uh-huh.” She remembered about them moving from South Carolina to Mississippi. She would never forget. The week after Montgomery took over the plantation, he sold her mother and broke her heart.
Robert pointed toward the house that Elmira had come out of. “Is your grandma in there? She might not want to see me, but I want you to come with us, so I need to talk this out with her.”
Sadness shadowed Elmira’s eyes. “She passed on last year. Nobody but me left now.”
Louella noticed that Robert didn’t ask about the girl’s mother. Had the mother been sold off as her mother had been, or had she died?
“You’re not on your own no more.” William hugged her.
Elmira told them that the owner of the plantation was in Georgia for a spell, so the group, which was now over a hundred, made camp on the former plantation for the night. As they sat around the fire waiting for Mama Sue, Louella, Abigail, and Clara to finish cooking the meal, Wiley Bennett and his wife, Rachel, sat with them.
Wiley had lived on a neighboring plantation when William and Robert lived in South Carolina. “Sho’ didn’t ’spect to see yo’ faces around here again.”
William nodded. “Things certainly have changed. It was time for us to strike out on our own.”
Louella’s eyes lit with a thought. She nudged her grandmother. “You think Mama might be in this town? This where Montgomery came from.”
Mama Sue had been stirring the pot. She put the spoon down and exhaled. “To tell you the truth, I been wondering the same thing since we got here, but I didn’t want to say nothing in case I was wrong.”
Louella turned to the Bennetts and asked, “Do either of you know if a woman by the name of Brenda Bobo lives around here?”
Blank expressions turned to Louella. Rachel’s forehead crinkled, then she said, “Never heard of nobody with the last name Bobo.”
Lips pursed, Louella glanced over at Mama Sue. Her grandmother patted her shoulder, then went back to cooking and humming, back to pretending that her heart didn’t bleed for the child she lost.
“Supper’s ready,” Louella called to the group. “Come get your bellies full.” She then put the ladle in the pot and put some corn in a bowl along with a piece of rabbit and handed it to William. A short time ago they had come upon another abandoned farm. This one had stalks of corn. They’d loaded the wagon with the corn and had been eating it for the past three days.
“Corn again,” one of them said as they lined up with bowls in hand.
“It’s that or the swallow of your spit,” Mama Sue told him.
Food had been scarce. Even with the money they earned from selling liniment, they didn’t have enough to feed everyone, except for when they were able to catch enough fish or find food from abandoned farms or plantations. This was the last of the corn, so they wouldn’t have to complain about this meal any longer. Louella prayed they’d be able to feed the people in the days to come.
Wiley and his wife, Rachel, ate the corn without complaint. As Wiley finished with his bowl, he looked to William. “Where are y’all headed after you leave these parts?”
“Wish I knew. Been praying for direction. The Lord has a place for us. But we haven’t found it yet.”
“And y’all traveled all the way from Mississippi?” Rachel asked.
Louella nodded. “Been traveling for a year now.”
Robert plopped down next to William. “Something’s got to give, or I might stay here with Elmira.”
“The group of us that’s still here go hungry most days. There’s no work.” Rachel shook her head. “You don’t want to stay here.”
“We’re all tired and road weary, but we have to hold our patience a little while longer,” William said.
Wiley rubbed his chin with his thumb and index finger, then he said, “Before the war, I ’member my white folks would travel from here to the mountains for vacation. There’s land as far as the eye can see out there.”
Rachel snapped her fingers. “Bessy Thompkins used to travel them mountains with her white folks years ago.” Rachel stood. “Let me go get her.”
Rachel walked down the street to one of the small houses on the block. Louella looked around. To her, South Carolina meant South. They were headed north, so she wasn’t interested in anything this Bessy person had to say.
Bessy Thompkins and Percy Williams both came to their camp area. They made introductions, then Bessy told them about her travels. “Before the war, I was my missus’ lady’s maid. Whenever Mr. Thompkins would get it in his mind to take her to the mountains for a vacation, I would travel with ’em.
“What I saw up there is a heap better than what we’re dealing with in the low country. Wagon trains were always on the go. Meat, molasses, and all sorts of produce were brought to them mountains. I’m telling you, they didn’t lack for nothing.”
“What about the land? Is there enough space for us?” Femi asked while wrapping an arm around Abigail.
Percy chimed in, “I know where there’s land, if you can talk the owner into letting you have the former slave quarters on her land.”
“We left Mississippi to get away from these kinds of shacks. Why would we want to trade that for the ones in South Carolina?” Gary rolled his eyes heavenward.
William lifted a hand. “Let’s hear him out before we make any snap judgments.”
Louella put a hand on William’s back and tapped it a few times, slowing him down. They needed to think about this before making rash decisions.
Percy continued, “The enslaved people on that plantation left directly after the war. I hear tell that the old lady who runs the place been in dire straits and needs help. She’s always been friendly to our kind . . . I’m thinking y’all might be able to work out something with her for a piece of that land.”
“Exactly where is this place?” Robert asked.
“Over by the Enoree River, off that road House Representative Joel Roberts Poinsett had built right before he died of tuberculosis,” Percy said.
“Who?” William’s forehead wrinkled.
“I know you ’member the Buncombe Turnpike,” Percy said. “It’s over that way too.”
Bessy said, “Stagecoaches travel them parts all the time. It crosses Old Indian Road. Over by Callahan Mountain and the Winding Stairs.”
“Winding Stairs?” Louella was confused.
“Yeah,” Bessy said. “Those stairs take you to the North Carolina state line, into Hendersonville. Then you run right into the Oakland Plantation. You won’t miss it. Look for the big white house that’s surrounded by oak trees.”
Something foul dropped in the pit of Louella’s stomach at the mention of oak trees.
“The whole place has gone to pot. Mrs. Serepta would probably be right pleased if’n y’all wanted to help with that place,” Percy told them.