William, Robert, and Louella sat on one side of Serepta Davis’s ten-seat dining room table. Sarah and her husband, John Goodwin, sat on the other side. Serepta entered the dining room carrying a tray of biscuits and butter.
“Mama,” Sarah complained as she stood and took the tray out of Serepta’s hands, “you know you shouldn’t be doing this.”
Serepta waved a hand in Sarah’s direction. “I’m fine.” She rubbed her hands. “My arthritis hasn’t been acting up as much since Louella gave me that liniment of hers.”
“There’s more where that came from if you get to aching again,” Louella said as Serepta sat down at the head of the table.
“Thank you, dear.” Serepta turned to John and pointed toward the kitchen. “Since my daughter doesn’t want me overexerting myself, can you get the coffee and bring some cups for our guests?”
“They’re not guests.” John scowled at them as if they didn’t belong. Sarah put a hand on John’s shoulder. He stood and shoved his chair back.
“Excuse my husband,” Sarah told them. “He’s used to the old ways.”
Louella eyed him as he stalked off to the kitchen. She knew men like John Goodwin. Men who had no use for colored folks if they couldn’t get free labor out of them. She wanted nothing to do with him. “Well, our business is with Mrs. Serepta anyway.”
“Louella.” William put a hand over hers.
She twisted her lips but kept quiet as John brought the coffee back to the table and slammed it down in front of Robert.
William smiled at Serepta as if John wasn’t sizing them up for a noose. “We truly appreciate your hospitality, but we don’t want to keep you longer than necessary.”
“You’re no bother at all,” Serepta said.
Sarah agreed.
“Louella tells me that she and Sarah discussed the land on the other side of the cabins we now live in,” William said.
Serepta laughed. She took one of the biscuits, put it on a plate and buttered it, then passed it down to Louella. “Try that.”
Louella looked at the offering. She was stunned by the kindness of Serepta Davis and wondered whether she would’ve been as welcoming if Mrs. Serepta had showed up on her doorstep. “Thank you kindly.” Louella bit into the biscuit. “Mmm.”
Serepta turned back to William. “That so-called land is covered with trees. Can’t do nothing with it.”
Robert poured himself a cup of coffee. “It seems to me that a lot of your land has been sitting dormant and overgrown with trees and weeds.”
“Daddy had planned to do more with the land, but he was always busy at the gristmill or at the store, and none of my brothers have any interest in clearing it,” Sarah said.
Louella put the biscuit down. “What if we clear that land for you?”
“Your workers have already helped out so much around the house, and I’m grateful that I’ve been able to open my house to travelers again. But I don’t have the money to pay for the clearing of that land.”
William sat up straighter, cleared his throat. “That’s where we come in. We have enough people to clear that land, and it won’t cost you a dime. We want to be able to purchase the land we clear at a fair price.”
“And what about all that lumber? I guess you want that too?” John narrowed his eyes on Robert as if he was the only one worth talking to.
Louella silently prayed that Robert wouldn’t mess this up. He might not be happy with the fact that she was the one to come up with the idea, but he now realized that her plan made sense for their group.
Putting his coffee cup down, Robert put his elbows on the table and leaned in as he spoke to John. “We were thinking that you might want to handle the sale of the lumber. We’d need some of the lumber for our new homes, but after that, we’re willing to take whatever you think is fair for our labor.”
“But you don’t get paid unless we sell the lumber, right?” John confirmed.
Robert nodded. “Yes, sir, that was our thinking on it.”
Louella smiled. She glanced over at Robert. He wanted this as much as she did.
“And how much can you pay for the land once you clear it?” Serepta asked.
“We could do a dollar an acre, if that’s all right with you,” William told her.
“A dollar!” John popped out of his seat. “We could sell that land for three dollars an acre easy. Why would we give it to you people for less than we’d sell it to a white man?”
“Because you can’t get any white men to clear that land,” Louella told him. “We’re willing to do that and put money in your pocket when you sell the lumber.”
“She’s got you there, John.” Sarah grinned over at Louella.
Louella liked Sarah and wanted to grin back at her, but each time she was in her presence, Louella wondered if Sarah was one to extend her hand and then ball it into a fist the moment she didn’t get her way.
John’s lips tightened. “She’s a mouthy one.”
“Mouthy or not, she has a point.” Serepta extended her hand. “You’ve got a deal. Let’s get that land cleared.”
* * *
The group gathered around the fire that had been set not far from where Louella and William lived. It was the end of a workday, and folks pulled up a chair or sat on the ground like they’d done while traveling from Mississippi to the mountains of North Carolina.
Mirabel, Mama Sue, and a few other ladies used the fire to fix a meal of yams, green beans, fish, and corn bread. When bellies were full and the plates empty, William stood.
“As always, it was so good to break bread with you all,” he began, then clasped his hands together. “We had the meeting with Mrs. Serepta this morning, and she is willing to sell us some land that we can build houses on.” He pointed toward the forest of trees. “But we’ve got to clear the land of those trees before we can buy or build on it.”
Grumblings erupted as everyone turned toward those trees. “That will take forever,” one man said.
“What we got to cut those trees down with?” another asked.
Then Gary stood. He rubbed his chin like he was trying to figure something out. “So we got to clear all of that land before they let you purchase it?”
William nodded. Then to Louella’s surprise, Robert stood next to his brother and said, “It’ll be a lot of work, but if we can pull this off, we’ll have homes, which in my estimation is a whole heap better than what we’ve got now.”
“That sounds good and all, but what if we clear that land and them white folks back out on the deal?” Gary shoved his hands in his pockets as he stood there waiting on an answer.
Louella understood Gary’s concerns. She’d seen what had happened to him. She wished they could have brought a better deal to their people, but they weren’t in a position to haggle any more than they already had.
William smiled as he looked up the hill toward those trees and glanced back at Gary. “Have you ever had faith in something that you couldn’t rightly see?”
Gary shook his head. “Can’t say as I have. Any faith I might’ve had been stripped from me.”
Louella’s heart bled for Gary. It also bled for herself and so many others who’d had the faith to believe in something good coming their way but had it beat out of ’em during slavery.
A couple of others in their group spoke up in agreement with Gary.
William lifted a hand. “Brothers and sisters, I do understand why there’s so much misgiving about this, but where your faith is weak on this matter, mine is strong. Allow me to believe for something better for us.”
By the time they put the fire out and headed back to their temporary homes, William had convinced the group to help him knock down those trees.
When Louella went to bed that night, her head should have been full of what was to come. She should’ve dreamed about trees tumbling down around them. Instead, her mother’s face shone bright and clear. Louella reached out her hand as she had when her mother was carted off and sold like cattle.
Her mama’s image faded into the distance. She couldn’t see her clearly anymore, like her image was being smeared and wiped away. Louella’s eyes popped open. She lay there in the darkness of the night, hand over her heart, protecting it from harm. She had a husband and a child now. Her grandmother and brother were with her, but she wanted her mama.
She ached for some of the faith that William had. The doubt within her and the not knowing if she’d ever see her mama again were tearing her apart.