Queen (112 page)

    hear?"

Miraculously, Abner heard his mammy, and hushed.

    When she was sure no one had awakened, Queen moved slowly to the front

    door. She turned the key in the lock with infinite patience, trying to

    avoid the merest squeak.

    She opened the door, stepped out into the night, and softly pulled the

    door shut again. She walked more quickly now, but still with caution,

    across the veranda, down the steps, and onto the lawn, avoiding the

    gravel path. Quicker again, across the lawn and to the front gate. She

    opened the gate, moved out of the property, and began to run.

    She ran in her stocking feet, as fast as she could, weighed down by her

    child and her case. At the end of the street her shoes fell to the

    ground, and she stopped for a moment to slip them on.

    Then she ran again, and ran and ran, until she was panting for breath,

    but she would not stop. Abner was awake now, and burbling happily at the

    unexpected adventure.

As she ran, she whispered joyously to her boy.

"We free!" she told him, in triumph. "We free!"

But she kept on running, away, into the night.

Free.

    79

Although Queen went South, she wanted to avoid Decatur, and she took the

easterly road and crossed the river at Guntersville. Anxious to conserve

her small purse of money, she slept where she could, in barns and

outhouses. Sometimes she asked at farms for shelter, and sometimes she was

invited in and fed, or allowed to sleep in the milking shed and have good,

fresh, creamy milk for Abner.

    QUEEN 681

    Abner, fat and healthy, throve on the wandering life. Now that his mother

    was his only constant friend, he came to depend on her, to need her, and

    to adore her. At last he gave her the return of love that she so sorely

    needed, and had come so close to losing to Miss Mandy.

    Poorly dressed but cheerfully optimistic, she encountered occasional

    hostility from whites, but nothing she was not used to, simply a casual

    intolerance of free blacks, aud every small act of discrimination was

    repaid by another of some small courtesy.

    She was fascinated by the difference in attitude to her that she

    encountered. When she had been traveling by herself, she had been

    perceived as an unlikely white woman, trash or mulatta, and ignored by

    many whites, reviled by some blacks. Having Abner on her hip defined her.

    Clearly the mother of the darker-skinned child, she no longer looked

    definably white herself, and many took pity on her because of her baby.

    Farmers in carts on their way to market would stop for her, and give her

    a ride to their destination, or to their homes, where their wives would

    welcome her. She might even work for them for a few days, to repay their

    generosity, and was sometimes rewarded with a few pennies for her pocket,

    as well as her keep.

    The gossip that she heard intrigued her. She was told extraordinary

    stories of the black determination to take Washington at its

    reconstructing word, and grab for equality. She heard of strikes by city

    workers, or by field hands protesting their pay. She heard of riots and

    even small arrnbd rebellions against civic authorities who were reluctant

    to put the new Federal laws into effect. She heard one story of an

    overseer in Georgia being forced off his rice plantation by the hands,

    who would not work for him. Queen hardly believed the story, and laughed,

    because she could not imagine Henderson being forced off The Forks of

    Cypress by the slaves.

    She was offered friendly advice and told to avoid the larger cities,

    where segregation was rampant. Generally, she learned, the attitude of

    urban Southemers; toward the blacks was even less benevolent than before

    the war, although a few civic leaders had publicly devoted themselves to

    the black cause. Whenever anyone asked her where she was going, she

    became

682 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

vague, and murmured something about finding her husband in the South.

Often, when she was alone, she asked herself where she was going, and what

she would do with her life, because she knew she couldn't roam forever.

Her faith kept her going, and she had the absolute conviction that God was

directing her footsteps, and would bring her, surely and safely, to her

promised land. Abner was her dear companion, and his company assuaged her

on those few lonely nights when even her spirit failed her, and she

questioned herself, and her travels, and her life.

    It was her inconclusive story of her missing husband, told to a cheerful,

    militant ostler and his family, that gave her news of a man who might be

    Davis.

    There was a trade-union leader, she heard, a fine and passionate orator,

    who had some skill as a blacksmith, and who was dedicated to the cause

    of black equality. He -went around the country making passionate speeches

    about the rights of blacks, and had been in Gadsden, where she was now,

    and he had persuaded some restaurant workers to form a guild. He had

    moved on, but her hosts were not sure where. Georgia, they thought, to

    the low country. He had often talked of the appalling conditions on the

    plantations there.

    Queen hardly slept that night, her mind full of Davis. It all fitted in:

    He had learned smithy skills from Abram, and had forged his convictions

    about the circumstances of the newly freed blacks at the anvil. He had

    tried to talk Abram into forming a guild in Huntsville, and had the

    internal fire of a fine speaker. There was a chance that it was not

    Davis, but her need for some direction in her life, and her need for him,

    were so great that she could not allow herself to doubt. If he had found

    his mission in life, he would surely have room for her.

    At last she had a goal and a destination. She would go to Georgia, and

    find Davis.

    80

The day was unbearably hot, stiflingly humid. The coach rattled and creaked

over the rough road, the horses sweating, and the almost useless springs

unable to ease the bonecrunching ride. Every stone or furrow made the coach

jolt and jerk, jarring Queen's bones. Abner, in her arms, was fretful,

crying constantly, and Queen prayed for the journey to be over. She was

traveling on the box with Micah, the coachman, and with one hand she held on

to the small rail, to stop herself from being thrown to the ground, and with

the other clung to Abner.

    She yelled at Micah to slow down, but he only grinned a toothy grin, and

    lashed the horses. Queen began to wonder if he was driving her to hell. It

    was hot enough.

    Mrs. Benson, her Missy, was inside the coach with her husband and her baby

    boy, William, to whom Queen was nanny and wet nurse. The oppressive heat of

    the South Carolina low country caused Mrs. Benson as much distress as

    Queen. Although she rode in slightly greater comfort, the tight stays and

    heavy petticoats, the formal dress and elaborate bonnet that her position

    in society demanded, caused her to curse this inhospitable land, and she

    longed for the cooler mountains of Georgia, which were her home.

    She did not regret her decision to accompany her husband, for he had

    important work to do, and she was a good wife. She believed in his cause,

    and always stood by his side. They had been on the road for several days,

    but at least the nightmare journey was nearly over. They would reach their

    destination by late afternoon, and perhaps the hotel would be halfway

    decent, and William would get a good night's sleep. The journey was making

    her infant son fractious, but he couldn't possibly be hungry, Queen had fed

    him when they

    683

684 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

stopped for lunch only an hour ago. She gave a small prayer of thanks that

Queen had been sent to her, and stared out at the depressing landscape.

    They were passing through flat farmland, edged by scrubby vegetation. The

    fields were untended, and empty of farm hands. The world seemed deserted,

    and Queen began to think they were traveling nowhere, endlessly moving,

    suspended in time.

    A small line of field hands appeared on the horizon, walking in the same

    direction. The coach lessened the distance between them, and Queen could

    hear the men singing lustily, a work song. As the coach passed by, the

    men cheered Micah and Queen, and called out for food, or money, but Micah

    did not slow down.

    Mr. Benson put down his newspaper and looked out at the men.

    "Scum," he said, almost to himself, and Mrs. Benson, distracted by the

    heat and William, nodded absentmindedly. She always agreed with her

    husband.

"Where they goin'T' Queen asked Micah.

"Beaufort. Same as us," Micah told her. "Dey on strike."

    Queen turned back to look at the men. She had never seen a striker

    before, black or white, but they looked no different from other men. She

    felt a thrill of excitement because she could equate the little she knew

    of strikes with the little she knew of Davis, and hoped that he might be

    one of the men. But he was not.

"Why they strike?" she asked Micah again.

    "Money." Micah grinned his toothy grin. "Dey sick of workin' for pennies,

    to make dere Massa rich. Dey want better pay - "

    Micah spoke in a thick, old-time, slave dialect, which fooled many people

    into thinking he was ignorant. In fact, he was a knowledgeable man, and

    took a keen interest in the world. His position with the Bensons made him

    privy to a broad spectrum of news. He knew exactly why they were going

    to Beaufort.

    They were some distance ahead of the strikers now, and Queen craned her

    head back to see them.

    "I ain't never heard of it," she said, her voice taking on some of

    Micah's dialect, which was reassuring to her. "Black folk, on strike."

    QUEEN 685

    "I don't like it, Missy Queen." Micah grinned again. "Gwine be trouble."

    Queen could not imigine what trouble he meant, for she had no experience of

    trade unions and bosses, only slaves and Massas. All she wanted to do was

    find Davis.

She had heard of him again, in a small town south of Atlanta, this

charismatic union man who could fashion a horse's shoe as well as any

blacksmith. She asked if anyone knew where he was, but heard only guesses

that it might be the low country. Unions, she was told, were sorely needed

in the low country; there had been trouble there since the end of the war.

She kept traveling east, and everywhere she went she asked about him, but

heard no more, but she did hear stories of constant racial trouble in the

coastal rice-growing districts.

    A farmer had given her a lift into a country town near the Georgia border

    with South Carolina, and Queen sat in the pretty square for a while, not

    quite sure where to go next. It was the middle of the day, and she asked

    Abner if he was hungry, because she was. Abner, staring at a flock of crows

    in the trees, gurgled agreement. There was a general store across the road

    with a caf6 attached to it. Queen went to it, and looked for a back

    entrance, but could find none. She went inside,

    The store was large, but gloomy. The shelves were stocked with produce and

    provisions, and there was an eating area for whites, a few tables, with not

    very clean clothes. A welldressed woman was sitting at one of the tables,

    trying to feed warm milk to a baby on her knee. Queen went to the counter.

"Where c'n I eat?" she asked the server.

    He looked at her in mild surprise, and then saw Abner, and understood.

    "Niggers in back," he said, nodding to the back of the store. Queen began

    walking there, but the woman at the table spoke, sharply and clearly.

"She may sit here, with me."

    The server was alarmed, but he could tell from the woman's accent and

    attitude that she was not to be trifled with.

"Ma'am, she cain't," he said. "She's nigra."

"We are all equal now. Or had you not heard?" the woman

686 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

said to the server, but Queen didn't think she sounded generous. The woman

turned to Queen. "Come here, girl."

    Like the server, Queen was not anxious to argue with the woman. Very few

    people, she was to discover later, ever did, and anyway, Queen was

    intrigued. She walked to the woman's table. The woman examined her

    carefully, and Abner.

" Extraordinary," she said. " If it were not for the child--

    Queen knew she meant that no one would guess her color. She felt quite

    pleased. The woman picked up a menu.

"What will you have?" she said. "There's-"