Laughing Drew answered, “he’s with his latest girlfriend, we won’t see him until morning.”
Harry smiled and shook his head before saying, “that boy knows how to live.”
Drew said with jealousy in his voice, as he mixed the food with poison, “so you say, pops.”
Harry escorted Jim and his friends in the dining room. they laughed and talked as they were eating; it was Jane that realized they had been poisoned. With all the slaves in their compound, Vance and Deb was gone, Harry and Drew used a wheelbarrow to take the six bodies to an old well, they dumped them down.
The following morning, Harry went to the slave area to speak with Zeek. The four men stuck to their story like crazy glue.
Harry agreed with Zeek and his men, creating extra space for cleaning supplies was a great idea. He told the men, “this shows you have initiative.” He looked around the church then said, “you men did a fine job.”
Harry asked if they were going to add a door to the new room, Zeek answered, “naw Sir. We're goin’ ta’ hang a curtain.”
Harry sent them on their way. Several hired hands saw Harry, they asked about Jim, Jane, and the others. Harry said, “they came to my home and accused me of treating them unfairly, I fired them.”
A male said, “they will not get the rest of their pay.”
One of the women that was friends with Jane said, “dey were tryin’ to get us ta’ leave and let the coloreds finish the work. I told them no. I won’t’s all my money.”
Another person said, “Me too, I got’s plans.”
Harry chuckled as he galloped home, when he exited through the divider gate, Drew saw him, he said, “pops come here.” Drew was walking among the new plants between the divider and main gate.
Harry dismounted his horse and joined his son. Drew said, “when this forest between the divider and main gate grow and fill in, it will make a good burial ground.”
Harry agreed. 1872, Father and son had committed their first murder four years before the completion of H. B. Metropolis. Jim and his crew were the first to die for the sake of Harry’s unlawful setup.
The following morning, Harry and his sons were laughing, talking, and eating breakfast in the kitchen, Charles announced that he wanted to go to Boston and investigate The Brown Steel Mill operations. He was unaware that his father and brother had killed six people.
Charles liked melted butter in a saucer, he dipped his bread, then spread apple butter on top. He stuffed the bread in his mouth.
Harry asked as Charles as he prepared another piece of bread, “are you going to marry that girl?”
Charles put the food in his mouth then asked, “which one?”
While the Browns were having supper, Paula was in hers and Moses bedroom trying to mend her new bruise that was on her chest. Moses was sitting at the table looking at a letter he received from a building company in New York. The company had sent him instruction on how to open a branch in MacCall. Moses dream was to start his own company, and not be a branch. The company would be his and his children. Moses sat back and imagined himself wealthy, he smiled and said, “Harry will give me the money, he like everything I do.”
VIII
Moses
1854, Moses was born a slave on a New York horse farm, to a man that raised raced horses. Little Moses was raised by his parents until a tragedy happened. It was a misfortune that caused the couple to lose their two-year-old son for a little while, yet it saved the husband and wife duo from a debasing situation.
The child’s dad, Thaddeus Berhanu, trained the farms' racehorses, his mother Dakota was an upstairs house slave. Their Massa liked the couple a little too much. Thaddeus was an Egyptian and Dakota and American Indian, their Massa called Moses, “the beautiful one.”
Moses looks were very striking, he had inherited his father’s Egyptian features.[RL34]
The plantation master enjoyed wild parties. He would put Thaddeus and Dakota in a room, where they were made to disrobe. His company not only viewed the couple but in a wicked state of mine felt and grope with their mouth and hands the couple from their face down to their feet. After the dehumanizing ordeal, Thaddeus and Dakota returned to their slave shack, feeling shamed and brutalized.
But all changed when Thaddeus and Dakota tried to escape from their Massa wild sex crazed gatherings. Early one morning they devised a plan to run. Their Massa was leaving the plantation and was not returning until the following night. Thaddeus said to his wife, “this is our time to go.”
At eleven thirty that night, Dakota fed two-year-old Moses, to get him full and quiet. At midnight, the husband and wife duo, with their sleeping toddler quietly ran out their cabin only to get caught within an hour of their flight. Two-year-old Moses was taken to the mistress. Two overseers pushed Thaddeus and Dakota in the barn and locked the doors. They gagged the couple and beat them for an hour. Then slammed Thaddeus and Dakota down on their stomach, Thaddeus' face hit the cement floor so hard his nose was broken, and lip busted. His handsome face was severely bruised.
It was as though God in His mercy, put Thaddeus and Dakota in a deep sleep. At one thirty that morning, the grueling rape, beatings, and urinating on the couple ended. Thaddeus and his wife experience nothing, they were out cold.
The overseer that had Thaddeus, tied his left leg to his right arm, and right leg to his left arm. The other overseer did the same to Dakota. They were left in that position and laid in their blood until their Massa returned that evening at nine o’clock. The male slave that took his Massa’s horse, told him about the couple in the barn.
The plantation owner stood in the barn looking down at his beautiful property. He thought of the money he was going to lose, hostile anger surged through his heart, mind, and soul. The owner called a meeting with all the overseers. When they were gathered, the owner asked, who was responsible for his slaves’ condition. He stood back and had each man look at Thaddeus and Dakota. The two that maimed his stunning slaves, told him how the coupled tried to run. The owner asked, “so you did, this?” He pointed down at the couple, to emphasize his question.
One of the men that were responsible for the deplorable condition of the two slaves, said haughtily, “dey’ cain’t run no moe.”
The owner had four of the guiltless overseers to untie Thaddeus and Dakota, at which time, they woke up. It was as though God in His mercy protected them.
A male slave helped Thaddeus; a female was with Dakota. The two slaves took the couple to their cabin, where they bathe and tended to their wombs.
The master of the plantation with four overseers’, tortured the two guilty men to death. The master went home, as he entered his house, he heard two-year-old Moses crying. He quickly went to the room where they were and stopped his wife from beating on the child. He said, “I’m saving him when he gets older, we’ll show him off.” He began to leave but turned back and said, “he looked just like his dad, people will pay as they did for his parents.” He left the room.
One week after their torment in the barn, Thaddeus held Dakota’s hand and said, “I’m sorry what you went through Kota, it…”
Dakota said, before he finished talking, “saved us both from Massa’s terrible parties.”
Thaddeus said, “I thank God for knocking us out during the barn torment.”
“Me to, God through their hate, protected us from the overseers’ venom.”
“Yes, it was brutal and left my nose crooked, it will never be the same which is good protection from the parties.”
Dakota said, “I got this scar from my hairline to my chin.”
Thaddeus said, “another blessing.”
“It was God, we had to be broken.” Dakota paused before continuing, “I will rather be a cripple than…” Dakota began to cry.
“Massa parties.” Thaddeus went to her and held her as he said, “we’re safe now.”
Dakota said, “Our baby boy is with those horrible people.”
Thaddeus said, “God protected us, He
will do the same for our son.”
Thaddeus and Dakota’s facial scares keloid as to accentuate their deformity according to the plantation master. Their faith in God was unwavering and more pronounced.
One day in the plantation house, two-year-old Moses saw his mother and ran up to her, out of habit she picked him up, gave him a hug, and a kiss. The Mistress yelled, as she in anger snatched the child from his mother, “he is yours no more, keep your filthy hands off this child.”
She walked away carrying Moses kicking, hitting, pulling his mistress' hair, crying, and yelling, “mama.”
The mistress punched the two-year-old with her fist, he hit and kicked her back. The hurt in Dakota’s heart was greater than the ordeal in the barn. She fell on her knees crying profusely.
The Massa had plans for the child, but his wife evilness was about to destroy his beautiful precious property. He allowed Moses to visit his parents on weekends, hoping it would calm the child down which it did not. As a matter of fact, the longer Moses was with the plantation owner, the little boy became more hostile. Moses was so destructive, a month before his third birthday he was permanently returned to his parent’s shack. In his parent’s home, little Moses calmed down.
One evening Thaddeus watched Moses sleep peacefully, he looked at Dakota and said, “they will do to him…”
“That cannot happen,” Dakota said before Thaddeus finished talking. “It will not happen; you will see to it.” She demanded. “God through you and your African markings will save our son, just like you said last year. God will save our child.”
Thaddeus began, “I said…”
Dakota cut him off and said, “I don’t care what you said. Do something!”
Dakota knew all about herbs, she had one that would put the person in a deep sleep nor would or could they feel pain.
For her son, Dakota hummed a tune of her native heritage as she mixed the medicine. While Dakota prepared the herb, Thaddeus woke Moses up and began playing with him. when the mixture cooled down Dakota, made a tea and gave Moses a few drops.
When little Moses fell in a deep sleep, Dakota did her native ceremonial Sun Dance. Thaddeus used a small sharp knife to carve a cross on his sons right and left cheek, next to his ears. And a larger cross on his back and chest. With the carving over, Dakota stopped the bleeding, she put a salve she made on the opened sores and patched them up. The sores healed within a week.
When the Massa saw the scar on Moses' face, he asked, “what happened?”
Even though the scares were in the shape of a cross, Thaddeus and Dakota answered together, “he fell.”
Thaddeus said to his wife as Moses played, “God has saved little Adlai, our baby boy.”
When Moses turned six, he worked with his father training the horses. Thaddeus taught Moses how to ride. Two new overseers were hired, one of them noticed that Moses seemed to have a gift with the horses. He shared this information with his boss. For two years the owner watched Moses posture when he was riding. On Moses eighth birthday he hired a man from Kentucky that trained jockeys to work with Moses. The young boy was so good that when he turned ten-years-old, the owner signed him up to compete. Moses won races from New York down to Kentucky. He made his Massa a very wealthy man, regrettably, Moses did not receive a cent.
While traveling Moses noticed in Ohio that coloreds were free, there was a colored family that owned a horse farm. He wanted to grow up and be just like them. At the races, the family had three jockey’s, two coloreds one white. Moses returned home joyously telling his parents that one day they would move to Ohio. He said, “dad we can have our own farm and horses.” He shared with them how big the world really was
The Massa observed that as Moses grew, he had a keen eye for building structures like an architect. When Moses got too big to be a jockey, he sent the young man to school. He planned to make money off this slave in more ways than one. When Moses was a child, he entered him in horse races, when he was a young teen, he hired him out as a building contractor. And later sent him to a two-year architect school. After Moses graduated, his Massa got him jobs in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Washington DC. Moses never saw a penny of his wages
April 1861, the Civil War broke out, a job that Moses was working on stopped due to the war. Moses and the three, gun-toting overseers returned to the plantation. Several slaves had run away and joined the army along with two overseers. This left numerous empty shacks. Moses asked the Massa if he could move in one of the shacks, he refused. Moses was put back in his parent’s shack.
Early one morning, in 1863, Moses entered the shack, he was clean, dressed, and ready to do a small job his Massa had for him on the plantation. Dakota was up making a fire in the fireplace, as Moses entered. She said, “Good morning son,”
Moses said, “hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No, I was awake.”
Thaddeus heard them stirring around, he called Moses to his bedside and said, “I want to tell you about who I am.” He sat up in bed.
Moses said, “I have two hours before I have to leave.” He got a chair and set it next to his father’s bedside, and said, “I have plenty of time.”
When Moses was seated Thaddeus began, “your birth name is Adlai, it means ornament of God, our name Berhanu means, light. I am from West Africa. My father’s people are from an old ancient country that no longer existed.”
“What country is that?” Moses asked.
“The Kingdom of Kush in Eastern Africa. When war broke out my family went to Egypt, he met my mom. A family conflict broke out between dad’s brothers, he went to West Africa with several others. In our small community dad was the leader. I was born 1812 when I turned eighteen, father sent me with several guards to Egypt. where I was to find an Egyptian wife and return home. Sixteen months later I returned home with a beautiful wife. Within three years of marriage, I had two sons, they were born in 1831 and 1833.”
Moses was elated, he said, “I have brothers.”
Thaddeus laid down, and said, “listen, son.” He then verbally spelled his last name, B-E-R-H-A-N-U, he asked Moses to repeat the spelling. Thaddeus knew he was dying so had nothing to lose. He reached for Moses' hand and said, “I wished I had told you about our family long ago.”
Moses said, “it’s okay pops, you would have been beaten to death.”
Thaddeus held tight to Moses' hand as he told his son about their history. He asked for water, Dakota brought him a tin cup filled with water. She held the cup for him and said softly, “drink up.”
When he finished drinking, she wiped his mouth and helped him lay back down.
Thaddeus winked at his wife and said, “your mother is from the western part of this country. That’s where we were going when you were two years old.” He stopped and moaned as he stirred around to get comfortable.
Dakota sat on the bed next to him and said, “enough talking for one day.” As she rubbed his head with a damp cloth, she looked a Moses and said, “we were caught, you took from us, we were beaten and left to die.”
She kissed Thaddeus on the forehead and returned to her chair in front of the fireplace.
Thaddeus reached for his son’s hand and said, “go on to work now, I’ll be alright.”
Moses said, “how did you end up in this country” Where’s your wife and son’s.” He paused for a moment before whispering more to himself, “my brothers?”
Thaddeus explained, “our little African community was nowhere near the ocean. We were on the mountaintop living in houses, not mud huts or under a grass shelter.” He repeated himself, “houses son, my father’s house was bigger than Massa’s. You see, most of us were from Egypt, others Sudan. My mother and father were Egyptian, we worshiped the Egyptian god, wore Egyptian clothing, the architect of our buildings was Egyptian. We were a thriving peaceful community. High on the mountain, we had heard about these big boats filled with white skinned people from a new country that talked funny. Father said we were safe because we were far-far a
way from the Ocean.” Thaddeus stopped talking, closed his eyes.
Dakota was setting the table for them to eat breakfast, she ran over to Thaddeus and shook him, she screamed, “Thaddeus!”
When Thaddeus opened his eyes, Moses exhaled, Dakota said, “don’t you ever do that again,” she began to leave, stopped, looked at Thaddeus and Moses and said serenely, “breakfast is ready.”
Thaddeus sat up, looked at Moses and said, “father was wrong, those white skinned people kicked us out our homes and took over our village. They killed my dad, mom, and anyone over forty years of age. They beat and shackled the rest of the males young and old, even my sons who were six and eight years old.”
Moses said with tears in his voice, “I’m so sorry dad.”
Dakota sat in a chair in front of the fire, breakfast food was on the table getting cold. Silence filled the one-room shack, only the sound of fire crackling in the fireplace was heard. All was so still until Thaddeus cleared his throat which made Moses and Dakota jump. Laughing, Thaddeus asked, “what’s wrong with you two?” he continued, “don’t be sorry, son, you were not born.”
He looked at Moses who was listening and hanging on every word. Thaddeus continued, “about fourteen of those men chose our best-looking women and raped them so many times that most died. Our women were not accustomed to harsh treatments. Four white-skinned men had my wife, she put up a good fight, she kicked, bit, and spit all over them. One of the men grabbed her and pushed my wife to the ground. Her head hit a rock that had a jagged point, the impact busted the side of her face wide opened, so much blood flowed out they left her alone.” Thaddeus zoned out for a second, he could see the whole tribulation happening all over again. He continued, “She found a way to turn her head toward me, our eyes met, and then her eyes went blank. She was not raped nor were her clothes torn from her body, she died with her dignity intact. I thanked the god Montu for answering my prayer.”
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