Elijah of Buxton

by Christopher Paul Curtis

  Pa said, “Come on, we gotta get back to the Settlement. I’m-a call a meeting so’s we can do something ’bout catching that yellow-belly dog of a blamed thief.”

  I knowed better than to say anything more. Pa don’t swear much and when he does it’s a sign that all talking from me is supposed to be through.

  Pa said, “You near ’bout caused my heart to jump clean out my chest with all that running. You tearing off in one direction and Leroy tearing off in the other, I’s too old to be chasing after folks like a hound dog. Let me sit a minute so’s I can get my wind.”

  Once Pa’s breathing catched up to him good, we headed back. I was sore disappointed in myself. Not for running off like I did, that only made good sense. Ain’t nothing fra-gile ’bout running when you think you’re ’bout to get axed by someone strong as Mr. Leroy. No, I was ’shamed ’cause of how far I’d got!

  I reckoned I must have covered two, three miles, but once me and Pa got walking toward the road I saw I hadn’t gone no more than two, three hundred feet! This was mighty puzzling, but the only thing I could figure was I must’ve done a lot a running ’round in circles, which would probably be why Pa caught me so easy.

  Pa and the other Elders called a meeting in the church for that night. Me and Emma Collins and Sidney and Johnny had to run through the Settlement to let folks know. Most people had heard what happened and said they’d be there.

  ’Bout a hour afore the meeting was supposed to commence, I finished my supper and walked onto the stoop and heard Ma say to Pa, “Then what we gunn do with ’Lijah?”

  I said, “Pardon me for interrupting, Ma, but what you mean, ‘do with me’?”

  Ma said, “I don’t want you coming to this meeting, Elijah. Folks likely gunn be talking a lot of bad things and it ain’t right for no child young as you to be hearing all that nonsense. Especially since you’s such a …”

  I know it ain’t right, but I butted in on Ma afore she had a chance to get any words out ’bout me being a fra-gile boy. I said, “But, Ma-a-a! I caint miss this! Maybe they’re gonna need my help with something.”

  Ma and Pa looked at one the ’nother and Pa said, “Well, if they do, we gunn be sure to let you know ’bout it.”

  Ma said, “Is Mrs. Bixby gunn come to the meeting?”

  Ma knowed most times Cooter’s ma didn’t come out of their home. Cooter’s grandma was near ’bout fifty years old and frail and ailing and Mrs. Bixby was afeared of leaving her for even a minute.

  I said, “No, ma’am, Mrs. Bixby said her ma waren’t getting on too good and she was gonna stay with her.”

  Ma said, “All right, then, I want you to run on over there and ax if it be all right for her to look after you whilst we’s at the meeting.”

  “But, Ma-a-a-a …”

  Ma held up her hand to show there waren’t no more to say.

  Then she told me, “And you might as well ax if you can sleep there tonight and go to school with Cooter tomorrow ’cause ain’t no telling when this here meeting’s gunn break up, and you know how you is if you don’t get your sleep.”

  She was making it sound like I was a baby in a crib! I said, “But, Ma-a-a-a …”

  Pa said, “Don’t be back-talking your ma, Elijah. Go get you your school clothes so you can go tomorrow morning with Cooter.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Growned folks sure never want to give no one the respect they’re suppose to get. Here I’d been working hard on not being fra-gile and Ma and Pa hadn’t even took no notice of it. I went and got my clothes for school the next day and put ’em in a tote sack ’long with my school shoes and schoolbooks.

  Fair’s fair and it waren’t the littlest bit fair that I was gonna be cut out from all the deciding what to do ’bout this mess I caused.

  Whilst I was toting my clothes and such to Cooter’s I started thinking on what was gonna happen at the meeting tonight. I didn’t know if they were gonna put a search party together for Mr. Leroy or if they were gonna even try to get a posse up that would go to America and try to run the Preacher down. Whatever it was they came up with, I knowed it waren’t fair that I wouldn’t get to know till tomorrow after I finished my chores at the barn. That waren’t gonna be till after eight in the evening, and it just didn’t seem right that the person that caused all this woe had to let other folks clean up behind him.

  It waren’t till I was just up the road from Cooter and n’em’s house that another great idea started coming to me.

  By the time I knocked at Cooter’s the idea was set in my head.

  Mrs. Bixby answered the door.

  She said, “Good evening, Elijah. How you doing?”

  “Good evening, Mrs. Bixby. I’m doing good, ma’am. How’re you?”

  “Just fine as can be.” She pointed at my bag and said, “You running away from home, Elijah?”

  “No, ma’am, Mrs. Bixby. Ma and Pa were wondering if it’s all right if I stayed with you tonight ’cause that meeting might go on till tomorrow.”

  Mrs. Bixby said, “Elijah, you tell your ma anytime she need me to look after her baby, she don’t even got to ax.”

  Doggone-it-all, didn’t no one say nothing ’bout no baby! Seems to me ain’t no one over the age of five needs to be called a baby. Seems to me even the most fra-gilest child in the world wouldn’t be called a baby once he’s darn near twelve year old! I was ’bout this close to giving Cooter’s ma some back talk, but instead I said, “Thank you, ma’am.”

  Then I sneaked in the lie I had to tell, “Ma wants me to walk on over to the church for ’bout a hour so I can help decide what we’re gonna do ’bout this trouble. Can Cooter walk over with me?”

  I figured me and Cooter would both get to eavesdrop on the growned folks’ meeting.

  “That’s fine, Elijah, but don’t be counting on Cooter to go with you. Schoolteacher Travis just come by and said the boy’s acting the dunce at school again.”

  She opened the screen door and I saw Cooter standing in a corner with his nose mashed up ’gainst the walls.

  She said, “Boy been standing in that corner so much these pass few years he done wore a spot out in the floorboards.”

  I said, “Yes, ma’am, and now Mr. Leroy’s run off and ain’t ’round to fix it neither.”

  Mrs. Bixby raised a eyebrow to let me know she was wondering if I was being smart-mouth. I said real fast, “I didn’t mean no disrespect, ma’am.”

  “None taken. Here, Elijah, drink this. Your friend ain’t getting nothing to eat nor drink till he learn to act right in school, and I hate seeing this glass of milk go to waste.”

  I drunk Cooter’s milk, then Mrs. Bixby made me drink two more glasses of it till there waren’t none left.

  She said, “Carry your bag to Cooter’s room, Elijah. And don’t be trying to talk to that dunce neither. Another thing he gunn be doing till he turn thirty is keeping his mouth shut.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I ran my bag back to Cooter’s room and told Mrs. Bixby, “I’m gonna go back home and tell Ma you said it was fine for me to stay here tonight. Then I’m gonna go to that meeting for a while.”

  She said, “You be careful and hurry back. I hear Leroy done lost his mind and is wandering ’bout. Hear he done throwed one axe a hundred feet up into a tree and throwed the next one so high it poke the man in the moon in the eye.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I won’t be long.” I waren’t gonna spend one minute thinking Mr. Leroy was gonna hurt no one. I knowed him better than that. That waren’t nothing but some more gossip and story pretty-upping. I figured I was gonna have ’bout a hour to eavesdrop on the meeting afore I had to get back to Cooter’s home.

  I walked toward the church but went into the woods so I could come at it from the back and no one could see me eavesdropping. It was peculiar to see the church all lit up from candles on a Thursday night. Most times it didn’t look like this ’less it was Sunday evening or ’less there was a service for someone that had gone and died.


  It was also mighty peculiar ’cause there waren’t none of the regular church sounds coming out of the place. There waren’t no foot-stamping nor no hand-clapping nor no tambourine-shaking to make you happy. There waren’t even none of the choir’s singing to make the place seem so warm and comforted and cozy that afore you knowed it, some growned person was digging their elbow in your ribs to wake you up. But I knowed why the church was so different tonight, and it waren’t ’cause of the full moon neither. Tonight folks waren’t interested in nothing but straightening out my mess.

  There were only a few folks there already. They were keeping their voices low inside the church and only once in the while could I understand somebody shouting out “Yessir!” or “Lord almighty!” Those were interesting things to hear but what was more important was hearing what had made folks call out so.

  If I was gonna eavesdrop proper I’d have to crawl right under the church’s floorboards. I ’membered what Pa said ’bout people that use to be slaves and how they never let a chance at being late get by ’em, so I knowed I was gonna have to wait out here for a while till the church filled up and all the stragglers had made it in.

  I was this close to being out of the tree line when I heard a twig snap behind me. I did what every fawn in the woods does whenever it gets come up on by surprise, I froze right where I was at.

  But it was too late, afore I could turn ’round to see what was sneaking up on me, a rough hand came ’cross my face from behind and I was getting squozed ’round the middle, lifted off my feet, and toted back into the woods!

  I’d seen how when a mouse gets grabbed up by a cat, it won’t fight or twitch or do nothing to try to get away. I’d seen that and never could get in my head why it happened. I use to think if it was me that got snatched like that, I’d fight and kick and make that cat earn eating me up. I always use to say that I waren’t gonna go down that cat’s throat without a fight, without at least getting me some good bites in on his tongue as I was getting swallowed. But I could see now that I was wrong, ’cause once this haint or this killer or this kidnapper or this slaver or this demon that had grabbed me lifted me up in the air light as a piece of straw and pulled me deeper into the woods, I knowed there waren’t no sense in fighting or nothing. I was feeling just what that mouse must’ve been feeling. I didn’t want to drag things out none by tussling. I just wished this getting killed would be over quick.

  Whatever snatched me up was starting to get tired. The way it had me mashed up ’gainst it I could feel its heart flopping ’round in its chest like a fish that had got throwed up on the land. It commenced breathing hard and finally dropped me on the ground.

  Soon’s it let me go I forgot all that nonsense ’bout mice and cats and I tried to light out for the trees. I didn’t get far ’cause a root seemed like it reached up and tripped me back to the ground.

  You’d’ve thought with as many times as I been stumbled up and throwed to the ground I’d’ve learnt to keep my mouth shut once I was ’bout to hit, but that’s another one of those lessons that don’t seem to stick ’cause soon’s I banged down, I got a mouthload of twigs and dirt and dried-up leafs.

  I felt ’round to see if maybe I could get ahold of a chunking stone and go down fighting, but my fingers waren’t running over nothing but more roots and twigs. I turned ’round to see what it was that had snatched me and saw a sight that terrorfied me to my soul!

  ’Twas Mr. Leroy!

  And he looked just like someone that had died but didn’t know it!

  He was holding on to his left arm and breathing hard.

  He said, “Elijah, I needs you.”

  I spit the dirt and leafs out of my mouth and told him, “I’m sorry, Mr. Leroy, I didn’t know he was gonna steal your money, I swear I didn’t know, sir!”

  Mr. Leroy held up his hand so’s I’d give him a chance to catch on to his breathing.

  He said, “Boy, I know you didn’t know nothing … ain’t no one’s fault but my own and that thieving fool’s. But I do hope … you gunn help me out. Elijah, I’m lost, I ain’t got no one else what I can turn to.”

  Mr. Leroy leaned up ’gainst a tree and kept having a hard time finding his breathing. I stood up and went over to him, and said, “Mr. Leroy, I don’t care what you and Pa say, I know it’s ’cause of me that all this happened, and I’ll do anything you want to try to help, sir, anything. All you got to do is tell me.”

  What Mr. Leroy said made my blood run cold and my legs get shake-ity.

  He said, “I got to go to that village in Michigan and see if any of that money’s left. And if it ain’t none left, I’m-a find Zephariah and shoot him down for stealing my dreams of getting my family out. I’m-a look him in the eye and make sure he die a terrible death.”

  I’d heard tell ’bout people that you could look at and see death was walking right next to ’em and when I looked at Mr. Leroy and heard the hard, cold way he was saying those words, I knowed what that meant. Some of those words might be freed people prettifying things, but some of it was real! It was easy to see that death had its arm ’round Mr. Leroy, propping him up, taking its time, waiting to walk with him into Michigan to grab ahold of the Preacher.

  Mr. Leroy put his hand on his side and I saw he was wearing the Preacher’s fancy holster and mystery pistol. All the sudden I didn’t feel so brave.

  “But, sir, I caint help with that. I don’t know where he’s at.”

  Mr. Leroy said, “I needs you to come with me ’cause I caint read, ’Lijah. Plus I ain’t comforted dealing with white folks like you is. I ain’t got the intention of letting no man, not even no white man, pull me off from what I got to do, and I need you to help.”

  “But, Mr. Leroy, there’re slave catchers over in Michigan. How we gonna stop someone from trying to kidnap us?”

  “Boy, the way you talks, no one in the world gunn think you ever been no slave. All they got to do is look at you, they know you born free. And if we got to use this pistol, then we got to use this pistol.”

  “So does that mean you’re gonna force me to come with you, sir?”

  “I’m terrible sorry, Elijah, but a ball done started rolling downhill what ain’t gunn be stopped. We both going to Michigan.”

  “Then that means I ain’t got no choice, sir?”

  “I’m afeared not, son.”

  I told him, “Great! I was just making sure, Mr. Leroy. I know if Ma and Pa found out I went to Michigan on my own accord, they’d skin me alive once I got back! This way I can tell ’em, and tell ’em true, that I got kidnapped and I ain’t gonna be in near as much trouble! Thank you, sir.”

  Mr. Leroy said, “I do hope you ain’t gunn be talking no spools of nonsense whilst we’s going. I really caint take that, Elijah. I think it be best if we goes along being quiet.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  Mr. Leroy said, “I borrowed a horse from the barn. We gunn make good time.”

  We walked deeper into the woods. Jingle Boy’s reins were tied to a tree. Mr. Leroy climbed on his back and reached down to pull me up.

  I began seeing that Mr. Leroy hadn’t done no planning ’bout this. It was like Pa had said, he waren’t seeing things the way they were, he was still seeing things the way he wanted them to be.

  I said, “Mr. Leroy, we caint just go right off to Michigan like this, sir. Cooter’s ma’s expecting me to go to her house tonight.”

  He turned ’round and said, “So? If things go good, you’s gunn be back tomorrow, day after, at the most.”

  “Well, sir, if I don’t show up tonight they’re gonna think something happened to me, and I ain’t meaning to be disrespectful, sir, but folks are saying you lost your mind and are out in the woods wandering ’bout chunking axes at the moon. If they put those two things together they’re gonna figure you grabbed me and we’re heading to Michigan. And Pa likes you a powerful lot, sir, but if he thinks you kidnapped me he’s gonna come ripping out after us like his hair’s afire. Then there’s gonna be some big
problems and we ain’t gonna be able to catch ahold of the Preacher.”

  Mr. Leroy reined in Jingle Boy and said, “That makes sense. What you think we should do?”

  “Let me go back to Cooter’s home and tell Mrs. Bixby that Ma and Pa changed their mind and that I caint spend the night there. That way Ma and Pa will think I’m sleeping at Cooter’s, and Cooter’s ma will think I’m sleeping at home. It won’t be no big problem that I miss school tomorrow. Ma and Pa will figure I’m there. Then with tomorrow being Friday, I gotta do my chores at the barn right after classes and then they’ll think I went fishing, so won’t no one know I’m kidnapped till after eight o’clock tomorrow evening. By that time we’ll be back. Won’t we? We caint be back no later than Saturday, sir. I got a big examination on Latin verbs Monday and I ain’t done the proper ’mount of studying yet.”

  Mr. Leroy said, “I knowed it was the right thing to bring you ’long. You got a real keen mind, Elijah. I figure you can think us through near ’bout anything. I’m powerful sorry I got to drag you into this, son. You keep in mind you’s saving me. But you gunn have to work hard on cutting down on some that talking you like to do.”

  I showed Mr. Leroy the quickest way to get to Cooter’s through the woods.

  Afore I jumped off Jingle Boy’s back Mr. Leroy turned ’round to look me hard in the face.

  “You know if you was to take off, there ain’t nothing I could do. You tell me now, Elijah, you tell me so’s I ain’t gunn waste no more time waiting on you. Is you gunn come back? There any need for me to wait, or should I just leave now, alone?”

  I raised my right hand and told him, “Mr. Leroy, sir, I swear on my mama’s head that I’m coming right back.”

  I slid off Jingle Boy and ran out of the woods and down the road to Cooter’s home.