The Prodigy Slave, Book Two: The Old World: (Revised Edition 2020)

by Londyn Skye

  James still stood near his wagon feeling sincere gratitude for the beauty of Maya’s words, along with a sense of relief after seeing how receptive Lily was to all that her mother had said.

  “Thank you, mama,” Lily tearfully replied, still snuggled up next to her mother like an innocent child. “I can’t even put into words how badly I needed to hear that.”

  “Trust me, baby,” Maya said, kissing Lily on the forehead. “You’d neva’ need to utta’ a word to make me unda’stand what you’re goin’ through emotionally.”

  “Actually, just bein’ here with you makes me feel a whole lot betta’.”

  “Then why do I still sense so much tension?”

  Lily pulled back to look at her mother.

  “You’re still angry with James for the decision he made to bring you back here, aren’t you?” Maya surmised.

  Lily glanced over toward the wagon where James was, but he had stepped away to relieve himself.

  “Don’t blame James,” Maya laughed, after reading her daughter’s thoughts. “He neva’ said a word to me about the fact that you’re angry with ’em. I can just feel that somethin’ ain’t right between you two,” she explained, taking the opportunity to speak about James while he was gone. “Even though I feel the tension between the both of ya’, I can also feel that you still love ’em. Lily, I know it’s hard, but somehow try to accept the fact that we ain’t livin’ in a perfect world. Life ain’t guaranteed to be fair for everybody. We can’t always have what we want, and you definitely can’t always expect people to make perfect decisions. I know you’re hurt and you’re angry about everything that’s happened ova’ the last few months, but I’m beggin’ you to find the strength to forgive James for any and all injustices you feel he’s committed against you. Not tomorrow, not in two weeks, or two months. Right now. We ain’t promised tomorrow. To be loved the way he obviously loves you ain’t guaranteed in life eitha’. When you’re fortunate enough to be blessed with it … cherish it.”

  Lily sat silently while, once again, being reminded of some of the things that Corrina had already expressed to her.

  “Let James know, in every way possible, that you appreciate his love. Ain’t no betta’ way to express that than true unconditional and complete forgiveness.” Maya lifted her daughter’s head and made her look at her. “Forgive him, Lily. Not tomorrow. Not in two weeks or two months. Right now,” she reiterated. “Tomorrow ain’t guaranteed. I promise ya’, it ain’t no worse feelin’ in the world than the sudden shock of learnin’ that the person you needed to forgive or tell that you loved is no longa’ alive to hear it.”

  “Time’s up!” Wyatt interjected after suddenly storming out of the darkness.

  James rushed over to the campfire after returning from the woods too. “It’s only been two hours! We agreed on three!”

  “You were an hour late!”

  “I told you I was dealin’ with unexpected problems!”

  “That ain’t none ‘a my concern!” Wyatt said as he wrestled Maya up from where she sat.

  “What?” Lily looked at Wyatt in confusion. “You mean she ain’t comin’ with us?” She then turned to look at James.

  “I’m afraid not Lily,” James explained.

  “No! You promised me!” Lily screamed, suddenly gripping her mother’s arm like she was that frightened little girl about to be dragged away all over again. “He promised me you could come with me, Mama! Nooo! Please! I don’t want you to leave!” she yelled, breaking down into tears again.

  Wyatt still held on to Maya’s arm with one hand and then manhandled Lily off her with the other.

  “Get your fuckin’ hands off ‘a her!” James yelled, pushing Wyatt back.

  Wyatt lost his grip on Maya’s arm and fell backward into the dirt. When he stood up, he put his pistol in James’s face. “Touch me again you nigga’ lovin’ son of a bitch and you die!”

  James just stared the gun down without flinching. “At least let ’em say goodbye.”

  Wyatt silently granted the request but kept the pistol aimed at James. When Wyatt did not make any more sudden moves, Lily took the free moment to hug her mother tight and share tears with her again. She was absorbing every moment of their warm embrace, trying to make the memory of this goodbye more meaningful than the last.

  “Shhh, listen to me Lily,” Maya said, trying her best to calm her daughter down. She pulled her back to look at her. “Whetha’ in this life or in the heavens above, take comfort in knowin’ that one day we will hold each otha’ again. I’ve always believed that, and now here you are in my arms again afta’ all these years. Until we meet again, you pour all your heart and soul into lovin’ this here blessin’,” she said, placing her hand on Lily’s belly. “’Cause that’s exactly what this little baby is, and don’t you eva’ believe it as anythang less, ya’ hear?”

  Still too choked up to speak, Lily simply nodded.

  “You kiss my grandbaby every day for me, ya’ hear?”

  Lily nodded again and then rested her head back on her mother’s shoulder. “I l-love you m-mama,” she choked out.

  “I love you too, baby.”

  “That’s enough! Y’ur fuckin’ time’s up!” Wyatt finally said, nauseated by the whole scene. He snatched Maya out of her daughter’s embrace, and Lily crumpled to the ground.

  “You’s still with me every day, Lily. Right here,” Maya said, touching her hand to her heart as she was whisked away. “Can’t nobody eva’ snatch you away from me here!”

  “I’ll be back for you one day, Ms. Maya!” James yelled to her.

  “Don’t fuckin’ botha’!” Wyatt yelled back.

  Despite her mother’s words, Lily still could not handle the reality of parting ways with her again. As Wyatt dragged her away, the day she was sold came flashing back to Lily’s mind and so, too, did all the feelings of loss and pain. “Bring ’er back! You promised me!” she sobbed repeatedly, rocking back and forth with her face buried in hands.

  James walked over and helped Lily up. He put his arm around her waist to help steady her limp body as he ushered her into the wagon. She laid down in the back and pulled her knees up to her chest to comfort herself. James then laid a blanket over her. “It’s gonna be okay, Lily. I’ll try to get ’er back soon, I promise,” he said, trying to comfort her. When she did not reply, James hesitantly walked away and climbed up front to take the reins to guide her back to the place he knew she loathed. All the way there, he had to endure the heartbreaking sound of Lily weeping and coughing, barely able to catch her breath in-between.

  After listening to Lily sob for over an hour, James began to wonder if he had made the mistake of teasing her with something wonderful and tortuously snatching it away … yet again. By the time he arrived at his father’s hellhole, he had prepared himself for the fact that Lily’s brief visit with her mother may have done her more harm than good. With guilt beginning to gnaw at him, he walked Lily all the way to her room in the slave quarters. By the time Lily laid down on her makeshift bed, her heavy sobs had finally transitioned into light sniffling. James tugged at her covers to place them over her while his guilt, in turn, continued to tug relentlessly at him.

  Once Lily was swaddled in warmth, James kissed her on the cheek. “I love you,” he whispered, hoping to further swaddle her with the warmth of his words. He then got up to depart.

  “James,” Lily called out when he was near the door.

  He immediately turned around to find Lily sitting up staring at him.

  “Th-thank you from the bottom of my heart for lettin’ me see my motha’ again,” she said, her tears returning. Despite the current state of their relationship, she knew she owed him that.

  James walked back over to her, feeling his guilt and regret finally starting to subside with every step. “You’re very welcome,” he said, placing a hand on her cheek. “The next time you see your motha’, you won’t have to say goodbye again. I’ll do all I can to see to that, okay?”

  L
ily nodded and her tears cascaded down her cheeks. She gently removed James’s hand, turned, and laid down without another word, hoping to get an hour or two of sleep before being forced to start her dreaded duties again at sunrise.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “What the hell’re you doin’ here?!” Jesse snarled at Lily when she entered the kitchen to make breakfast instead of Corrina.

  Lily was still exhausted after the meeting with her mother, but Jesse immediately stunned her into complete alertness. She was about to tie her apron strings but suddenly froze, unsure what to say.

  “I brought ’er back!” James replied after jumping out of bed and hurrying to the kitchen.

  “Who the hell told you to do that?!” Jesse bit back.

  “You said you wanted me to inherit this place! So, I make the decisions around here now!”

  “Do I look dead to you, dipshit?! I said you could inherit this place when I’m gone!”

  “But we agreed that I could make decisions to improve the financial state ‘a this place before then!”

  “That’s why I let Mary Jo send ’er to a breeda’, ya’ jackass! To make money!”

  “Lily’s already havin’ my…” James cleared his throat after his near fatal slip of tongue. “She’s already havin’ a baby!”

  “The hell you mean she’s already havin’ a goddamn baby?! I thought you said you didn’t breed ’er?”

  “I didn’t!”

  “Well, who the hell’d you let impregnate ‘er?”

  “I didn’t let anybody do anything! I couldn’t watch her twenty-four hours a day! Ain’t no tellin’ who she spread ’er legs to behind my back!”

  “Watch how the fuck you talkin’ to me, boy! You were s’pposed to be keepin’ that little bitch on a tight leash!” Jesse spat, pointing at Lily. “You know I don’t approve ‘a this shit! I don’t want no house slave workin’ in here with a goddamn squallin’ baby on ’er hip! She’s got work to be done in this house, and I don’t need ’er makin’ excuses ’bout needin’ to tend to no damn baby. I said you could breed ’er and then sell that goddamn thing before she comes back here!”

  “Well, who says we couldn’t still sell it?”

  Lily briefly looked up at James, but from where he was standing, he did not notice the way she glanced at him when those words escaped his mouth.

  “That’s the best part,” James continued. “We can make pure profit off her baby now. If we leave ’er at the breeda’, they’d try to lay claims ova’ that baby and take half. We’d just be throwin’ money away!”

  Jesse stomped up to James and put a finger in his face. “The minute she has that goddamn baby, you get it the hell off ‘a my property, ya’ hear?! Or I will!” He then turned to look at Lily. “What the hell you waitin’ on?! Get y’ur ass in there and fix breakfast!” he barked. He glared at her through squinted eyes as he then stormed upstairs and slammed his bedroom door.

  The very second Jesse was gone, James felt the need to vomit. He was instantly sick over the hurtful lies he had said in front of Lily. He walked over and stood behind her as she pulled skillets out of the cupboard. “Are you okay?”

  She did not turn around. “Yessa’,” she somberly replied.

  With just that solitary word, James could hear the distress in her voice. He gently turned her around to find her eyes brimming with tears, just as he suspected he probably would. “Lily, I…” He immediately cut off his words when he heard his father stomping back down the stairs.

  “Make somethin’ quick and easy, Lily. I’m runnin’ late,” Jesse said after returning to the kitchen. “James, I need you to go into town with me. Go on and…”

  “I gotta work today.”

  Jesse quickly turned around and gave James his infamous pop shot in the mouth. “Don’t fuckin’ interrupt me, boy! I won’t need y’ur help long! You can go on to work afta’wards. Now go on and get ready!”

  It took all the strength within James to keep from starting a brawl with his father right there in the kitchen. What quickly settled him was remembering that two other lives depended on him keeping the peace until he had the means to get them off his father’s property permanently. He stared at Jesse briefly and then went to his room to get dressed. He promptly returned to eat his breakfast with his father looming the entire time. Much to his dismay, he was then forced to go into town without the chance to settle Lily’s tears.

  ****

  Throughout James’s long grueling workday, the horrible things he was forced to say to his father in front of Lily remained constant on his mind. He was eager to get home and speak to her about it, but it seemed the universe had other plans for him. There was one non-stop medical crisis after another that kept him and Gideon running all over town. The madness was usually a distraction from his troubles, but James found it difficult not to let his mind keep drifting back to Lily this time. It did not help that his last emergency had been spending the late-night hours at the bedside of yet another laboring mother. After ensuring the health of mother and child, James finally made his way back home around midnight through a non-stop torrential downpour. He did not make one complaint about riding through the frigid waters, though. He felt his body deserved the brutal frosty beating after unintentionally bringing Lily to tears and humiliating her earlier in the day.

  Once his rain shower ride home was over, James secured his horse in the barn and immediately made his way into the slave quarters. He was hoping for the slim chance that Lily was awake so that he could speak to her about the morning mishap. Not to his surprise, though, he found her bundled up, sound asleep. After kissing her on the forehead, he walked outside into the pouring rain, stopped, tilted his head back, and let the cold water cleanse him, in more ways than one. He then begrudgingly made his way across the field through the waterfall coming from the sky. When he made it into the house, he just stood in the darkened foyer lost in thought, while the run-off from his clothes formed a puddle around his feet.

  After returning from his mental trance, James dragged himself into the kitchen and saw the plate of food that had been left on the stove for him. Without having resolved things with Lily, though, his appetite continued to evade him. He left the plate exactly where it was, turned, and went straight to the guest bedroom. He plopped down in a chair and dropped his head into his hands. Not only was he upset with himself over the morning ordeal, but he had been plagued all day by something Lily had said a few days earlier: The world is tellin’ us we don’t belong togetha’. Why won’t you just listen? Those two sentences had repeated incessantly in James’s head throughout the day and left him with the sick feeling still currently torturing his stomach. They now left his body feeling way too wired to sleep. He just sat there considering that perhaps Lily really had been lost to him forever. She had given him a second chance to mend their relationship and he thoroughly ruined it. It was hurting him to now consider that he may never be given a third. That possibility, and their entire situation as a whole, had visibly taken its toll on James. His eyes now rested above dark circles, he had lost a considerable amount of weight, he wore a stubbly beard most of the time, and his hair rarely saw a comb. Even now, it showed in the way he sat there soaking wet, his face planted firmly in his hands, looking just as broken as any man could look.

  After realizing how pathetic he looked sitting alone in the dark, James gathered enough willpower to get up, take off his wet clothes, and put on some dry pajama pants. He then lay down to try to force himself to sleep. As soon as his head hit the pillow, though, he heard light tapping on his window. He jumped out of bed and drew back the curtains. “Lily!” he said, happily shocked to see her standing there. His gentle kiss had awakened her, and she now stood there shivering after having walked through the freezing rain.

  Within seconds, James opened his window and helped her inside into the warmth. He immediately took the comforter from his bed and wrapped it around her. Lily would not sit down or look at him at first, causing James’s heart to start cr
ashing against his ribcage. Her initial silence was allowing way too much time for his mind to race and his nerves to go haywire in anticipation of the reason for her visit. “A-are you okay?” he finally asked after stepping back and giving her some space.

  Lily shook her head, pulled the blanket tighter around herself, and finally found the courage to speak. “I-I been bothered by somethin’ all day today,” she nervously began.

  James’s heart picked up even more speed and he swallowed hard. “Wh-what about?”

  “You were wrong,” Lily replied, finally looking up at him.

  “About what?” James asked, slightly fearing her answer.

  “The man in my fantasy … the one standin’ beside me on the porch watchin’ our children run home from school. You said you were jealous of him, even though he doesn’t exist. But you were wrong … He does exist.”

  James swallowed hard again and dropped his head a little, feeling his envy return. “I see,” he somberly replied.

  “But you have no reason to be jealous of him.”

  James slowly raised his hanging head. “I don’t?”

  “No,” Lily said, shaking her head. “Because he’s the very same man who knelt beside me a few days ago and told me the most beautiful name for our baby girl.”

  Upon hearing those words, a lump started to form in James’s throat and a tidal wave of emotions began to rise into his chest.

  “But that left me thinkin’ today,” Lily continued. “What if the baby’s a boy? We should have a name picked out for him too, don’t you think?”

  James simply nodded, the lump in his throat preventing a verbal reply.

  “Then I sho’ would love to name him Jameson Michael Adams Junior,” Lily confessed, looking James deep into his eyes. “’Cause I’d want our son to be just like his daddy … in every possible way imaginable.”

  James’s eyes filled to capacity with tears. “Y-you can name him whateva’ you want, Lily, so long as you love our baby just as much as I do.” He looked at her with questioning eyes. “Do you?”