by Daniel Black
“Any o’ y’all seen Mister?” Gus called, emerging from the bedroom at dawn.
They would learn, days later, that he had hitchhiked to Memphis on his way to Atlanta. They’d never know how surprised and elated Johnny Ray was to see him. In his letter, a week later, Mister reported that he was working in Atlanta and doing fine. He asked Paul to check in on the NAACP meetings—now that Emma Jean couldn’t stop him—and to let him know what happened in the fall election. He also told Paul that there was something waiting for him in the barn loft. Sol wrote back that everybody missed him and that Authorly said he was going to whip his ass for running off without saying good-bye. Sol explained that the enclosed dried-up clover was from Paul, who said to tell him that he loved him. Mister sniffled as he placed the clover in the middle of his own Bible.
Paul had abandoned the loft the day Gus found him in Emma Jean’s clothes. Yet curious to see what Mister was talking about, he climbed the ladder and looked around. Eva Mae was with him.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t see anything.” He shifted a small pile of hay and gasped, “Oh my God. I don’t believe it. All this time.”
“What?”
Paul descended the ladder with Olivia swinging from his right hand.
“He had her all these years?”
“I guess so.” Paul brushed the dirt from the doll’s face and clothes. He smiled. What was he supposed to do with her now? He didn’t need her anymore. She didn’t even seem real, like she once did. He remembered how much he’d loved her and how much she’d meant to him—back in another lifetime.
“What chu gon’ do with her?”
Recalling what Emma Jean had done with the rest of Perfect’s things, Paul laid Olivia on the pile of rubbish Gus was burning behind the barn. Then, hand in hand, he and Eva Mae went to find Henrietta.