Point of No Return

by Paul McCusker

  “How will they get across?” she asked on the verge of crying.

  “What if we’re already across?” Clarence asked as he stepped out from behind a tree. He stretched out his arms toward his daughter.

  “Daddy!” she shouted and ran into one of the best hugs I’ve ever seen in my life.

  “Hello, my baby,” Clarence said.

  “Well, boys? How did you do?” Reverend Andrew asked. He stepped out from behind another tree nearby. “I was getting worried about you.”

  “Uncle Andrew,” Jack said, relieved to see him. “You were worried about us? Nothing to it. We were getting worried about you.”

  “It was a piece of cake for us—once I gave that overseer a good knock on the head,” he replied.

  “That makes two he’s gotten in the last couple of days,” Clarence said with a laugh.

  “Why didn’t you tell us that Jonah was the friend you kept getting your information from?” Jack asked.

  “Because I didn’t dare risk that you could expose him. He and Lizzie are two of the most valuable assets we have in the Underground Railroad. They feed us helpful information constantly—and the Colonel would never guess it. You see, Jack, you never know when or where your friends will turn up.”

  I thought about Scout and figured that truer words had never been spoken.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Matt tells about their “ride” on the Underground Railroad.

  WITHIN A FEW HOURS AFTER we were all together again, Reverend Andrew led us to the first “stop” in the Underground Railroad to the North. It was a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere where an old man and woman fixed us a hot meal and let us sleep in some beds they’d set up in secret rooms near the back of the house. When night came, we headed out again. We walked for miles and miles along dirt roads, through damp woods, and across muddy fields. It was tiring, but just about the time we thought we couldn’t walk anymore, we came to another “stop” and felt okay again. People all along the way greeted us like long-lost family. I knew then how it must have felt for blacks to go from the cruel treatment of the slave-owning whites to the kindness and generosity of those whites who wanted slavery abolished—and would sacrifice all they had to make it that way.

  Jack and I talked about ending the adventure. Since Clarence and Eveline were back together again, we thought we could tell Whit to flip the switch that would stop the Imagination Station. But we both had a nagging feeling that the story couldn’t really end until we were back where we started: in Odyssey.

  There isn’t much point to telling everything that happened on our journey. I guess it’s enough to say that we made it back to Odyssey on a cold evening while the sun set over the town. We went straight to the church where Reverend Andrew—even Jack started calling him “Reverend” again—said he would start a fire in the big potbelly stove and would make us rest on the beds in the basement. But we had forgotten that the basement was torn up when the slave hunters broke in. It was such a long, long time ago, I thought.

  “Then we’ll go to my hotel,” Reverend Andrew said.

  We all reacted the same way, and basically it came down to: “Are you nuts? Don’t you remember what happened before?”

  Reverend Andrew shook his head. “I remember well enough—and after what we’ve been through, I defy anyone to bother us now.”

  Clarence spoke up first. “With respect, Reverend, I think we’d all feel better if you were sure we could get to the hotel safely. Otherwise, I’m happy to stay here—or move on to the next station—as long as I’m with Eveline.”

  Reverend Andrew looked at them both, then agreed. “Jack, do you want to come with me?”

  “I guess so,” Jack answered.

  “We’ll be back in an hour,” Reverend Andrew announced.

  But things weren’t right in Odyssey, and it was a lot less than an hour before we saw them again.

  Jack picks up the story.

  Reverend Andrew and I walked to the hotel just as the shops were closing the day’s business. I wish I could describe the looks on people’s faces when they saw us (well, not us really—Reverend Andrew mostly). You could hear the “buzz” of everyone talking.

  We got to the hotel and Reverend Andrew went straight up to the manager’s office and knocked hard.

  “Come in,” a voice called from the other side.

  Reverend Andrew opened it, and a well-dressed man with slicked-down, brown hair and a handlebar mustache stood behind a big, oak desk. He couldn’t hide his surprise. “Reverend! You’re back!”

  “I am, indeed, Nathaniel,” Reverend Andrew said. “I went south to reclaim those poor souls who were taken from me.”

  “Come in, come in, sit down,” Nathaniel offered.

  Reverend Andrew declined. “I’ll get to the point, my good friend. I have the three Negroes with me, and I want to bring them back to my rooms for a bath and a rest. Do you have any grievances with that?”

  Nathaniel’s eyes bugged out. “Now, Reverend, you know that I, personally, do not have a grievance against it, but you’ve been away for a while and…” He signaled for us to come fully into his office, and after we did, he closed the door.

  “This is a bad time, Reverend,” he explained. “The town is torn apart by arguments between the abolitionists and the pro-slavery factions. Twice now we’ve had assemblies in the streets that I feared might lead to violence. If you brought your Negroes into the light of day—and to this hotel—I don’t believe we’d survive it.”

  “Then so be it,” Reverend Andrew said. “Perhaps it’s time for Odyssey to make up its mind about what it believes.”

  Nathaniel’s expression was calm, but his voice shook. “That may be true, but the law remains on the side of those who support slavery and the return of any runaway slaves. The slave hunters, those who caused all that trouble before, are here. You’ll risk the lives of your friends by bringing them out into the open. The slave hunters will take them again.”

  “Perhaps it’s time for Odyssey to force a change in the law. The slave owners are so adamant about states’ rights, then what about this state’s right to throw the slave hunters out on their ears?”

  “I’m just a hotel manager,” Nathaniel said as an appeal.

  “And I’m just a pastor,” Reverend Andrew said. “We all have a responsibility to our brothers in need.”

  Nathaniel frowned. “It’s dangerous.”

  “Most of the great causes are. Will you send one of your trusted staff to Adam Green’s place? Please tell him I’ve returned and that I’m expecting trouble.”

  “Then?”

  “He’ll know what to do.”

  We walked back into the lobby where the guests eyed us nervously. A short man with a twitchy face raced up to Reverend Andrew and whispered in his ear. Reverend Andrew nodded and thanked the man.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” I said.

  “So you should,” Reverend Andrew said as he picked up his pace to a jog. “The slave hunters know we’re here. We have to get back to the church immediately.”

  We got there in a few minutes, and we didn’t like what we saw as we walked up to the door. Several men with torches sat on horseback. One climbed off and I remembered from before that he was the sheriff. He had black and white stubble all over his face and looked tired. Though it was a cool evening, there were dark rings of sweat around his armpits.

  “Good evening, Sheriff,” Reverend Andrew said cordially.

  “Reverend, I’m glad to see you back in town.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate you coming here personally to say so.”

  The sheriff scratched at his stubble. “I’m here to make sure we don’t have any trouble. Have you got runaways in your church?”

  “I have a free man, his daughter, and a freeborn boy visiting my church,” Reverend Andrew explained.

  The sheriff winced. “Aw, now, Reverend…why? Do you have any idea of the problems I’ve been having around here?”

  �
��You have my sympathy,” Reverend Andrew said with a smile. “Let’s go inside, Jack. We need to start that fire, make some tea, and fix up those beds.”

  He and I stepped toward the front door.

  “Reverend—”

  “Listen to me, Sheriff. I don’t want any trouble, but I have a feeling it’s going to come anyway. I suppose you and your men should decide now on which side of the trouble you wish to place yourselves.” Reverend Andrew closed the door.

  Just as Reverend Andrew said, we built a fire in the big potbelly stove, made some tea, and fixed the beds in the basement. No one felt much like sleeping.

  “What do you reckon will happen?” Clarence asked.

  Reverend Andrew shook his head. “Only God knows, Clarence. But my educated guess is that the slave hunters will come and try to take you back again.”

  “We won’t go back,” Clarence said firmly. “We’d rather die first.”

  Matt and I exchanged glances across the room. Was this part of the story? Were Clarence and Eveline really supposed to get hurt when they got back to Odyssey? Was our part in this whole thing just to bring them to their deaths?

  A door slammed in the sanctuary upstairs, and Reverend Andrew excused himself to go investigate. I said I’d go with him, but he waved me back.

  Eveline cupped her mug of tea in her hands and began to pray softly.

  Clarence leaped to his feet. “No, sir, we haven’t come all this way again just to get caught. No, sir. I won’t let it happen.”

  I decided to creep upstairs to see what was going on.

  “I’m coming with you,” Matt said.

  The front door of the church was open just a crack and we watched while Reverend Andrew talked to two of the slave hunters who’d captured Clarence, Eveline, and Matt before. One was tall and had a hooked nose and bushy mustache. “That’s Hank,” Matt whispered.

  The other man had a round baby face and wore a vest stretched tight over his big belly. Matt said his name was Sonny.

  The two slave hunters were arguing with the Reverend about handing over Clarence and Eveline. “We’ll let you keep the one who says he’s free,” Hank said.

  “Gentlemen,” the Reverend said, “my church is a sanctuary and I warn you that if you enter it with the intention of capturing anyone inside, I will be forced to take action.”

  The sheriff stepped forward. “I believe there must be a peaceful solution to this conflict. I won’t have violence in my town. I promise you, I won’t.”

  “Then you better do something, Sheriff!” a man in the gathering crowd shouted. The light from a torch flickered on his face. I remembered him from before, too. He was a loudmouth who believed in slavery. “Some of us in town are getting sick of the way the Reverend here ignores the laws! These men have a right to take those runaway slaves back to their masters!” The crowd shouted their agreement.

  “Now hold on, hold on,” the sheriff said.

  Another man pushed to the front of the crowd and shook a fist in the loudmouth’s face. “No one has the right to take another man as a slave! And I’m telling all of you now, there are those of us in Odyssey who won’t tolerate these slave hunters anymore!”

  “There are those of us who won’t tolerate you slave lovers anymore!”

  The two men started pushing each other. The sheriff stepped in. “Stop it, boys!” he ordered.

  They pushed him away. Then the crowd moved forward with shouts from both sides. Fists started flying. We stepped aside so that Reverend Andrew could back into the church and close the door. Then he locked it.

  “Is that a riot?” I asked, wondering why I wasn’t more afraid.

  “I always knew it would come to this,” he said sadly. “Citizen against citizen, brother fighting against brother. That’s what the cruelty of slavery does to men’s hearts.” Bodies banged against the door as the shouts continued. I thought I heard a gun go off.

  Matt said, “One of them’s missing, Reverend Andrew. I didn’t see Boss.”

  “Boss?”

  “He’s the leader. Remember? There were three slave hunters. Why wasn’t he out there?”

  Just then we all got the same idea: “He’s sneaking in through the tunnel!”

  We ran back through the church and started down the wooden steps to the basement. Eveline was sitting on the edge of her bed. Clarence was using a poker to jab at the fire. Boss, a squinty-eyed man with thick eyebrows and permanent frown on his hard face, was sneaking in through the tunnel door. He had a gun drawn.

  First, Reverend Andrew shouted from the stairs. “Boss!”

  Boss looked up and Clarence, thinking fast, spun around with the poker and threw it at the slave hunter. Boss raised his arm and deflected the poker away onto one of the mattresses. In that split second, Clarence leapt like a tiger onto Boss. They slammed against the wall, the gun waving around wildly in Boss’s hand, and then they fell onto the mattress where the poker was. Clarence was on the bottom, and his back pressed against the hot spike. He screamed and threw Boss off. The gun slipped from Boss’s hand and landed at Reverend Andrew’s feet as he was rushing toward the two men. Reverend Andrew snatched up the gun just as Boss grabbed the poker. Boss was just about to hit Clarence with the poker when Reverend Andrew fired the gun. Boss grabbed his side as he spun around, then collapsed with a groan on the ground.

  We stared at Reverend Andrew. I think he was as shocked as we were at what he’d done.

  “Through the tunnel,” he shouted. “We have to get out of here!”

  “What about me?” Boss cried out, still clutching his side.

  “I’ll come back for you, son,” Reverend Andrew said as he picked up an oil lamp. “You deserve to be left here, but I’m a servant of God and I’ll come back. I promise.”

  We followed Reverend Andrew through the door into the dark tunnel. He lit the lamp. “This way,” he said.

  Somewhere, farther up the tunnel, we heard shouts. Boss must’ve heard the shouts, too, because he started calling for whoever it was to come help. “They’re in here! Don’t let them get away!”

  “Where do we go now?” Clarence asked.

  Reverend Andrew suddenly stopped midway up the tunnel and turned to the wall. “Push this,” he told us. He pushed at the wall. The rocks gave way and spilled inward. We helped until we’d cleared the entrance to another tunnel. “It’s my emergency escape,” he said.

  We ran down the tunnel, skipping over fallen rocks and coughing at the thick air.

  “Are you sure this leads somewhere?” Clarence asked.

  “To the old rectory,” Reverend Andrew explained. “It’s the ruined house not far away.”

  I remembered seeing it the first time we tried to escape from the church.

  We reached the end of the tunnel and saw a wooden ladder. “Hold this, please,” Reverend Andrew said and passed the lamp to Clarence. He climbed up the ladder and pushed at something above. It sounded like a latch. With a rusty groan, it opened, and a burst of fresh air poured in. Scrambling up the ladder, he called for us to follow.

  I nearly had a heart attack when we got to the top. We were in the middle of what looked like the remains of a house. A band of men with torches and horses surrounded us, and I thought for sure that we were caught.

  “Thank you for coming, Adam,” Reverend Andrew said to a man at the front of the group.

  “Glad you’re back, Reverend,” Adam said. “What would you like me to do?”

  Reverend Andrew gestured to us. “Take these friends of mine to the next station on the Railroad. They’re not safe here.”

  “Yes, sir,” Adam said. “Can you ride horses?”

  Clarence nodded. “I can. My daughter can ride with me.”

  “Then get on. I don’t think it’ll be long before that riot makes its way here.”

  We looked in the direction of the church. The shouts and chaos were unmistakable. It was a full-scale riot.

  “Oh no,” Reverend Andrew said. Flames reflected off the glass
on the inside of the church. “They’re burning my church down!”

  Clarence climbed on the horse and then pulled Eveline up to his lap.

  “What about your two boys?” Adam asked.

  “We’re staying,” Matt said.

  Reverend Andrew turned to face us. “You can’t. They’ll try to take you as a slave again.”

  “They won’t be able to,” Matt said.

  Reverend Andrew persisted, “I don’t know that I can stop them.”

  “You won’t have to stop them,” I said with a strange confidence. “We have another way out.”

  “How?”

  I smiled at him. “You never know when or where your friends will turn up.”

  Reverend Andrew waved at Adam. “Go, then. Hurry.”

  “Right,” Adam said and gave his horse a nudge.

  “No, wait,” Clarence said. “Reverend…Matt…Jack…I don’t know how to thank you.” He reached down and shook our hands.

  “Thank you,” Eveline said. She had tears in her eyes. Suddenly, with Clarence holding on, she threw herself halfway off the horse and grabbed Matt to kiss him. She pulled me close, too, and kissed me on the cheek. Then Reverend Andrew.

  “Lord love you,” she whispered.

  Clarence pulled her back up, tugged at the reins on his horse, and steered it away. Adam and his men followed. With a “Hyah,” they raced off into the night.

  The mob around the front of the church drifted to the side and someone saw us. With shouts and angry gestures, the crowd moved our way.

  Reverend Andrew gestured to us. “Well, boys? Care to run for the woods?”

  I looked at Matt, and we both knew it was time to go home.

  “Good-bye, Reverend Andrew,” I said. “Thank you for everything.”

  He shook my hand. “You’re welcome, Jack. You made a nice nephew for a while.”

  “See ya, Reverend Andrew,” Matt said and held out his hand.

  Reverend Andrew took it but pulled him close for a hug. He then wrapped his other arm around me.

  My face was buried in his side so that all was dark. I felt that rollercoaster feeling again and thought my legs might slip out from under me.

  I heard Matt say, “Hey, what’s going on?”