A Matter of Pride

by Jane Gill

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The Powell house was a yellow and white two-story that stood high on stilts. Situated on the west side of a narrow street just three blocks from the beach, it could have easily fit in Nantucket. Dwight parked beneath the house, and Lu pulled in behind him. He led her and Susan up to the entryway. Faith greeted them with open arms and led them through the house to the screened deck that ran the length of the back of the house. High up, the unobstructed view was of the Intracoastal Waterway shimmering in the late afternoon sun.

  “Wow,” said Susan, her hand shading her eyes. “This is like something out of a movie.”

  Dwight pulled off his tie. “You like this, huh?” he asked. “Just wait till you see the sunset from here.”

  “Faith,” Lu said, “you have a lovely home. If I lived here, I’d never get tired of this view.”

  “Thank you. We bought this lot because of the view of the Intracoastal from back here. We really love it,” she replied. “Just make yourselves comfortable.” She turned to Dwight. “How about fixing us some Margaritas after you change, hon.”

  “Now that sounds good,” he said. “Comin’ right up, ladies. What about you, Susan? Diet Coke, iced tea?”

  “Diet would be great, thanks,” she replied, not taking her eyes off the water which rippled gently in the mild breeze. “What’s that beyond the waterway?” she asked, pointing west. “Is that a marsh over there?”

  “Actually, that’s Graham Swamp,” Faith replied. “Know the difference between a swamp and a marsh?”

  “No, uh, aren’t they the same?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” Faith said. “To put it simply, a swamp has trees and a marsh doesn’t.” She nodded at Lu. “Sorry, I teach ninth grade and I have a bad habit of always trying to educate people.”

  “Oh, please, don’t apologize,” Lu responded. “I noticed all the bookshelves as we came through the house. You must be a pretty dedicated teacher.”

  “Well, books are an addiction of mine. That and Florida history,” Faith said. “In fact, I must tell you, I was really impressed with your family’s story. I would love to hear more about it sometime. I try to encourage my students, especially my few black students, to know their history.”

  “Actually, history is Susan’s passion, too. She really scolded me after the service for never having mentioned that her great-great-grandfather fought for the Union Army,” Lu said, giving Susan a sly grin.

  “Good for you,” Faith said to Susan. “I’ve found that a disappointing number of kids don’t like to talk about their history. It seems they can’t get past thinking they’re descended from slaves. And frankly, what they overlook is that a great many of us have a long ancestry in this country. And, we ought to be proud of it.”

  “I can see where you’re right,” Lu said. “I guess I just never thought about it before.”

  “Well, except for Black History month, hardly anyone does. It’s not just you,” she said with understanding. “There are noticeably few accurate narratives of blacks in America’s history. I honestly feel that much of our contribution has all too often been ignored.”

  “That’s exactly how I feel,” Susan interjected.

  Dwight came out onto the deck wearing Bermuda shorts and a Polo shirt. He held a frosty pitcher in one hand and three glasses in the other. “Here, hon,” he said to Faith. “If you’ll take these, I’ll get Susan’s drink and be right back.”

  Faith took the pitcher and glasses and set them on the table as Lu continued the conversation. “Honestly, when Susan was in high school I had my fears she would join a militant group. In fact, on our way over here this morning we visited Eatonville. Susan did her high school term paper on Zora Neale Hurston.”

  “Hey, she’s Faith’s favorite,” Dwight said as he reappeared and handed Susan her soda. She grinned openly, obviously pleased with herself.

  He moved to the table and poured the Margaritas. “If my wife had her way, we’d spend every weekend traipsing around the woods and swamps looking for history.” He handed Lu her glass.

  “I sure would,” Faith laughed. “But it’s becoming really important as more and more of old Florida disappears. I just want to see the history preserved.”

  “Yeah,” Susan spoke up. “Mom and I were talking about that in the car. You know, how Florida is always kind of new and sparkling. It’s so different from up north where everything is labeled ‘historical’.”

  “That’s it exactly!” Faith said. “That’s what got me hooked on Zora in the first place. Without her writings and recordings we might never have known we had a history here.”

  “Uh oh,” Dwight said with a grin. “Here we go.”

  Faith gave him a devilish smirk as she turned to Susan. “C’mon in the kitchen and help me with the salad so we can talk some more.” Susan rose to follow her. “I’ve done quite a bit of research on her, and I’ve actually started an outline for an article on Florida’s black history and Zora’s connection, Let me show you a map I have of the Dust Tracks Heritage Trail,” Faith continued.

  “Really?” Susan breathed as they left the deck.

  “Looks like Susan found a soul mate,” Dwight said, pointing in their direction with his glass.

  “You’re right. I guess I’ll have to brush up on my family’s history now.” Lu agreed.

  “It’s good to see you again and to get to know Faith. I really felt pressured at the service, you know, trying to greet everyone.”

  “Yeah,” he responded. “Those things are supposed to be social times, but it’s always exhausting for the family. Anyway, it’s good to visit this time.”

  “What about you?” Lu asked. “Where are your boys?”

  “Oh, they’ve gone off to a church mission training thing. I’m sorry you’ll miss them.”

  “Me, too,” she replied. “I’m sure they’re very nice young men.”

  “Well!” he laughed. “The jury’s still out on that. But, yeah, they’re good kids. Problem with twins is everything is doubled! They both want to go to Gainesville next year, and that’s not gonna be cheap,” he said as he pushed a button and sparked a flame on the grill.

  “Oh, I hear you. We’ve got our hands full now with just Susan in college. And before we know it William will be off to college too. But you’re going to get a double-header when those bills come in.” Her voice was warm and understanding.

  “Oh, yeah!” he groaned. “But, hey, we’ll work it out.”

  “Work what out?” Faith asked as she appeared carrying a tray with the salad bowls. Susan followed her with the platter of chicken breasts.

  “Geez, I’d better get cracking,” Dwight said. He quickly took the chicken from Susan. “I just now started the grill.”

  “We were talking about the cost of a college education these days,” Lu said to Faith.

  “Well,” Faith responded, setting the napkins around the table. “Dwight managed college on next to nothing, and we paid on that law school loan forever. But it’s been worth it. That’s what really matters.”

  Dwight busied himself with the chicken and the marinade while Faith and Lu set the plates out.

  “So, how did you end up a lawyer, anyway?” Lu asked Dwight.

  “Well, I sure didn’t want to be a sharecropper.” He raised his eyebrows for effect. “So, I ended up over at Stetson in DeLand, worked my way through. You know, walked uphill through the snow and all that.” He looked at her thoughtfully. “You remember? I had all those big dreams about saving the world.”

  “Yes,” Lu said, “I remember.”

  “So after four years there, I applied to the law school and next thing you know I’m over in St. Pete buried in the law library tryin’ to get my head around all that legalese,” he said.

  “That’s where we met, actually,” Faith said, moving to his side. “Not in law school, but sort of.”

  “What’s ‘sort of’?” Lu asked.

  “Well,” Dwight began, “she was dating my roommate.
I could see right off he wasn’t good enough for her.” He gave her a gentle squeeze, and she playfully pushed him away.

  “Yeah, right!” she said.

  “So he stole you away from his friend?” Lu asked in mock surprise, noticing that Susan was enjoying listening to their friendly banter.

  “Yeah, and that ol’ boy, he still don’t talk to me today. Kind of a sore loser if you ask me,” he joked.

  In just minutes the meal was ready. Dwight forked a chicken breast onto each plate hot from the grill. A gentle breeze blew across the deck. Lu was enjoying herself. The easy conversation and the tropical atmosphere erased all her tension. She pushed her plate away just as the sun began to slide into the gold waters of the swamp, marking a shining path across the waterway.

  “Coffee?” Faith asked as they cleared the table and followed her into the kitchen.

  “That sounds great,” Lu answered. “But first, what can I do to help in here?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Susan and I can load the dishwasher if you’ll just take a cup of coffee back out on the deck for Dwight.”

  Lu poured two mugs and went back outside.

  “I think when you stole Faith away from your friend, you got a really good deal,” she said to Dwight, handing him his mug.

  “Yeah, I got a pretty good deal all around,” he responded. “You know, coming off an old, dirt road in the middle of nowhere and all that. Lord’s been good to me, that’s for sure. Living at home and traipsing up to DeLand was good for me, too. So was moving over to St. Pete for law school, but Faith has been the best. She keeps me honest. She grew up over in St. Pete with four brothers. Her daddy was a mailman, so she’s seen some hard times, too.”

  “Susan is really enjoying her,” Lu remarked.

  “Well, she’s quite an advocate when it comes to educating folks about Florida’s history. And Zora is huge in her book.” He rolled his eyes.

  Lu leaned against the rail and turned toward him. “You know, I have to confess, I didn’t even remember Susan’s high-school paper until she brought it up. And until we went to Eatonville today, I guess I never really made the connection about Zora being from Florida.”

  “Well, your secret’s safe with me,” he assured her. “Faith has a map of where Zora was in Florida—and, believe me, we’ve been to most of those places!”

  “But didn’t she do most of her work with the Writer’s Project in the deep south, and at all those turpentine camps? What would she have done around here?”

  “Well,” Dwight answered. “There were turpentine camps all over, especially in Florida. Don’t you remember folks talking about the old camp that used to be over near Pierson?”

  “Not really. There were turpentine camps here?” she quizzed.

  “Oh, yeah, I know that for a fact, because my mother said one of my great uncles disappeared while he was working over there.”

  “Disappeared? As in murdered?” she asked, intrigued. “What happened?”

  Dwight sat in one of the deck chairs and sipped his coffee. “This really isn’t very good after-dinner conversation, you know?” he asked, indicating his willingness to change the subject.

  Lu sat opposite him and quickly glanced toward the kitchen door. Thankfully, Susan and Faith had disappeared into the house somewhere. “Just tell me what happened, and I promise I won’t push it.”

  “Well,” he began, “we’ve never been sure. It was part of what got me interested in becoming a lawyer. Dumb me; I expected questions to have answers.”

  “I remember that about you. But go on.”

  “Well, I guess my grandmother’s brother signed on at some camp.” He looked up, and Lu nodded. “You know times were hard back then, and a lot of families were starving. Anyway, he was young, I guess maybe fifteen or sixteen. Maybe even younger, and known to get a little hot-headed. The hired bosses in these camps were white, and most carried guns. Let me just say their moral character was probably not exactly sterling, if you know what I mean. Anyway, basically a lot of black men who went into those camps to work ended up dead or just never came back out. It wasn’t the kind of place where you could decide to up and leave, if you get my drift.”

  “I never heard about any turpentine camp growing up,” Lu pondered aloud.

  “Well, I don’t really know all that much, but it might have been the same camp your uncle was at,” he said, taking another sip from his mug.

  “I don’t have an uncle,” Lu said candidly. “Like I said this morning, I might have had an uncle who died as a child, but I don’t really know.”

  “Oh, well. It’s just what my Mom told me,” Dwight responded with obvious embarrassment. “I’m sorry, maybe I got it mixed up.”

  He stood quickly. Too quickly, Lu thought, and began to busy himself closing down the grill. She rose and followed him,

  “No, tell me!” she said in a loud whisper.

  It was his turn to glance toward the kitchen. “Well, most of what I know came from my mother.” He stared west at Graham Swamp as the sun’s last glow blinked into the gathering darkness. “You know, the stories she would tell. And, uh, one of them, I remember distinctly, involved Miss Pearl and your uncle.”

  “My uncle?” A hundred questions came to mind, but she forced herself to keep quiet so Dwight would go on.

  He rolled the grill back up against the house and motioned to her to follow him over to the far edge of the deck where they sat in the twilight. “Well, the story goes that right at the end of the War, World War II that is, Miss Pearl was just married. She and her husband lived out at the turpentine camp over by Pierson. Your father’s brother, who was, I think, a little older than him, had left the farm to go over there and work, too.”

  “Good Lord!” Lu said. “My father had a brother? Are you sure?”

  “Well, I’m pretty sure,” he said. “That’s part of why I mentioned other descendants of your grandfather’s today. But with your father gone now, I don’t know how you’d ever find any records. I mean maybe Miss Pearl could tell you. She’s the only one left alive now who’d know. Anyway, the story is that somehow, something happened out there and Miss Pearl’s husband was killed.”

  Lu gripped her coffee in both hands but did not move otherwise.

  Dwight continued, “I think maybe right in front of her—in the camp. I guess your uncle—well, somehow he got her out of there and got her to the farm. At least, that’s the way I heard it. The baby she was carrying wasn’t due yet, but I guess with the shock and all…” He paused to let Lu absorb this news. “I guess she went into labor and had the baby with the help of your grandmother, Mayetta. And your grandfather and your daddy hid them out there in the old cabin for years.”

  “Oh, my God!” Lu whispered. “So, I don’t get it. Why didn’t I ever hear about this uncle? I mean, where is he?”

  “I don’t have an answer for that, Lu” Dwight said quietly. “I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I’d realized you didn’t know about it. Really.”

  Lu stared at him in disbelief. “Oh, my God,” she murmured. “I wonder if that’s why Miss Pearl’s son, Jerome, has always been, well, you know, learning disabled.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Oh, my goodness! Look who’s come to visit.” Miss Pearl held the door wide in welcome as soon as Lu and Susan came up the walk.

  Look who’s come to visit! Miss Pearl always said that to Lu when she was a child. She’d forgotten how that simple phrase made her feel like royalty.

  “And Susan has come, too! Oh, Jerome will be so pleased.”

  “I can’t believe my eyes!” Lu exclaimed, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “When I took that last turn in the road, I just didn’t believe it! You’ve got such a gorgeous yard, all these flowers and so many bird houses. Here you are in this shiny new mobile home. It’s all so beautiful! When did this happen?” she asked.

  “Well, a few years ago, after those nasty old hurricanes, Charley and Frances,” Miss Pearl explained. “They come through
here and dumped all that rain, and, well, that old house of mine had just about had it. So Jerome and me, we went shopping and found this! Isn’t it just fine? Jerome, he makes all those bird houses.” She pointed. “You know, just like your daddy showed him when he was just a little ol’ boy. Oh, Luella, we’re so happy here. Come in, come in and see.” Miss Pearl beamed as she led them inside.

  “Is Jerome here?” Lu was eager to see him.

  “No, not yet. He’ll be here any minute, though. He’s over at the truck patch loading up for the Farmer’s Market, but he’s coming back. He really wants to see you!”

  They hadn’t even had a chance to sit down when they heard Jerome’s truck pull in the drive. “Oh, well now, here he comes,” Miss Pearl said brightly. “Right on time. He’s always right on time!”

  Suddenly a chubby young beagle jumped up on the screen door barking raucously, its tail beating like a metronome gone out of control.

  Jerome could be heard scolding the dog, “Porkie, how many times I done tole you. Git down offen’ that door, now. Git down!”

  The door opened and the dog vaulted through with wild abandon. He ran first to Miss Pearl and made a quick attempt to jump up against her legs, then turned quickly and approached Lu and Susan, tail wagging an excited greeting.

  “Oh, you some guard dog, Porkie!” Miss Pearl announced. “Look here, Jerome, he done already made friends with Luella and her girl, Susan!”

  Jerome stood just inside the doorway. He was tall and lean with salt and pepper hair. He wore light brown work boots, dark jeans and a T-shirt. He held three fat red tomatoes in his hand which he held out to his mother. “Here’s them tomatoes you wanted fer lunch, Momma,” he said. She took the fruit from him and put it to her nose. “Oh, my, these smell so good.” She said. “Just smelling them makes me hungry.”

  Jerome removed his baseball cap which he then gripped self-consciously in front of himself.