by Jon Walter
I turn my head so he only sees my good side. ‘Whistling Dick came for me, Joshua. He came right for me and I forgot to duck, but I’m all right. I am, Joshua. I just don’t look too good.’
He crawls to me on all fours then reaches out to touch me. I don’t mind. I let him take his time and he holds my chin, turning my head to the left and the right till he’s searched every inch of my face. ‘It makes you look disappointed,’ he says finally.
That makes me smile. ‘I ain’t disappointed, Joshua. Not now I found you.’
He lets me hug him. After a moment he even hugs me back.
‘Does it hurt?’
‘Yeah, it hurts – though not as much as it used to.’
‘Hey!’ We turn around to find Gloucester has pulled himself up into a sitting position. The cut on the top of his head has puckered up like a pair of lips and a streak of blood runs around his neck like a noose. ‘You better untie me if you know what’s good for you. You keep me here like this and I’ll hang you myself when they catch you. I won’t even mind about losing the money.’
‘What are we going to do about him?’ Joshua asks me.
‘I don’t know.’ I put a hand on my brother’s shoulder once we’ve stood up. He’s grown a lot since I saw him last. ‘We better get out of here as quick as we can. We need to get back behind the Union lines. We should be safe then. I stole a good horse and I reckon it’s strong enough to take us both and still go quick.’
‘You stole a horse?’ Joshua laughs at me. ‘I don’t believe it!’
‘Why not?’
‘Samuel, you ain’t never done a thing wrong your entire whole life.’
‘I didn’t know what else to do. I’m gonna take it back.’
‘Thieves as well,’ says Gloucester, shaking his head. ‘I knew you two were no good. I knew it as soon as I saw you.’
Joshua bends down, takes the ten-dollar bill that is tucked into the rim of Gloucester’s bowler hat and puts it in his pocket. He looks at me sheepishly. ‘Well, I might as well, mightn’t I? If that’s what he thinks.’
‘HELP!’ Gloucester suddenly starts shouting out at the top of his voice. ‘Help me, someone! Thieves!’
‘Shut up!’ I snap.
‘Or what? If you had the guts to shoot me you’d have done it already.’ He turns around to face the road. ‘Help!’ he shouts out again and he struggles onto his feet.
A shot rings out and a bullet bites the ground, just an inch from Gloucester’s boot. Joshua has picked my gun up from the floor and he’s not scared to use it. ‘I ain’t as nice as my brother,’ he tells Gloucester. ‘Everybody says so. So you better do as he says or I’ll shoot you for real and be done with it.’
He points the gun at Gloucester’s chest as though the man has a heart. ‘Go get that horse, Samuel,’ he tells me with a grim face. ‘We better get out of here.’
I do as he says and when I return, Joshua has put the sack over Gloucester’s head and tied his hands to the back of his mule, same as he did to us.
I take a moment to apologize. ‘I’m sorry ’bout my brother, Mr Gloucester, but he’s been naughty since the day he was born, I swear he has. I’ve tried to teach him right from wrong, but I can’t do nothing with him.’
But I don’t set Gloucester free. I leave him where he is cos what goes around comes around. I’ve learned the lesson in that, and we leave him and his mule to wander blindly in among the trees as my brother and I ride away into the new day.
*
Joshua holds to me tightly, his arms around my waist as we make for the border. After a long while, he tugs at my shirt and puts his mouth to my ear. ‘I need to take a leak.’ I pull the horse to a stop in the lee of a large boulder and he wanders away to relieve himself.
‘You got a drink?’ he asks, when he comes back to the horse. I take Gloucester’s flask from the saddle and watch him swig it down. This Joshua is older than the brother I left behind, like he’s grown into himself without any help from me. And I don’t know how he did that. I always thought he needed me for everything.
‘Bet you’re surprised to see me, aren’t you?’ I ask him when he’s drunk enough. ‘I told you I’d come back for you. Didn’t I tell you? Bet you didn’t believe me, did you?’
‘You took your time.’
‘I know and I’m sorry. It took a whole lot longer than I thought it would.’
I tell him my story as best I can in a short time and he listens to me then says, ‘I thought it must be something like that had happened.’
I thought he’d be more impressed. ‘Didn’t you believe I’d been taken by the Devil?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe I did a bit, but I always had my doubts. We all did.’
‘And did you believe it was me that laid the turd?’
Joshua just shrugs.
‘Father Mosely was going to blame you. You know that, don’t you?’
Joshua nods like it’s no big thing. ‘We found out the truth when he came for Abel Whitley. We kept watch and saw what happened.’
‘How come Gloucester didn’t take you? You should’ve been the next one to go.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘But if you knew what was happening, why’d you stay? Why didn’t you tell someone?’
Joshua shrugs. ‘There weren’t no one interested. Anyway, I reckoned if I got took, I might end up in the same place as you and that wouldn’t be so bad. Not if we were there together. I wasn’t going to find you any other way that I could think of.’
It warms me up to know that Joshua had been waiting all this time to find me, just like I’d been waiting for him. I take hold of his hand and kneel. ‘I think we should pray to the Lord and thank him for everything He’s done.’
‘What for?’
‘Cos God just saved you, Joshua. He’s saved us both.’
But Joshua pulls his hand away. ‘You believe what you want, Samuel.’
He walks away from me, but I get up and go after him. ‘What if I told you that I prayed for you every day that I was away? I asked the Lord to keep you safe. I made a deal, to do good works in exchange for all the bad things I knew you’d be doing.’
But Joshua won’t look at me. ‘You didn’t need to.’ That’s all he says.
*
We head north, and by nightfall I’m sure that we must’ve crossed the border into Union territory. That gives me some comfort, and we stop to make camp. I have nothing to light a fire, and anyway, I wouldn’t want to risk it, so I tie the horse securely and lie down with Joshua at the back of a large boulder, hugging each other for warmth as the darkness comes upon us.
‘Do you know a place we can go?’ Joshua asks me just when I think he’s fallen asleep.
‘I’m going to take us to the Major. I’ve been thinking it through. He’ll help us, I’m sure he will, and even if he can’t look after us himself, he’ll know what we can do. He’s a good and righteous man, Joshua, and I’d like you to meet him.’
In the morning, Joshua convinces me that we shouldn’t return to Middle Creek with a stolen horse. ‘They won’t let you explain that you’re bringing it back, and it won’t matter anyway, cos you still stole it in the first place.’
I know he’s right.
We search out the road I travelled with Harry only a couple of days before and ride till we come to the outskirts of the camp where I spent so much time recovering from my injuries. I stop the horse to look upon it. ‘There it is, Joshua. Now all we got to do is find the Major.’
Joshua slides down from the horse. ‘Come on and get off the horse,’ he tells me. ‘If people see us riding it, they’ll ask all sorts of questions.’
I don’t know when he decided it was OK to boss me around, but I step out of the saddle and Joshua takes hold of the reins as we walk on down the road. The first army wagon we see, he calls out to the driver. ‘Hey, mister, we found one of your horses wandering on its own and bought it back for you.’
The soldier stops his wagon and looks at us
suspiciously. He can see it’s a good horse and he knows it ain’t ours. ‘Where’d you find him?’ he asks.
‘About three miles back down the road.’ Joshua points the way and smiles at him sweetly, his little cheeks breaking out in dimples. ‘You can take him in if you like. Say it was you who found it. All we want is a lift into camp so we don’t have to walk.’
The soldier thinks about it, then comes around the rear of the wagon, ties our horse to it and lets us ride into camp on top of the boxes he’s got stacked in the back. Joshua plays the cute little kid by sitting up straight and saluting every soldier that we pass. Once we’re inside the camp he thanks the driver then says to me, ‘Where’d you say this Major lives?’
I lead him through the tents towards the redbrick buildings, knowing that the Major’s barracks are out the back of ’em, and I hear Old George singing before I even see him. ‘Here we are now,’ I tell Joshua, all excited cos it feels like I’m coming home. ‘That’s Old George, that is. He sits outside the Major’s hut and sings. I don’t know why, but he does.’
‘Perhaps he likes it,’ says Joshua, eyeing Old George suspiciously.
‘Hi there, George.’ I wave to him like an old friend as we step up on the porch. ‘This here’s my brother, Joshua. We’ve come to see the Major.’ Old George looks up at me but he don’t say nothing. He just keeps on singing.
We go inside the barracks, but find the Major’s room locked. ‘What’ll we do now?’ asks Joshua.
I recognize the servant who had attended to my bedpan. ‘Do you know when the Major will be back?’ I ask him, feeling bad at not knowing his name.
The man acts like he hardly knows me. ‘He ain’t been seen. Not since the day before yesterday. They reckon he’s either dead or taken prisoner. Most likely he’s dead.’
The news makes my heart stop as the servant walks away.
Suddenly this place feels cold and unfriendly as we stand outside the locked door. ‘What are we going to do now?’ Joshua asks me.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Ain’t there anyone else you know?’
I shake my head.
The servant comes back along the corridor, carrying fresh bed linen to another room. ‘You can’t be standing around here,’ he tells us and he lifts his nose in the air as he pushes past. ‘The officers’ll be back soon.’ He shoos us back out onto the porch. ‘Go on and get away now.’
‘You got no right …’ I begin to tell him but Joshua takes hold of my arm. ‘C’mon.’ He pulls me away. ‘We oughta find some food before it gets dark.’
So we walk back into the camp. We go from tent to tent asking for food, but no one gives us a thing till we offer to pay. By then I’m glad of the money Joshua stole from Gloucester’s hat. It costs us fifty cents for a plate of pork and rice and that ain’t cheap. We eat our meal at the side of the path, and when I try to say grace, Joshua makes a point of telling me that it ain’t the Lord who has provided for us, it’s him. ‘We need to be fending for ourselves,’ he tells me, and I take offence at that.
‘What do you think I’ve been doing all this time?’
‘I don’t know. I’m just saying, that’s all.’
It begins to rain as the darkness draws in and that don’t improve our tempers. The only shelter we find is a row of wagons parked up close to each other, near to where they keep the horses in a pen. Joshua spots a guard hunched under a tree, but we come around his blind side so he don’t see us crawling in beneath the big wheels, all dripping wet and silent. Sleeping under wagons ain’t exactly a bed of roses, but it’s the best we can do till morning.
Joshua leans against me like a rock, all hard and grumpy. It feels a long time ago since we were thrilled at finding each other. You’d think that sort of happiness would last a little while but it seems it don’t, not if you’re cold and uncomfortable.
Still, I feel bad about letting him down. ‘It ain’t much, is it?’ I whisper.
After a moment he says, ‘Could be worse.’
I take off my jacket and put it around his shoulders. ‘If you put this on properly, it’ll keep you warm.’
‘What about you?’
‘I’ll be all right.’
Joshua slips his arms inside the jacket and he feels a lot softer when he leans back against me. ‘I did try to be good when you were gone,’ he tells me.
‘How do you mean?’
‘I did my math. I tried harder with some of the other subjects too.’
‘I’m glad,’ Perhaps that’s what saved him the other times that Gloucester came to call. Perhaps it weren’t me at all. ‘Tomorrow we got to figure out what to do. There’s a place where you line up if you want to work. You got to be there first thing in the morning if you want to get chosen.’
‘OK.’
I don’t offer up a prayer for my brother as we go to sleep with the rain hitting the wagon just above our heads and dripping down through the gaps in the boards.
But I pray for the Major, hoping he’s still alive. Perhaps he’s been luckier than the servant said. Perhaps he’s been rescued by someone who’ll be as kind to him as he was to me. I sure hope so. And if not, may the good Lord take pity on his soul.
Chapter 25
In the morning, we walk out along the path that divides the contrabands from the white folk in the camp and we join the men out looking for work.
After a while an officer arrives wanting men to lay a new section of rail track and he walks along the line, choosing those he wants to work for him. He touches the arm of a man three down from us, then chooses the man right next to me, but he doesn’t even glance at me or Joshua. I ain’t disheartened though. I figure it’s pretty hard work and he won’t want boys for it. Even though I’m strong enough, it ain’t the same for Joshua and I can understand that. So I don’t mind too much when the next fella does the same thing. Nor the one after that.
But then a chef arrives from the canteen and announces he’s after a couple of kids to run errands and do light chores. He’s paying a dollar a day plus food from the kitchen and we lean out of the line, hoping to catch his eye and make a good impression. I put my arm around Joshua’s shoulder, hoping he’ll be chosen with me, and we both give the chef a big smile as he arrives at us. ‘We got experience in a kitchen, sir. We can tell carrots from potatoes and we’ll chop ’em any way you like.’
The man moves quickly on to another boy further up the line and taps his arm. That boy don’t seem to have anything special about him, not that I can see, but he gets given the job all the same and we watch the two of ’em walk away towards the barracks.
‘Is it always this difficult?’ Joshua asks me.
‘It’ll be all right. We’ll get something.’
But we wait another hour and still have no luck. ‘Is that it then?’ I ask the old fella standing next to us.
‘I expect it is. There might be something if you don’t mind standing around half the day, but the work won’t be worth much. Better to try again tomorrow.’
I know the truth in that and we watch most of the men drift back to their tents, leaving only those of us who are too old, too young or too ugly to be given work. Eventually Joshua takes me to one side. ‘It might be better if I do this on my own tomorrow.’
‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘But you’re putting people off. That chef would have given me the work if it weren’t for your face. You know he would.’
‘That ain’t true.’
‘Yes, it is. I don’t mean to be hurtful, Samuel.’
‘Then don’t be.’
‘It’s better to be honest.’
‘Well, to be honest, you’re starting to get on my nerves. I would’ve got a labouring job if you weren’t so small. I used to get ’em all the time.’
Joshua glares at me. ‘Have it your own way.’
‘Come on.’ I take hold of his sleeve and walk him away, making for the edge of the camp where there are army stores and blacksmiths shoeing horses. Perhaps we can find
some work there instead. On the path we pass two ladies who are struggling to get through the mud with the buckets of water they’ve fetched from the well.
‘Let me help you with those,’ offers Joshua. All of a sudden he’s being helpful and sweet. One of the women – the one with her hair tied up in red cloth – she gives her bucket to my brother and she’s all smiles as she pats him on the head. ‘That’s very kind of you, young man.’
Her friend looks me up and down doubtfully. ‘You gonna offer too, or what?’
I take her bucket grudgingly and we follow them to their tent.
‘How come you ladies are doing such hard work?’ asks Joshua, trying to keep up with the heavy bucket. ‘Don’t you have boys of your own to do this?’
‘Ooh … he is smooth.’ They laugh together, speaking as though we can’t hear ’em. ‘Such a smooth tongue and still not old enough to have all his teeth. What do you think he wants?’
‘I can’t imagine,’ says the other. ‘But I’m sure we’re gonna find out.’
Joshua smiles sweetly at ’em. ‘I ain’t after much ladies, ’cept a bed for the night for me and my brother here.’ He’s holding the bucket away from his legs as he walks, trying not to spill a drop and I do the same thing, hoping they won’t notice my wet breeches.
‘Don’t you have any parents looking out for you?’
‘No, ma’am, we don’t. We mostly look out for ourselves.’
The ladies smile at him then look back at me with unease. ‘Your brother don’t say much. Has he got a tongue?’
‘Sure, he can talk,’ Joshua answers for me. ‘There ain’t nothing wrong with him ’cept for the way he looks, but I’m the clever one, so he keeps his mouth shut when I’m around.’ They laugh at that as well. Oh yes, they think it’s real funny. ‘He’s a hero though,’ Joshua tells ’em. ‘He was out fighting against the rebels and they tried to blow him to pieces. That’s how he came by his face, so I hope you won’t be holding it against him, cos we all of us owe him a lot. I know I do. If it weren’t for people like my brother, then none of us would be free.’