Together is All We Need

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Together is All We Need Page 23

by Michael Phillips


  ‘‘I don’t like Mr. Sneed,’’ said Katie.

  ‘‘He’s a lawyer,’’ said my papa. ‘‘That’s all that matters. He can draw up legal documents whether we like him or not. But we could go see another lawyer in Charlotte or anywhere else if you want.’’

  ‘‘I don’t care, Uncle Templeton. I just don’t like him, that’s all. But you can talk to him if you want.’’

  Finally it was my turn to say something.

  ‘‘But . . . you can’t really mean . . . me too?’’ I said. ‘‘I’m colored. You can’t put my name on a deed.’’

  ‘‘You’re my daughter, Mary Ann,’’ said my papa. ‘‘You may not be quite as related to Rosalind as we three. But you’ve still got half Daniels blood in your veins, and that makes you kin.’’

  ‘‘She could have a smaller share, Templeton,’’ said Uncle Ward, ‘‘if she wanted.’’

  ‘‘No,’’ said Katie. ‘‘I won’t let you add my name to the deed unless Mayme’s share is equal to mine.’’

  ‘‘My sentiments precisely!’’ added my papa.

  ‘‘Fine by me,’’ said Uncle Ward. ‘‘So it’ll be just like I said at first—all four of us, equal partners.’’

  ‘‘But we’re women, Uncle Templeton,’’ said Katie. ‘‘And we’re not old enough to own things, are we?’’

  ‘‘Mary Ann’s eighteen. You’ll be eighteen next year. And I don’t care if you are women or how old you are or what color anyone is—we’ll tell him whose names go on it and that’s that.’’

  He glanced around at the rest of us with such a look of finality and authority that there wasn’t much else for anyone to say.

  ‘‘Good, it’s settled, then!’’ said my papa. ‘‘Ward, what do you say that you and I go see Sneed tomorrow and set it in motion.’’

  And that’s how a former slave girl—me!—who left her home without anything to her name and not a penny in her pocket, got to be a one-fourth owner of a big plantation in Shenandoah County, North Carolina, called Rosewood, where she lived with her white cousin, her uncle, and her papa.

  Just as we were getting through, a gentle knock sounded on the parlor door. Katie got up to answer it. There stood Emma.

  ‘‘I’m sorry ter disturb y’all, Miz Katie,’’ she said, ‘‘but Jeremiah’s outside. He’s ax’ed ef he kin call on Miz Mayme.’’

  ‘‘We’re all through here, aren’t we?’’ said my papa. ‘‘—Kathleen, was there anything else we needed to talk about?’’

  ‘‘No, Uncle Templeton . . . I’m done.’’

  ‘‘Then, go on, Mary Ann,’’ he said, throwing me a wink and smile. ‘‘You go ahead and visit your young man!’’

  A FAMILY . . . TOGETHER

  50

  THAT SAME NIGHT, AFTER EVERYONE HAD GONE TO bed, my papa wandered into Uncle Ward’s room. He hadn’t been planning to have a long conversation, so he didn’t close the door behind him. He sat down on the chair at the desk while Uncle Ward was sitting on the edge of the bed, and they began talking about all there was to do and everything Katie had said when we’d been talking earlier.

  ‘‘I don’t think this place needs a foreman as long as Kathleen’s around!’’ laughed Uncle Ward. ‘‘It’s a good thing we’re getting that deed changed. Truth be known, Templeton, you and I shouldn’t be on it at all. Kathleen’s the one who’s running this place, not you or me—she and Mary Ann, I ought to say, ’cause what Kathleen doesn’t know, Mary Ann does. They know about the money and crops and livestock and everything.’’

  I heard my papa chuckle lightly.

  They didn’t know it, but as they had been talking, the door to our room was a little ajar, and we could hear every word. We couldn’t help glowing inside from what they said about us. There’s nothing quite like hearing praise when the person saying it doesn’t know you’re listening.

  ‘‘When we were talking up in Ellicott City,’’ I heard Uncle Ward say, ‘‘—remember, we were saying how we needed to take care of Kathleen now, for Rosalind’s sake?’’

  My papa said something I couldn’t make out.

  ‘‘We were a couple of fools, Templeton!’’

  There was some more chuckling.

  ‘‘She didn’t need nobody to take care of her—it’s them who are taking care of us!’’

  I almost started laughing out loud when I heard that.

  ‘‘Yeah, those two are really something!’’ my papa said. ‘‘We’re a couple of pretty lucky guys, to have two girls like that.’’

  As we lay listening in our bed, I felt Katie’s hand take mine. We lay there a long time in silence after my papa and Uncle Ward stopped talking and went to bed. I knew she had overheard them talking like I had and felt the same happiness inside.

  As we lay there, hand in hand in the darkness, both of us felt totally at peace for the first time in years. Yes, more changes would come to Rosewood. Our troubles weren’t over—nor our joys. If someone had asked us right then, we’d have never been able to guess the many roads and adventures that still lay ahead of us.

  But for now, we were together. And for right then, it was enough.

  Finally Katie spoke up.

  ‘‘We did it, Mayme,’’ she finally said softly in the darkness. ‘‘We actually did it. We got Rosewood going again!’’

  ‘‘I guess we did at that,’’ I said. ‘‘I would never have believed we could . . . but I guess we did.’’

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