Mosana - Part XVII

EPISODE 17

I imagined that the first part of my escape plan was to figure out where to escape to. It would be no use running away if I had nowhere to go. I had heard about slavery abolitionists, blacks and whites alike who helped hide runaway slaves. A massive, inside network of people, houses and resources all across the slave states, hiding and transporting a fleeing slave to any free state of the slave’s choice. They called it the Underground Railroad. All you had to do was get to one safe house. Just one. Mind you, it wasn’t a physical railroad, just a codename for the network.

And I planned to escape all the way to Canada.

Flint and I talked about the railroad all the time. We wished we could get somewhere and find help to escape. Maybe even leave the country. But we weren’t allowed out of the Manor for anything. The day you were sold into the Manor was the last time you saw outside the gates. We weren’t sent on errands. Master Wells ran the errands with the coachman, Jerome. And when they went into town, they brought in the newspaper. There was one every week.

The newspaper was our only source of information, and the Russells knew this. Although most of us couldn’t read, that didn’t stop the Russells from keeping the papers away from us. They knew there were a few of us; very few, that could read, and didn’t trust those few not to teach the others. Some of the slaves had been taught by the children of their former slave owners, others had watched through the windows while the children of their slave owners were homeschooled. Either way, there were four of us that I knew could read. There was me, a huge boy named Manny, Harvey, the young’un that went without his meal for three days, and Tina. I had noticed them looking at words before and knew they understood what they had been looking at. I caught Tina one night reading a long letter. She got scared and confessed to me that it was a letter her mum had given her before they were separated. It was the only thing she had to read. I told her I wasn’t going to tell anyone; it didn’t bother me that she could read.

And so ever since the white abolitionists sprang up and joined the blacks in their support for freedom, the Russells allowed us no means to access information. I assumed that they didn’t want the support on the outside to get into our heads and foster any form of rebellion. It annoyed them already that it wasn’t just blacks against whites anymore; their own people were seeing the light. We now had “white” support.

So instead of the Russells to throw away old and read newspapers, they burnt them in the fireplace. Master Wells had a different approach though. He stored his. I noticed them one day when he summoned me to his room. The old newspapers were stored along with his books in his mini library at the far end of the wall. I knew I had to get my hands on one of those papers. But I couldn’t rush anything; I had to bid my time. I knew I had to avoid getting caught.

Next on my plan was support. I wasn’t the only servant in the house. And I didn’t even serve Master Wells directly. Gabe’s sister, Ari, served him. So to reach Master Wells, I needed Gabe on my side. Gabe, not Ari (short for Aretha), because Ari was only an eleven year old girl and I didn’t want a child in on this. I would need Gabe to manage his sister. Which meant I needed to intimate him of my plans. I didn’t think this would be hard, because if there was anyone who hated Master Wells with a hatred so passionate, it was Gabe. Years of suffering at his hands had deepened Gabe’s intolerance and resentment for Master Wells, who epitomised all that Gabe hated about slavery. It wouldn’t be hard to convince Gabe of what I wanted to do. Although I didn’t want to involve anybody else, I realised I couldn’t do this on my own. Gabe was a loose cannon, but I would have to work with him.

I also needed Tricia’s help. That was the hard part.

I went to her while she was making broth for the slaves.

‘I need your help, Tricia,’ I said without wasting time. ‘I need to know how much pokeweed to put in Master Wells soup.’ I didn’t want to kill him.

Yet.

‘I told you, I don’t wanna be involved in all that. And I thought you said you didn’t need me. Besides, how you gon’ get to Wells anyway?’

‘I have my way around that, don’t worry. I just need to know how much to put so I don’t kill the bastard before I’m ready to.’

Tricia turned to me. ‘Mosana, listen to me. God don’t approve of all this. It ain’t the right way to do this. Just let Him-’

‘If I put too much pokeweed in and kill him, it’s on you.’ I interrupted her. ‘So I think you’d better tell me what’s sufficient to make him shit for a week and what could stop his heart outright.’

I looked Tricia straight in the eyes and knew I had won.

‘Just three pinches in one bowl of soup should do it. Any more would kill him,’ Tricia said in a low voice.

‘Thank you. This never happened.’

I walked away from her and went to get Gabe. I got down with him as he worked shovelling hay into the barrow for the animals. This was in case someone stumbled on us. We could always pretend that we were just working. It would only look suspicious if as soon as somebody walked in, I shut my mouth and just stood idly nearby. So I had to join him in his work.

Slowly, step by step, I told him of what I planned to do, and in return for his help, we would escape together out of there. At first Gabe was shocked at the details of my plan, but he quickly got over his shock and adjusted. I guessed none of them had ever thought of escaping before. At least not to the level I had thought of it. I was actually executing a plan to be free of the Russells.

I warned him about getting caught and begged him to be extra careful. He assured me that he would. I was going over my plans with him again, just to make sure he had everything straight, when we heard the words, ‘I wanna help.’

I almost whipped my head right off my neck trying to see who it was that had snuck up on us so quietly.

‘Judy?’ I was surprised as well as relieved.

I didn’t know what to say to her. I looked at Gabe, but he was clueless too. She didn’t offer up much anyway; she just stood there, looking at the two of us. I found my tongue at last and asked her, ‘What did you hear?’

‘Everything,’ she said.

That shut me up again. She had been there all along? How had I not noticed? This was not the way to execute this plan. I needed to be extremely careful and alert. What if it had been Master Wells that had walked in?

‘I wanna help. Let me help,’ she said again.

‘Judy,’ I began. ‘This is sensitive, and could be dangerous. I don’t think-’

‘They took my family. I want my hands in their blood too. Let me help.’

I didn’t think I had ever heard Judy sound so forceful and bold. In fact, as I thought about it, I had never heard her at all. This was the first time I was hearing words come out of her mouth.

‘Okay, okay. You’re in. But you will have to do exactly as I say. And right now, I have no task for you. You’ll have to wait till I have something you can do. Gabe has the first assignment. So we’re going to let him do that, and see how it goes, okay?’

‘Okay.’ And without saying anything else, she left the barn.

‘Whoa,’ was all Gabe could say.

‘Whoa’ indeed.

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Hey you!

Don't eat me alive! I know nothing happened in this chapter, but if you could just hang on by your teeth till next Sunday, I promise to make it up to you. Cross my heart. Now stop whining. That's why I kept it short so you didn't have to suffer for long. Just hold on till Sunday.

And I'm sorry this came late. My offences keep piling up. Listen to your pastor and forgive me, kay?

And about Judy... 

Who woulda thunk she could sneak up on anybody? I guess everyone was used to her being in the backgrounds so much, she just kinda grew into the shadows. So I think that's why even Mosana, with her sharp hearing, didn't notice her when she walked in on them.

Another theory I have is that Judy's ancestors were spies, and she inherited their light feet, lol ;D

Till Sunday, loves,

xoxo,

Ava.