Carried Forward By Hope by Ginny Dye Read Free Book Online Page B

every way possible to keep us in our place. They’ll do whatever it takes,” he finished grimly.
    “You paint an ugly picture,” Jeremy said, protest in his eyes.
    Moses eyed him sympathetically. “You said you wanted to know.” He paused. “It doesn’t have to be that way for you though.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “There’s only a few people who know who you really are.” Moses took a deep breath. “It can stay that way. You can keep living your life as a white man.”
    Jeremy stared at him hard and managed a tight smile. “I hate that I have to admit I’ve thought about it.”
    “And…?”
    “No.”
    “Why not? It would make things so much easier for you,” Moses insisted. “It doesn’t mean you have to give up your relationship with Rose.”
    “Have you talked with Rose about this?” Jeremy asked suddenly.
    Moses nodded. “She knows what I know. She loves you too much to want you to be hurt.”
    Jeremy nodded and smiled again, a genuine smile that lit his face. “I know.” He looked out over the street and watched a carriage roll by with an elegantly dressed woman who smiled up at him until she saw Moses. Her smile vanished and became an angry look of disdain — obvious anger at the impertinence of a black man sitting in the presence of a white man on a front porch in a white neighborhood. She averted her eyes quickly.
    Jeremy merely stared at her and turned back to Moses. “There has been too much hiding. Too much deception.” He drew a deep breath. “My father hid the truth for all my life. My mother hid the truth. The Cromwells hid the truth. The trouble is that the truth has a way of always coming out.”
    He reached over, plucked a leaf from the magnolia tree, and twirled it between his fingers. “What would happen if I chose to live as a white man?” he asked. “I would have to deny who Rose is to me. I won’t do it. I also know that even if I marry a white woman, I have the chance of fathering a black baby. It would be totally unfair to hide that from someone I love.”
    He tossed the leaf over the railing and watched as it settled onto the grass. “I will not be the cause of more deception. I am who I am. I am the son of a wonderful black slave named Sarah and a careless, arrogant slave owner who only viewed her as property. I have a remarkable twin who has beautiful, ebony skin. I am the half-brother of a man I have tremendous respect for and the uncle of one of the finest women I know. I would never deny my connection to Carrie. I am also the son of two wonderful adoptive parents who loved me and who also loved the black people they served. I will not hide behind white skin and blue eyes. I don’t know exactly what all of it will mean, but I will live it as it comes.”
    “You’ve thought about it more than you admitted,” Moses said after a long silence.
    Jeremy just shrugged and smiled. “I’m also rather fond of my brother-in-law and nephew. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”
    John chose that moment to wake up. He reached up and patted Moses’s face. “Hi, Daddy,” he said sleepily. He looked around and spotted Jeremy. “Hi, Jer’me!” he said brightly, holding out his arms.
    Jeremy grinned and scooped him over to sit on his lap. “Hello there, nephew. Want to go play in the backyard until dinner?”
    John nodded happily. “Play!”
    Jeremy winked at Moses as he set John on the ground and rose to take his hand. “At least I have a little while before I have to try and explain it to him.” He laughed and swung John down from the porch in a giant arc that sent the little boy into spasms of giggles.
    *******
     
    Carrie and Janie worked until long after dinner. They treated bloody wounds, set broken arms and legs, and dispensed food to starving soldiers. After four years of war, they could do it almost without thinking. It was the questions that were the most difficult. How did one answer questions that simply had no answers? Certainly ones she couldn’t