Good Fortune (9781416998631) by Noni Carter Read Free Book Online

sounds good, real good. But how?
    â€œWell all right then, mister,” I said with a nod his way. He responded with a loud remark.
    â€œLooks to me like we got ourselves one smart gal round here! Take folks fo’eva to understand some’ve these things.”John winked at me but turned before I could say anything about it, walking off in another direction and whistling a tune I couldn’t recognize. I could only imagine the words that went with it. A smile crept up on my face, though I refused to let it stretch too wide.
    I didn’t notice Daniel’s smirk until he remarked, “He’s only five or six years older’n you, Sarah.” I shook my head and tried to wipe the smile away.
    â€œAin’t interested in nobody. Got otha things on my mind,” I said with a firm nod toward my brother.
    â€œLike what?” he asked, still smiling.
    In my mind, images of books, schoolhouses, stacked words, and ink scratched onto paper ran wild through my mind, but there I bid them stay. Instead I replied, “You talkin’ ’bout me, but you ain’t heard me say nothin’ ’bout you an’ that Birdie.” I glanced over at him. He was rubbing the small stubs of hair on his chin with his fingers, looking as if a secret had been exposed. Birdie was a laundress owned by a city slave owner not far from the plantation. Daniel sneaked visits to her when he traveled with Masta around her way. I had never met the woman.
    â€œAin’t nothin’ to say,” he said unconvincingly.
    â€œYou got nothin’ to say? Nothin’ at all?” I asked. “I should tell her that.”
    He simply laughed, but after a while, he said, “She a good woman, Sarah.”
    â€œI s’pose,” I commented, keeping my eyes set in front of me.
    â€œWhat’s that s’pose to mean.”
    â€œYou don’t fool me. She ain’t the only one got yo’ attention,” I replied.
    He sighed, his eyes bouncing back and forth between the work in his hands and my face. “Now, you know that ain’t the truth. I kinda like her,” he said, his face darkening a bit. “An’ Mama like her, anyway,” he said after a short while, with an edge of persuasion in his voice.
    â€œShe doesn’t know her,” I said simply.
    â€œHeard enuf ’bout her to figure,” he replied.
    â€œWell,” I said, shrugging, trying to beat back the hints of a smile at the corners of my mouth, “sounds to me you’se softenin’ up!”
    Daniel chuckled. “You ain’t got no decency at all,” he replied, throwing his arm over my shoulder.

CHAPTER
 7 
    O UR DAYS BEGAN TO STRETCH ON LONGER AS THE WEEKS marched past midsummer. Throughout the Big House, and in the fields, much of the tension lessened as the peak seasons for fieldwork died down. There was plenty of work to do, however, and Missus gave me ceaseless tasks to carry out for the children. I was their nanny, their sitter, and their transportation. Despite blaming me for their misconduct and sly games, Missus had softened a considerable amount since I had received the whipping, quite confident I was permanently put in my place. I saw my work as an opportunity; dividing my concentration between keeping order and educating myself, I raked their conversations clean for anything new I could learn.
    Sometimes on Sunday mornings, or mornings when Missus took the children to the city, I stole away to places on or near the plantation that I had found when I was younger. When I went to church, it became habit to search for John, under lowered foolish eyelids. He made it a point, over the weeks, to slip by Daniel’s side on some of those mornings, unannounced. He came and went like the tide; some weeks he wouldn’t be there, some weeks he would,and after a while, Daniel left us alone. When I talked with him on those days after church, it felt like I was digging inside of