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

hint of wanting to escape from this white man’s world—I recognized it as the need to run away, to be free!
    â€œYou always gotta preach?” I asked him without turning his way.
    â€œI ain’t no real preacher,” he said softly.
    â€œSure sound like it,” I responded, but he didn’t hear, or perhaps he didn’t wish to respond. I looked from the scenery to John then back again. There seemed to be a bond between the souls of the trees and animals and his own soul. Something in my head wanted him to go, to leave this hill of mine. But some other part of me fought it. It felt right.
    â€œYou bin up here befo’?”
    He shook his head.
    â€œShoulda brought someone up here with ya,” I said matter-of-factly.
    His lips split in a subtle, soft smile. “An’ why’s that, Miss Sarah?”
    I shrugged. “Don’t seem right, you’se up here an’ its jus’ me.”
    â€œI like talkin’ to ‘jus’ you,’” he said, leaning back on his elbows and tracing the skyline as outlined by the trees with his finger. I let my resistance melt into the silence. We sat there for a long time, listening to heaven whistle in our ears.
    â€œYou eva sailed the wind befo’?” he asked me.
    I laughed, then replied, “Sail the wind? You mean, fly?”
    â€œSho’.”
    â€œCain’t no one fly, John. Only my ancestors could do that. They had big ole wings,” I said, sitting up and spreading my arms out. “They’d dark skin like mine, an’ determination like them birds up there!”
    He laughed, his eyes sparkling in the sunlight. “So you know ’bout flyin’.”
    I settled back down, a heavy thought having just run through my mind. I chose to entertain it.
    â€œNaw. If I knew ’bout flyin’, I’d’ve flown on back when they took me away. They stole me away from my home where the sunsets filled up the skies like you neva seen, away from a family I was born to, and ’cross oceans a thousand times bigga than these cotton fields, all the way here.”
    I didn’t know where the words came from or why Ichose to speak them to the man by my side. I didn’t talk of that faraway past to anyone but Mary, sometimes Daniel, and I pondered all these things as I felt John’s eyes rest on me. I felt his serene gaze absorb my words, my expressions, even my unspoken thoughts. He remained silent for a few minutes, until he finished weaving together whatever he needed to in his mind.
    â€œYou bin here a long time?”
    I nodded. “Bin here fo’ most my years. But … but when I come up here these days, to this hill”—I gestured to the sight before us—“when I come up here an’ see this, I get some kinda feelin’ deep in my bones, like I’m rememberin’ it all, John, like … like I could step back into that yestaday so easily.” I stared out into the sunlight, watching the wind pick up fallen, misplaced leaves and stray seeds and other pieces of nature that longed to find their way back home. They never made it far.
    I dug my fingernails into the skin on my arms and turned back to John.
    â€œBut the fact is, it ain’t that easy. So I leave all those thoughts ’bout where I come from alone most times. It was like anotha life.”
    John nodded. “You rememba much?”
    â€œNot much—I was real little. But some things—strange things—like names; I rememba names betta than I rememba faces! How you reckon that?”
    John shook his head. “I dunno. What names you rememba?”
    I looked at him with a small smile, feeling very muchat ease. “There was … I rememba a little boy—reckon he was kin to me, my brother. When I see him in my mind, the name Sentwaki jus’ jumps into my head.”
    John repeated the name. “Reckon I see why you rememba it. That ain’t a name you