Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor Read Free Book Online Page B

to hide my fear, but it showed through.
    “Ah, Little Willie and Clarence, they just talking,” he scoffed with a hurried laugh.
    I stared at him suspiciously. “You sure?”
    “Don’t worry. Ain’t none of us goin’ nowhere.”
    But I did worry, and on the morning of the trial I found that all my fears had been justified. As Stacey, Christopher-John, Little Man, and I approached the second crossroads on the way to school, Moe and Clarence were waiting.
    “We got us a way in,” Clarence announced as soon as we were within earshot.
    Immediately I pounced on him. “A way into where?”
    Clarence, looking somewhat uneasy, hooked his arm into Stacey’s and stepped with him and Moe to the side of the road. Christopher-John, Little Man, and I stepped right behind them.
    “Aunt Callie Jackson’s sending Joe into Strawberry for somethin’ or ’nother.”
    Stacey looked up the road. “You ask him ’bout taking us?”
    “Yeah. He said okay.”
    “You tell him how come we wanna go?”
    Clarence shook his head. “Said we had some errands—we’ll tell him later. He waiting, so we’d better go.”
    “We’d!” I exclaimed. “Stacey ain’t goin’ nowheres!”
    Stacey ignored me. “Moe, you going?”
    Moe shrugged. “Like I said, you go, I’ll go.”
    “Stacey, you know you can’t go! Papa gonna wear you out, you go—”
    “Go where?” Little Man inquired.
    “Cassie, I don’t go, I most likely ain’t never gonna see T.J. again.”
    “Go where?” Little Man repeated.
    “Well, that ain’t no great loss!” I cried, too afraid for Stacey’s safety at the moment to concern myself with T.J.’sfuture. “You gettin’ into trouble ain’t gonna help him none.”
    “Look, Stacey, we gonna have to go, ’cause Joe ain’t likely to wait too long,” urged Clarence.
    “Where’s he waiting?”
    “Down past the school.”
    Stacey glanced down toward Great Faith. “What ’bout Little Willie? What’s he gonna do?”
    “Haven’t seen him yet,” admitted Clarence. “But he was talkin’ like he’d go if we found a way to get into town.”
    “It’s near eight o’clock already,” said Stacey. “We ain’t likely to get there now ’fore noon, and even if the trial’s still goin’ on, we ain’t gonna get back till after school’s out.”
    Moe nodded, acknowledging the precarious timetable. Stacey and Clarence looked at him and at each other, each aware of the fate which would be awaiting them upon their return. It was Stacey who made the decision. “All right, let’s get Little Willie.”
    “Where y’all going?” Little Man demanded once more.
    “They think they going to Strawberry,” I told him.
    Christopher-John’s eyes widened. “Strawberry! Stacey, you can’t go do that! Papa said—”
    “I know what Papa said, but this here is somethin’ I gotta do. I’ll get my whippin’ when I come back, but I’m gonna have to go—done made up my mind to that.”
    “Well, you just better unmake it,” I advised.
    Stacey glared at me, but with no time to argue the point started down the road toward school between Moe and Clarence. As Christopher-John, Little Man, and I ran along behind them, I pleaded with Stacey, cajoled him, and threatened him with every dire consequence I could think of, but none of my talk changed his mind. When we reached Great Faith, he stopped.
    “Now, y’all gonna have to let me do this my way. Whenschool’s out, y’all go on home and tell Papa what I done—”
    “What!”
    “Tell him what I done so’s y’all won’t get into trouble. I’ll be all right.” And with that, he walked up the lawn with Moe and Clarence in search of Little Willie. Christopher-John, Little Man, and I watched him go.
    “Cassie, Stacey, he gonna be all right?” worried Christopher-John. “I don’t like him goin’ all the way to that place by hisself.”
    “Me neither,” admitted Little Man.
    I made no comment as I watched Stacey, already nearing the middle-grades