The black swan by Day Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

was accustomed, one small piece at a time.

    Changing wouldn't be easy for Tom. He had never been poor. He wasn't poor now, but he was learning to live as though he were, and he was learning to hve with the continuous threat of reprisal.
    There was nothing she could do to help him. Even in the simple things there was a barrier that Tom could cross only by coming to know life as Ullah had always known it. The house on the bayou would never be like the one in New Orleans. It would never hum with the activity of slaves or sing with the gaiety of visitors' revelry. It would never be adorned with the elegance of respectability. The wind would always come through the chinking in the walls and make him cold at night. In the morning there would be no one but him and the dictates of the swamp.
    Tom was going to -be a mighty lonely man. He would be tending to things he didn't understand when he'd rather be out riding one of the fine horses he'd no longer own or in New Orleans gambling and chatting with friends he'd no longer have. Ullah sometimes wondered why he had done it He could have had her in any way he wanted. There were laws about concubinage, she knew, but no one paid much attention to those.
    But to marriage there was a lot of attention paid. Two equal people married. Anything different gave people, black and white, ideas. He didn't have to marry her, but he had done it. She wondered if it might not have been better for them both if he hadn't. Not understanding him, she left him alone when he struck up against something from his past that would no longer fit into his future and let him find the answers for himself.
    In silence Tom drove to the house on the bayou, struggling to understand how a leisurely carefree life had overnight turned into days filled with problems. Only Ullah and Angela made it worthwhile.
    He glanced over at Ullah, her face, as always, a picture of sweet patience, and knew his irritation was wrong. He was balancing the value of things against the worth of this woman. Slowly, Ullah was changing his entire outlook on the things he had regarded as true, changing his thoughts and his desires.
    As soon as he had finished unloading the wagon, he began to cheer up. The furniture filled the small rooms, making them seem complete and homey. "It looks nice, Ullah."
    "When you gwuie start lis'nin' to me, Tom, when Ah

    tells you we doan need mos' o' this stuff?" She smiled and kissed him before she moved away to fix his lunch.
    He watched her thoughtfully. "When you think about it, most people don't know what it is to live like I have. An' they get along just fine."
    Ullah laughed, placing his food before him, "Got yo'seff convinced?"
    "Just about." He grinned.
    "Mebbe some li'l ol' mosquito hawk, he fin' his way into this house and bring us good luck." She looked wistfully through the open windows at the dragonflies skimming low over the water.
    Tom laughed, amused and tolerant of the numerous superstitions she lived by. He stretched lazily, not wanting to leave her. "I expect I'd better git. Those old cypresses just keep on a-waitin'."
    Ullah kissed him and watched as he went to the wagon. It wouldn't do her a bit of good to imagine what-all he might do to himself before he learned to use his new tools.
    Slowly she began to think of other things, and the boy they had met the night before came into her mind. It surprised her a little. But there was a steady memory of those bright, defiant blue eyes that bespoke more hurt and loneliness than rebellion.
    She arranged the parlor and stood back to admire it Smiling, she glanced toward the open door.
    Her hand fluttered to her breast as she gave a little cry of fright. It was almost as if she were a conjur-woman fetching him up by the power of her thoughts. "What you doin' here, Adam? You done give me a start."
    He was tense and ill at ease. "I'm sorry," he said.
    "No time for sorry now. You gwine stan' there, or you comin' in?"
    Adam glanced about, then entered. Ullah