Annie swings the door open, “I assure you, sir. Josephine is no white. She was one of my slaves. She’s fair but she has black blood in her.”
“Is that right?” Colonel say, smiling.
Snooper shakes his head, no, ’cause he’s sure of what he saw.
“George also said that you wouldn’t let your property go easily. Now, Missus Graham. . I’m getting different stories here. When something doesn’t make sense to me, I’m uncomfortable.”
“Are you accusing me, Colonel?”
Colonel leans against the doorway, crosses his legs as he does, staring at her like he’s reading her. Finally, he tips his hat and smiles, “No, no I don’t believe I am.”
He backs away from the door. “Just be careful, ma’am. Until we find him.”
“I’ll be diligent,” she say.
Colonel nods to Snooper and Snooper charges the door, bursts it open, knocking Annie to the ground. She screams. Jackson’s gone but his rifle remains. Snooper runs up her staircase, clearing five steps at a time, opens the first door.
Jackson leaps out of the library window and almost falls on top of Fatty. Jackson plows his fist into Fatty’s jaw and his body slams straight to the ground.
Skinny turns the corner from the back of the house and when Jackson sees him, he takes off running to the field out front, crashing through the rosebushes. Skinny chases but he’s far too slow. Colonel rushes out from inside Annie’s house just as Skinny makes it to the base of the porch.
Skinny pulls out his pistol and gets down on one knee. He fumbles with it before aiming it in Jackson’s direction — four hundred yards out.
Colonel yells, “No!” from the porch and comes running down the steps to his horse. He unlatches his rifle from it, raises it, tracks Jackson — five hundred yards.
But faster than I can get to him, Colonel fires.
Jackson falls.
He drags himself along the ground, holding his leg.
“Damn!” Colonel say, and drops his rifle. He snatches Skinny’s pistol and starts out to the field.
Annie jams her rifle in the back of Colonel’s head. “Put it down!” she say.
Colonel don’t move.
He drops his weapon and turns around as Annie takes two steps back when she see Snooper is in her doorway. She corrals Snooper and Skinny and Colonel, pointing her rifle between the men. She say, “Nobody’ll get broken up today for the color of their skin.”
Colonel holds up his hands like he surrenders. “Easy. Easy now, Annie.”
“You move, I swear I’ll kill you!”
Annie’s rifle fires into the air as it’s yanked back. Fatty is behind her with his hand under the muzzle. He rips it from her grip and puts her hands behind her back.
“Um hm,” Colonel say, smug. And picks up his pistol again. He walks out to Jackson, stands over him and aims.
He lowers his pistol.
A man on horseback, a stranger, is no further than fifty feet from us. His weapon is pointed at Colonel.
He trots his horse toward him. When the man gets close, Colonel’s harsh expression cools. He arches his back straight and salutes. Fatty let go of Annie and salutes the man, too. Then, Snooper. All this for a man with no uniform. The brass medallion pinned to his knapsack reads, “Robert L. Smith.”
“General Smith,” Colonel say, hurriedly and proud.
“At ease,” General say.
At once, I know him. Know his voice. He’s been here before.
“You saved my life,” Colonel say to General Bobby Lee Smith. “Sixty men or more still thank you for what you did. These men were there, too. All of us owe you our lives.”
“All of us were ready to die for this great nation,” Bobby Lee say. “Lives marked with courage and bravery. We’re all owed respect.”
“I’ll never forget a hero,” Colonel say. “Or his story. . how we were all in retreat. But not you. You charged over enemy rifle pits and through the lines of a whole regiment under heavy fire.”
“A long time ago,” Bobby Lee say.
“Killed as many bluebellies as you wounded. God was with you.”
Bobby Lee nods a little. Weary, he say, “There’s a small army a day’s journey behind me. My cousin, Ray, and his men are even closer. There’s a good sum offered for you and your men on account of the marauding y’all did in Virginia. The peaceful end is to turn yourselves in now. Give folks who still believe in you a chance to call you heroes, too.”
“And this man?” Skinny say, flicking his pistol at Jackson.
“Way I see it,” Bobby Lee say. “Y’all need to make yourselves square in Virginia. Let the rest be damned.”
“He was laying up with a white woman!” Skinny yell but Colonel hold up his hand and Skinny stops talking.
“We’re done here,” Colonel say. He nods to Fatty to step away from Annie. She rushes out to the field where the men and Jackson are, kneels beside him, tending to him.
“Whatever y’all decide,” Bobby Lee say. “You can go or be the heroes you’re meant to be.”
“We’ll consider the offer,” Colonel say, and he and his men take to their horses. Bobby Lee stays where he is, watching ’em go. Then he turns to Annie.
“Don’t I know you, soldier?” she ask him.
48 / THE RIGOR
JOSEY IS DEATH as she walks. Rigamortis has set into her expression — eyes sunken, mouth seized open, skin frozen to cooled wax, sooted gray. “Rachel!” she screams from the top of the hill. She’s heard the gunshots coming from Annie’s house and the fear of it has quickened all around her.
She’s carrying Squiggy on her hip and managed her way back to the path. But she ain’t all right. She’s breathing now like she’s winded, staggering back and forth across the width of the path. She stops at the tree lines on both sides as if it were a wall of stone and bats at their branches but won’t go in. Tears slide down her face. “Rachel!” Her voice is ragged and empty.
She takes another step up the path where a hollowed log is side-lying making a barrier between her and trees — protection — but to the side of it, hidden, the ground seems changed from never walked on to recently worn. The drag marks there capture Josey’s attention because above them, in the bushes, there’s a near-perfect straight line of color — the yellow-green insides of freshly torn leaves.
When Josey gets closer, she sees a whole splotch of bright color where the bushes have splayed open and re-closed. The broken limbs are man-sized. Josey reaches a shaky hand out to the space and pushes. A path from here to as far as we can see is lined with deep drag marks. A torn blue corner of Rachel’s dress is caught on a branch like a grasshopper’s flag. Josey falls to her knees and Squiggy tumbles out her arms. Her shallow breaths spread the color from her face. A whistle sound shocks her exhales. Her breath is so weak, almost missing. But still, she calls, “Rachel. .” I ain’t never seen her like this before. Not this bad, this afraid.
From her knees, she slouches to the ground, laid on her side now, her breaths screeching.
She’s giving up.
I know she is.
I call her name, Josey! Who knows better than me the fear that comes with losing a child? She thinks that Jackson is gone, or worse. Rachel, too.
Her face stops me cold. Her doll eyes are back. Flat and unblinking.
I can help her.
I choose to ignite myself. If I only go inside her part way, maybe I can touch her quickly, help her, then move on out. Won’t be as bad as Bessie said. I can be quick.
I throw my hand inside her. I’m swallowed up to my arm, a burning coal — heated black, hotter. . red-orange. A searing pain chars my left side like graying ash and that layer of me crumbles away. Gone forever. Josey’s eyes start to blink again. Her breathing becomes more clear as air finds her lungs. And in that moment, Squiggy ambles over and holds her hand gentle.