The Land(113)

“And you certainly will pay a penalty if you default on this agreement. I’ve given you the lower price on this land because I admire what you’re trying to do. Not many men, black or white, would have taken on what you’ve already done, or been so persistent in what you want to do. I admire that too. I believe in giving people with your kind of motivation a chance. But you’ll pay hard if you’ve been wasting my time. I’ll treat all the money you’ve paid me as earnest money, and if you default, you’ll lose it. I figure that’s fair, seeing I should be selling that land at fifteen dollars an acre to begin with, not ten. If you keep your bargain with me, I’ll take the loss. If you don’t, you’ll take it. That means you won’t get back one cent. Now, can you live with those terms?”

They were some hard terms, all right, and I should have walked away, I know, but J. T. Hollenbeck’s land was the land I wanted, and if I didn’t agree to his terms, I wouldn’t have a chance of getting it. Agreeing to his terms, though, meant I could lose all my savings. Still, I knew that J. T. Hollenbeck was giving me a chance. I also knew that most white men would not have given me such a chance, would not even have talked to me about my buying such a piece of land. It was a bad deal for the person who didn’t figure to have the balance of the money. But it was a great deal for the person who figured to have it.

I figured to have it.

So I made the gamble. I accepted his terms and forced myself to keep from shouting my joy. When I’d been doing my figuring, I’d figured high and I’d figured low. I had made my low offer to J. T. Hollenbeck so that I could have some bargaining room. I had savings enough for Hollenbeck’s eight hundred fifty dollars in down payment. I had enough money too for some of the monthly payments. What I didn’t have, I figured I could get. I wasn’t worried about the final thousand dollars. I had the forty and I had Thunder. By the time the seven months were up, I would have orders for Luke Sawyer finished and a crop as well. I might even end up with some money left over. “I can handle it,” I told J. T. Hollenbeck.

J. T. Hollenbeck walked back up the veranda. “Good,” he said. “I’ll need to have your eight hundred fifty down before the end of the week.”

I felt the calfskin in my pocket. “If we can do the written work, I can pay it now,” I said. “I’ve got a blank draft that can be drawn on a bank in New Orleans.”

J. T. Hollenbeck smiled. “New Orleans money is as good as anybody else’s. Come on in and we’ll write up the papers.”





I was jubilant. My head was up there right in the clouds as I headed back toward the forty. Every now and again I laughed, and I even sang, as I rode along on the mule, just thinking on the reality that the land was now going to be mine. There was part of me that couldn’t believe it, that I was going to have land just as grand as my daddy’s. It didn’t matter that the acreage was much less; it was the land I wanted. There was part of me too that wanted to let my daddy know I was going to have this land as grand as his, and I was going to get it for myself, without him. When I thought on that, though, when I thought on my daddy and on my brothers, I felt a sadness, but I refused to let thinking on them spoil my joy. I could hardly wait to get to the forty to tell Mitchell and Caroline the news. I raced that mule the last three miles toward home. I raced him as if I were atop Thunder.

Before I reached the cabin, I saw Nathan running toward me. I figured he was eager to hear my news about the land, and I waved happily to him in recognition. I was grinning wide by the time he neared, but when I saw his face clearly, I knew something was wrong. As always on a workday, dust caked Nathan’s face, but today tears had streaked that dust. I leaned forward. “What is it?”

“Mitchell!” he sobbed. “He bad hurt, Paul!”

“What happened?”

“Somebody done shot him in the back, jus’ as a tree was ’bout t’ fall! Tree done fell on Mitchell and he all broke up inside and bleedin’! We don’t think he gonna make it!”

“Where is he?”

“Up at the place.”

I grabbed Nathan’s arm and he swung up behind me. I spurred the mule into a gallop once more. Before the mule was fully stopped at the front of the cabin, I leaped down and raced to the door. Tom Bee sat on the stoop, his head back against the logs. He’d been crying too. He looked at me but said nothing. I flung the door open, then just stood there. Mitchell lay unmoving on the bed, and everything seemed to be in blood. Caroline and an elderly woman called Ma Jones sat beside him. Seeing me, Caroline got up. She saw in my eyes my question, and she answered it. “He been waitin’ on you.” She added nothing more, just walked past me and out the door. Ma Jones followed her.