I turned as if in a sleep. “What?”
“Yeah. Thunder, that there fine horse, he lying dead in the pasture out yonder. That no ’count scound’ shot Mitchell, then the horse. I done seen him do that, shoot the horse, I mean. Ain’t seen him shoot Mitchell, but I done seen him shoot that horse. Why you ’spect he done that, Paul? Shoot that horse like that?” Tom Bee looked up at me, searching for answers. “That horse, he ain’t been hurtin’ nobody.”
I just shook my head, with no answers to give, and left Tom Bee. I walked past Nathan, who was standing with the mule, and without a word to him headed up the slope with an axe. I walked to the cutting line and began to whack at a tree. With each whack of the axe I thought of Mitchell: of Mitchell standing on my daddy’s land facing Hammond and George with an axe, ready to use that axe on my brothers and on me; of Mitchell beating up on me every time it moved him to do so until we came to our understanding; of Mitchell hitting that white man to get my race money; of Mitchell and me under the seats of that train. I couldn’t think on Thunder, only Mitchell. I whacked at that tree until it fell. Then I started on another one.
About dusk Caroline came and got me. “You needs t’ be there, Paul-Edward,” she said as she hugged her arms to her body. “You leave these here trees be. You his family. You needs t’ be down there with him.”
I nodded, left the axe, and followed her down the slope. With Nathan and Tom Bee, Caroline and I sat the night through at Mitchell’s side. That next morning, just before the dawn, Mitchell died. My friend, my brother, was gone.
Family
I made a coffin for Mitchell. I had some good, strong plank oak-wood that I’d gotten from Luke Sawyer to make a cabinet on order, but I figured to worry about that cabinet later. Right now I needed the best wood I had to bury my friend. All day I worked on that coffin, and Caroline with Nathan’s help washed Mitchell’s body in scents and herbs. We dressed Mitchell in his wedding suit, put his boots beside him, and lined the coffin with a quilt Caroline had made for their wedding bed. As the sun set, we buried Mitchell under an oak tree and marked the spot with a cross. We said our prayers over him, and then we left him to his rest.
Right after the burial I asked Tom Bee to make the ride over to the Perry farm and let Caroline’s family know about Mitchell. “Tell them I’ll be bringing Caroline over when she’s ready,” I told him. Tom Bee said he’d set out first thing the next morning.
When Caroline, Nathan, and I were back in the cabin and all the folks who had gathered were gone, I said to Caroline, “I’ll take you and Nathan home whenever you say.” Caroline looked at me and was silent. We were seated at the table, and what food folks had brought, Caroline had set before us, but only Nathan was eating. “I know it’s been a long day and you haven’t had much rest, so you just think on it and let me know.” I waited for her to say something, but she didn’t, so I finished off the coffee I’d been sipping and got up.
“Ain’t you gonna finish your plate?” she asked.
“Not much hungry,” I said. “I’ll just cover it and put it in the food safe.”
“Leave it. I’ll take care of the food.”
“No,” I said, finding a clean cloth. “You don’t have to wait on me. I’m used to doing for myself.”
“Then suit yourself,” she said.
I put the covered dish away, wished both Caroline and Nathan a good night’s rest, and turned to go. “Paul-Edward,” Caroline said as I opened the door, “I’m stayin’ here.”
I looked back at her. “What was that?”
“I said I’m stayin’ here. I ain’t goin’ anywhere.”
“Well, we can wait a while,” I conceded. “It’s just that I thought you’d want to go back home to your family.”
“This here’s my home now.”
I shook my head. “There’s no home here.”
“Mitchell told me I get his half of the forty.”
“Well, you do, but—”
“Then I got a home here.”
“No. You can’t stay.”
She got up. “Who say I can’t?” She eyed me, waiting for an answer, then began to clear the dishes.
“I wasn’t expecting you to stay, not with Mitchell gone.”
“You figured ’cause-a that I’d be gone too, huh? Well, ain’t gonna be that way. I’m stayin’.”
“But I told Tom Bee to tell your folks I’d be bringing you home.”
“You ain’t oughtta told him that. You oughtta done asked me first.”