The Land(135)
“Well, what’ve you got to say?” I asked. I’d never seen Caroline speechless before.
She didn’t answer me right away, but finally when she looked at me, she said, “This here J. T. Hollenbeck’s land?”
“Not anymore. I took title to it this morning.”
Nathan let out a wild holler, leaped into the air, then began to dance around.
“That why your brother come?” asked Caroline ever so softly. “He come ’bout the land?”
I nodded. “He brought the money I needed. My sister, Cassie, sent it to me, she and my mama.”
Again Caroline was speechless.
“So . . . what do you think? You think we can bury Mitchell here?”
Caroline gave me the biggest smile, then she rushed into my arms.
We buried Mitchell before sunset. We said our thanks to the Lord, and all three of us spent the night on the slope beside the praying rock. The next morning I took Caroline’s hand and led her through the woods to the pond. There I sat beside her on a fallen log and I said, “You know, Caroline, I loved Mitchell, and I always wanted to do right by what he asked of me. But what I’m saying to you now has nothing to do with Mitchell. I love you, Caroline, and I want you to be my wife.”
Caroline didn’t say anything as she looked upward to the trees where the rising sun splintered the branches with its light. I stood and stared up at the light as well before turning to her again. “So, pretty Caroline, how would you like to work this fine piece of earth with me? How would you like to be my wife so we can work this land together?”
Caroline remained quiet, looking up at the trees. When she finally spoke, she said, “Ya know, I always felt safe with Mitchell, just like I felt when I was with my daddy. Safe, like long as I was with them, nothing bad would ever happen I couldn’t see through and I’d be happy.” She turned to me now. “I feel the same with you.” Then Caroline smiled her pretty smile at me and once more came into my arms. “I love you too, Paul-Edward,” she murmured against my neck. “I love you too.”
That same day Nathan and I put up a shelter for Caroline. Then I rode back toward the forty and gathered up the preacher and his wife, Ma Jones and her family, Tom Bee and his, the Horace Averys, and several others whom we held close, and led them to the land. Caroline and I were married before sunset. The following week Caroline gave birth to our first child, Mitchell’s son.
“What we gonna call him?” Caroline asked from her bed.
I cradled the baby in my arms and gazed upon the face of my friend. “Mitchell,” I said. “We’ll call him Mitchell Thomas Logan.” I then looked back at Caroline, waiting for her approval.
She was smiling.