Marigoals

He held out a marigold for me. He had a little smile on his face. It made me smile too.

“Hi, my name is John Boy, what’s your name?” .” He asked.

“My name is Basil… Basil Girl.” I joked. He didn’t get the joke, but he kept staring at me and smiling. “You know, you pretty, just like this flower.” He said. Before I could reply, a woman came and scooped him up. She rushed away with worry on her face. I could hear her tell him not to talk to me. All the while he just looked behind her, staring at me with that smile on his face. I didn’t understand why she didn’t want him to talk to me, but none of the darker colored folks ever talked to me except my mama. I usually just stood in the house and helped her.

After a day of sneaking out with John Boy and picking marigolds so he could make me a crown of them. We sat at the base of a tree. “Why they call you John Boy?” I asked.

“Well, my Mama said it’s so that when they call me boy, I won’t feel like less than them, I’ll just feel like they’re calling me by my name.” He explained.

“Why don’t ya Mama want you to talk to me?” I asked.

“Cause Master bed ya mama and she had you. Even though he don’t act like ya Daddy, he sure nuff is. I can’t talk to you because you for da house and I’m fa da fields.” All my 9 years on the Earth and I’d never realized that Master was my Daddy. The Misses hated me and Mama always made sure we kept out of her way, because if I got in the room with her she would make me do the nasties jobs. She was so mean to me and now I understand why. Master gave her a field slave to mistreat and told her she wasn’t to use me for her bidding and dirty work. Every once in a while however she shot me a look, like my days were numbered.

“Here!” John Boy said, placing the crown on my head. “Wow, I was wrong, you more beautiful than that flower.” He said.

I was in love with John Boy from that day if not from the first time we crossed paths. Everytime we could sneak away, we would, and he would make me a crown from marigolds. Sometimes he would kiss me goodbye before we went our separate ways. I told my Mother I would marry him. She smiled and said, “Be careful, we can’t always get what we want, sometimes we just have to enjoy our secrets and live with them.”

I wanted to tell the whole World about my love for John Boy, but instead I would just wear my marigold crown as a token. “One day we gonna be free and get married and I’ma get you a house. We gonna have at least 6 kids and I’m going to make ‘em all lil marigold crowns.” John Boy said to me one day, passing me my fresh handmade crown. I placed it on my head. The breeze was nice that day. We sat at the base of the tree, my arm was entwined in his as he worked on my crown. I closed my eyes picturing what he was saying, and almost got teary eyed at the fact that it may never happen. I quickly got out of my rut, because I would be content with just meeting him at the tree for the rest of my life.

“Basil!” My Mother called out and I pecked John on the cheek before running off. I looked back once I got to my Mother and he was standing at the base of the tree with his silly smile on his face. My Mother looked over at him and looked back at me, she smiled but shook her head at the same time. “Don’t get caught, although Robert is lenient on us, don’t mean he won’t be mad that you’re with a field boy.” My mother was the only one I knew besides his wife that called the master by his name. He ran his plantations peacefully for the most part. He wasn’t temperamental and didn’t do crude things to us slaves. Everybody fell in line and did their work. John Boy had told me that the other slaves said he was mean up until he bought my mother as a slave. After that he was softer than the cotton picked. Since he never sold slaves, the plantation had grown from all the new babies becoming working age.

Mama told me that I would have to be more careful because Robert was hiring two new overseers to help run the plantation. She warned me about how some overseers are, she showed me scars across her back as thick as tree branches. She said that she had got them from an overseer for looking him in the eyes before she was sold to Robert. Be careful, she warned me again to get her point across. I warned John Boy when I saw him again. I told him about my mother's scars and he told me about the other slaves' horror stories about overseers. We decided that we would have to be more careful.

A week passed and the new overseers were on the plantation. There was an older loud guy and a quiet younger man with him. They had dinner at the house and we had to help serve. The older man's eyes followed me as I served the food. “A light one ain’t she.” He said, “Still a Black all the same, but something bout them light ones. I might have one for myself as a play thing. To get out my aggressions ‘for going home to the misses.”

“Now won’t be none of that. We run a peaceful farm here. I need the extra help keeping an eye on the youngins, but I do draw the line. I keep it humane and my slaves work and don’t give no trouble. So don’t come stirring up no hornet nest.” Robert said. The man looked at my mother over at me and then at Robert. “Yessir,” he grinned, but it was an evil grin. It wasn’t long before he was terrorizing everyone. Whenever Robert went away on business, he was back at it.

Then he caught John Boy and I behind our tree. We were discreet. I met him and kissed him on the cheek and he passed me my crown. We turned to leave and there he was with his devilish grin. “Looky what we got here,” He grabbed my marigold crown and tore it apart. “ You think cause yo Daddy is the master you can do whatever you want, Blackie? Get in the house where you belong.” he said. I walked away, looking back at John once I reached the porch.

The new overseer Tom was wailing on John with a whip. I turned to run to John and save him, but was grabbed by the other overseer. “Naw, just go in the house, you’ll just make it worse for the both of you.” He led me into the house. “It’ll be over soon enough, he has a lot of hate, but not much endurance.” He laughed, “I’m Timothy,” He said, holding out his hand, “ You won’t have to worry about me, I wish that all you folk were free and just working for pay like me.” I shook his hand. “Stay clear of Tom though, he rotten to the core.”

A couple weeks later Timothy told some of the slaves about the civil war going on. He told them they should go and fight for their freedom. Under the current circumstances with Tom overseeing they agreed. John Boy was one of the men who decided to go. He was marked up by the lashes for the last beating. “Wait for me he said, I’ll be back and I’m going to make you the prettiest marigold crown in the whole World.” That night Timothy helped the slaves escape and went to fight beside them. Things got worse with Tom now that most of the men left and Robert was always out on business. He was whipping the men that didn’t leave and the women left and right for anything. I stood clear of him.

That lasted for a long while. It was as if he didn’t even notice me, until one day he did again. Robert had a long trip planned and as he filled Tom in about what he wanted. Tom's eyes shifted to me as I walked to my room that night. The way he looked at me scared me so much that I slept in my Mother’s bed that night. The thought floated around in my head that there was no one there to save me, not Timothy, John Boy or Robert. That my luck had finally run out. Two days into Robert being gone is when he made his move. He came up to the house staring at me with lust in his eyes. I turned and walked away, rushing into my room and closing the door behind me. My Mother was not in the room, she was in the kitchen making dinner. The door swung open and Tom walked in. “You can’t run from me, little girl,” he said. He pushed me up against the wall placing his hand around my neck. I’m going to enjoy this more than you know he smiled.

I tried to push him off, but his grip around my neck got tighter. I couldn’t breath and he started rubbing on my body with his loose hand. My attempts to fight back were weak. I gave up fighting and he loosened his grip around my neck a little. “That’s a good slave.” he said. I closed my eyes because I knew my faith. All of a sudden his hands were off of my neck. I opened my eyes and Timothy was standing there. He had cracked Tom in the head with his pistol and Tom was out cold on the floor. Timothy smiled, “We won the war, yalls is all free now!” He said.

I ran to the front of the house. All the slaves were celebrating their freedom and their loved ones coming home. I didn’t see John Boy in the crowd. I looked back at Timothy. He knew what my question was. “John Boy didn’t come with us, last time I saw him he told me that if I made it here before him to tell you that he’d be here soon and to wait on him.” I did just that, as Month after Month passed by. I just knew he would be coming back. A lot of the slaves ended up staying on the plantation even though they were free. Master fired Tom and put Timothy in charge and everyone loved Timothy. Ma and I stood in the house as usual. I was there waiting for John Boy and she would never leave Robert. As unlikely as it was, they loved each other. Robert's wife realized it and left him; he never remarried.

I walked outside one morning, John Boy appeared and hugged me. He placed me on a horse and rode me to a house. He told me that after the war he had been working to make our dream a reality. He told me the house was ours and led me out to the back. The whole field was full of marigolds. I turned to hug him, and he was down on his knees with the most beautiful marigold crown and a ring to match.