Fairchild's 7 Daughters-The 12: Book One

8. The Last Saturday

Thunder growled over heaven demanding to be released from the dark clouds that entombed it. The shadows of rain reflected on the parlor floor from the tall windows that faced the front yard. The seven sisters laid on the floor in a circle with their heads together listening to the ceiling as the storm blew outside.

"We need a plan."

"What can we do, Taitiann?" Alifair asked. "We're just girls. No one will care to listen to us."

"Grandpa cares and listens to us," Hannah contradicted.

"But what can Grandpa do?" said Alifair. "We have no hope. They took everything from us and now Papa will hang."

"Be quiet, Alifair don't say such things!" Heloise said. "Hannah is right to be optimistic. Grandpa let me read a poem by Grandma today." She sat up from the circle. "In the beset hour of my days is when I raised my head up. When the rain breaks the sheets of clouds that retrain it then is when I raise my hands up. I am stronger when I am sawn down and I am courageous when I'm wounded. Make be brave always oh Lord, whatever evils may come," she recited. "If we all believe that then we can win."

Selene sat up. "Young Mr. St. Cloud said he'd talk to his cousin in Oklahoma Territory," she said. "He might be the one to help us."

Miriam sat up. "How can you know that? We don't know this man and we can't trust him."

"It's worth a try," Astrid said as she sat up. "We don't have much other options, Miriam."

"I won't trust the life of my father into the hand of a white lawyer from Oklahoma Territory." Miriam stuck up her nose.

"I agree with Miriam," Alifair said rolling onto her stomach.

"What do you want then, a colored lawyer?" Taitiann sat up shaking her head. "When pigs fly. Besides the judge will be white. Do you think a white judge is going to care that a white man represents a colored man or that a colored man represents a fellow colored man?"

Selene hugged her knees to her chest. "Taitiann is right," she said. "Please Miriam this may be our only hope."

"I've seen more of the world then you, Selene," Miriam said. "I've seen more than all of you. I know exactly how brutal it is. Towns exist when devils don't wait for sundown, they walk about in broad daylight."

"Jethro is not a devil, and he said he'd help us," Selene fired back. "We need all the help we can get."

"Jethro now is it?" Miriam reared. "Really, Selene for a colored woman you put a lot a faith in a white man." She got to her feet.

Selene stood too. "And what's the difference between asking Jet— Young Mr. St. Cloud for help and asking Mr. Calico for help?"

"Because he can actually make a difference," Miriam said. "Father would trust him."

"I still say we try," Selene said.

"And I say no!" Miriam's voice echoed loud in the parlor. A flash a lightning followed by a roll of thunder filled the silence between them. Miriam grabbed the lantern from the mantel then faced her sister. "We can't put faith in someone we don't know," she said calmly. "Let's go, it's late and Grandpa might check in on us."

The girls left the house quietly. They had never fought there before. It was supposed to be a sanctuary where they could retreat. It had mostly stopped raining but the wind was misty. Heloise walked a few paces back from the rest of her sisters with Selene. They didn't need to speak for both seemed to know what the other was thinking. Selene could never tell Miriam that she loved Jethro.