Beyond the Cotton Fields

Chapter 26

Of course, with the arrival of April came rain showers. Koi stomped through puddles and mud as he journeyed to his tribal grounds. His child would be coming into the world soon and he was going to be with his family again. His family was going to be apart of his tribe, with or without his father's approval. He knew his father would never agree to Lucy coming back, especially with their child attached to her chest. Koi, also, knew that more blood would be shed before this thing was all over. 

The rain continued to pour down, drenching Koi and his hides. His wet black hair stuck to the middle of his back and water droplets raced down his bare chest. He looked down, seeing small streams running past his feet. As he looked at a small branching stream, he noticed one start to run red. He walked further up and the water became a deeper red. He stopped at a murky puddle that was mixed with rain water, mud, and blood. Rain drops and blood dripped into the puddle and created multiple ripples. Koi looked up in horror. Above his head dangled a young black man, no older than 23, naked, bruised, and bleeding. The man's lifeless eyes stared down into Koi's. He rushed up the tree and shimmied over to the branch where the man hanged. He pulled out his blade and cut the rope wrapped around the man's neck. The body dropped into the puddle of blood it created.

Koi climbed back down and ran over to the body. He turned it over and cradled his head in his arms. He closed the man's eyes, so that he may rest more easily, and looked over the body. Bruises and cuts littered his body and a large gash ran across his neck from one side to the other. Koi was worried that if he moved the man's head too much then his head would snap off. He, carefully, laid the body down and dug his hands into the wet earth. He shoveled mud away with his hands and dug a sufficient grave for the man. Dirt found his way underneath his fingernails and mud started to dye his body a dusty brown. Strands of his hair stuck to his face from both rain and sweat. 

Two hours later, the hand-dug grave was deep enough. He hoisted himself out of the grave and next to the body. He picked up the body and leaped back down into the grave. He placed the man at the bottom of the grave, watching as rain began to wash away the dried blood on his neck. Koi hoisted himself back out of the grave and took one last look at the resting body before refilling the young man's grave. Another hour had elapsed as he gave the earth a few final pats to pack the dirt tighter. 

He sat with his legs crossed next to the young man's grave, covered in mud and pelted with rain. He just looked down at the packed earth, a stoic expression on his face. The man had a whole life ahead of him and had it ripped away. He had a taste what the white men were capable of; their acts were evident in the 5 lashing scars that striped Lucy's back. He knew what they were capable of, his people had once been victims of the white man. But, this had surpassed the acts done to his people. The white men killed them and took their land away from them, but never had they subjected them to savagery. The young man had been stripped naked, got his throat slit, and hanged from a tree, as if he was a hunted animal. The white men treated these people as if they weren't even human.

Bile burned his throat as it rushed out of his mouth. He coughed up more bile and tears burned his eyes. He couldn't comprehend what was going through his mind. The young man he just buried gave him more reason not to trust white men, but at the same time, the love of his life and unborn child were in the care of white people. They took her in as if she was their own daughter. They had done nothing to hurt her. They only showed their love and compassion.

Koi laid back, not caring if his hair was being caked with mud. He laid there for a short time to allow his head to stop spinning before he got back up and began walking.

~~~

Lucy slammed Frankenstein shut, too scared to process what she just read. She thought the book was a little odd when she began reading it, but the second she read about the monster killing the little boy, she couldn't handle anymore of it. She set the book down and eased away from it, acting as if the book would hop up and bite at her.

She pushed herself out of the rocking chair and over to the fireplace. She checked to see if the clothes on the wooden racks were dry yet. When she saw that they weren't, she made her way outside. The rain had stopped, leaving mud puddles scattered everywhere. She looked across the forest line and noticed something emerging. Upon closer examination, she saw that it was a mud-covered Koi. She walked, more or less waddled, over to him.

"Koi, what ya doin' here? An' why ya muddy? C'mon, let me getcha cleaned up." She grabbed his hand and led him over to the creek. She rushed, as best as she could, back into the cabin and grabbed the soap. Upon getting back to the creek, she guided Koi until he was sitting in the water. She wet the bar of soap and began scrubbing him down with it, making sure to rub it in his hair really well.

As she washed the mud off of him, he began to speak.

"You are coming back to the tribe with me come morning."

"What?" Lucy stopped washing his body. "Why?"

"I no longer trust the white people." His face was stone.

"Why not? What's wrong wit' Mr. Boone an' Ms. Cora?"

"I buried a man who was killed by white men." He didn't have to state the race for Lucy to know what he was getting at.

"Mr. Boone an' Ms. Cora are kin' people. Dey ain't gonna hurt me. I been 'round plenty white folk an' dey da nicest ones I eva met."

"But, they can change."

"Dey won't change. It ain't easy fa people ta change. Change comes to doze who wannit."

"But, they are like all other white people."

"No, dey ain't. Dere some peole who have minds of dere own. Dem an' deir son are da white people who like negroes, even dough oder white people hate us. Ya tribe likes me, but ya papa don't." With that comment, something clicked in Koi's head.

"I still want to take you back in the morning." Lucy dunked his head back into the water and washed the soap and remaining dirt out of it.

"What's ya papa gon' say?"

"We will handle that when we get back to the tribal grounds."