The Thirteenth

Chapter 7

Antebellum, Georgia - 1861 (Present)

It's been a year, and the only contact Anita and Richard has had all year was the very frequent stares, giggles, and waves they'd give each other while Richard stood in the window of his bedroom, and Anita stood out on the  plantation. The slaves and Overseer Bennet were becoming suspicious, and they feared that the inevitable would happen. So they decided to keep their distance.

Jimmy, now at the age of nineteen, stood on his hands and knees beside his seventeen-year-old sister as she picked her share of cotton. When Anita looked over and saw Jimmy's position, worry crept over her face. "Jim, what's wrong?" she asked placing a comforting hand on his back.

"Anita," he mumbled in obvious pain. "My head throbbin'. I feel I'm 'bout'a pass out."

"Well, keep workin' 'til ya do," Anita commanded. She tended back to her work.

"No," Jimmy said struggling to stand up. "I'm gon' go lay down."

 Anita turned around to see Jimmy wobbling towards their quarters. "That ain't a good idea, Jim."

Jimmy dismissed her statement by thrusting his hand downward. "Just yell if an'body comes."

"Fine," Anita complied. She grabbed his basket of cotton and stood prepared to pick double the cotton to cover for her brother.

A good fifteen minutes had gone by, when Richard stood at his window again. With his fingers, he spelled out the letters: I. M. I. S. S. Y. O. U, in the air, and Anita quickly caught on you. She mouthed the words, "I miss you too," up at the window. He responded with a pout face, and Anita did the same. They both laughed.

 Immediately after, Richard heard the front door slam from downstairs, and then heard instant screaming. It was Bethanne, yelling at Overseer Bennet who was inside talking to Master Wyatt about something. Richard quickly dodged out of his room stood at the top of the staircase.

"Go get that Nigger out there!" Ms. Bethanne shouted. "He's out there sleepin'! I want him hanged! He's been too much trouble on this plantation!"

Richard quickly ran back to the window and began to rapidly bang on it to try and get Anita's attention. She didn't hear the first few bangs, but she quickly looked up after the second round of banging. "Get your brother!" he mouthed and pointed to the hut.

"What?" Anita mouthed back with a confused look on her face.

"GET YOUR BROTHER!" he mouthed even bigger, and desperately pointed at the hut.

Anita suddenly understood what he was saying, and quickly dropped all of her tools. She raced to the hut. "Jimmy!" she yelled, when set foot in the hut. "Jimmy, wake up!"

Jimmy opened his eyes right before his sister began to shake him.

"I said I want 'em hanged! Not whipped!" Ms. Bethanne shouted when she saw Overseer Bennet reaching for his whip.

Overseer Bennet sighed and reached for his rope. In his three years of working on this plantation, he'd never had to hang a slave. And he wasn't too thrilled about his first time being over something as petty as a slave sleeping. "Yes, Ma'am," he replied and took the rope from off the wall.

As he walked out to the plantation, he removed the look of disappointment off his face, and replaced it with aversion. He stormed through the grassy plain and stopped in front of the two teens that were both on their knees picking cotton. "Get up, boy!" Overseer Bennet ordered. They were hoping that he would be fooled by their display, but apparently he was not.

Anita noticed the rope in the man's hand and gasped. "It was me!" she shouted, quickly standing up. She felt bad enough that she wasn't paying attention and looking guard like her brother asked her too. She couldn't sit there and let him be killed for something that was her fault. "I was the one in the bed."

"No, she won't, Overseer Bennet," Jimmy corrected. He stood up. Anita looked up at the two men and noticed that Jimmy over towered Bennet by a lot. It was quite embarrassing. "It was me." And he held his wrists out. Overseer Bennet took the rope and tied it around his wrists.

"NO!" Anita shouted and stood in the space between the two men. "You ain't takin' my brother without takin' me too!" And she meant that. Of course Jimmy has made many mistakes and poor decisions during his lifetime at this plantation, but this one was innocent.

"Two dead Negroes in one day?" Overseer Bennet said with a devilish smirk. "That's a new high fer me!" He took the other end of the rope and tied around Anita's wrists as well.

Richard watched the scene from his room. His heart sank when he saw the overseer tie the rope around Anita's wrist too. And he ran downstairs to stop the commotion. "I heard yellin'. What's happ'n?" Richard knowingly asked.

All the three hundred some slaves on the plantation began to run rapid. They wouldn't stand for Jimmy to be hanged. Not after he had become one of the ring leaders of the retaliation against Whites they had planned. Without him, they were nothing. They screamed and dumped all of their cotton out of their baskets.

By now, Overseer Bennet had dragged Anita and Jimmy to the front door. Master Wyatt stood inside the house at the door shaking his head. "You're taking the girl too?!"

"I had to!" Overseer Bennet exclaimed. "She wouldn't lemme take the boy without her!"

Richard squeezed between the doorway and Master Wyatt. He stepped outside to face Anita and Jimmy. Anita's heart fluttered and she knew she would be safe. Hopefully. "Uncle, lemme take them," he said with such ferociousness and hatred that Anita almost thought he had contracted back to his old ways. "I ain't neva hanged a Niggerand I wanna see how it feels like to give 'em what they deserve."

Overseer Bennet shrugged like he had no problem with it. "These slaves are startin' to go crazy anyway. Somebody needa be here to contain 'em."

Master Wyatt squeezed his temples as if he were under stress. It took him awhile, but the louder the slaves became, the quicker he knew he had to make his decision. "Put the Negroes in the back of the cart and take 'em to the big oak tree a few miles from here," Master Wyatt commanded. He was staring straight at his nephew while saying this. And Richard's face completely lit up. And to Master Wyatt, it looked like the light of evil. "Just bring Pearly back 'fore night fall."

"Yessir!" Richard projected. He took the rope from the overseer and tugged the two slaves forward. "I won't let ya down!" He walked them to cart and aggressively place them in.

As they were getting ready to leave, the two slaves heard a strong and devastated cry come from the plantation. "NO!" Theodore screamed with tears in his eyes. "Please don' take 'em! Please!" He fell on his knees in the middle of the plantation, and seeing his brother under distress like this broke Anita's heart. Jimmy stay unresponsive, but Anita broke out into tears. Master Wyatt and Bennet had ran out to the plantation to get the slaves back under control. Bennet had pulled out his shotgun and began to shoot warning shots.

And Richard hoisted himself upon Pearly, and grabbed the driving harness. He forced downward, and the horse took off.

Anita and Jimmy sat in the cart holding onto each other as comfort. Anita's outburst had declined and turned into little sobs. Minutes later, Jimmy, Anita, and Richard were in the yard of a place they recognized. A place which was not a for hanging. But a place for worship. They sat in the yard of Adam Wyatt's church.