Black Angels Read Online Free PDF Page A

silent.
    Luke half dragged Caswell over to where Daylily sat. “See this rifle, boy? This mine. I took it from Massa Higsaw, and I do know how to shoot it, cause Unc Steph, he taught me to kill rabbits. And rifles kills peoples just as easy as they does rabbits. So you just set right here, rest your little behind right here, cause you ain’t movin till us decides what to do with you.”
    Luke sat facing Daylily and Caswell, the gun across his knees. They were all quiet for a minute or two. Daylily was afraid to move; Caswell’s big tears wet his chin.
    â€œWell,” said Luke, putting both his hands on his knees with all the authority he could muster, “look like I got to decide somethin.”
    They sat in silence for another full minute, Caswell sniffing up his tears and Daylily peering at Luke through eyes swollen with crying.
    Finally Daylily couldn’t stand it any more. “Stupid boy, you don’t even know what to decide, do you? You don’t know nothin. Bet you as scared as us is!”
    Luke picked up his gun and dug the butt of it into the soil. “Awright! Awright!” he said. “This what us gon do. Us got to eat. Else we starve out here.”
    â€œSee,” said Daylily. “You so smart, what we gon eat? Grass? Ha! Grass!”
    â€œNaw, you just like a gal. Don wait for nobody to finish. We gon eat rabbit and some squirrel and maybe some fish. You think you smart enough to catch us a fish?”
    â€œCourse I can,” Daylily said. “I’m nine years old. I been knowing how to fish.”
    Caswell started, “My daddy said . . .”
    â€œHush up! Don’t nobody wanna know what your daddy say,” said Luke. “You just hush before I shoot your ear off. I gotta think.” He thought very seriously. “Now, this what us gonna do. This gal here, what your name, gal?”
    She looked at Luke like he was the devil’s grandson. “Daylily,” she said with her teeth closed.
    â€œDaylily,” Luke said, “you in charge of Caswell here.” He grinned in triumph at the little boy. “Hold on to his trousers.” Luke picked up a big rock off the ground. “Now, he get outta line, you whomp him upside his head with this here rock.”
    He was right, Daylily thought. They’d set the dogs on them and she’d be caught. They wouldn’t care about Buttercup. They’d take Luke back to the Higsaw place, and maybe she’d be left alone again, and maybe those soldiers would come back and maybe not, but she didn’t want to be alone again in these woods ever.
    â€œDon’t you move,” she said to Caswell. Daylily hated Luke right then. She hated his orders, and she hated that he was right. She hated that he wasn’t as scared as she was, at least he didn’t act it. And she hated that she had to do what he said, or she’d be in the woods with no way out and no food. “Wait a minute,” she said. “What you say your name was, boy?”
    â€œLuke,” he said over his shoulder. “Like in the Bible! I’m gon find us some food. Watch that White chile!”
    When he walked off, there was an uncomfortable silence, and suddenly her fear grabbed at her again. She wished he’d come back even if she did hate him. She glanced at Caswell, gripping his wrist with one hand and the rock with the other. “Don’t you move,” she said, “or I’ll hit you upside your head with this rock.” She tried to look her meanest. He did look like he was afraid of her.
    And so they sat for a half hour. Buzzards circled overhead. Daylily knew why, but she couldn’t bear to think about it. She just wanted Luke to hurry up.
    It was hot. Quiet in the woods. Gnats and mosquitoes bothered them. “I have to relieve myself,” Caswell said.
    â€œNo, you ain’t moving,” Daylily said. “Not till Luke come back.”
    â€œBut I have to go