Black Angels Read Online Free PDF

now,” he whined. They sat another five minutes. Caswell began to wiggle.
    â€œOK then,” she said. “We’ll walk over to them trees.” They got up as if bonded together, the two of them and the rock. Daylily marched him over to the trees. Caswell stood there wiggling and waiting. “Do it then!” she ordered.
    â€œTurn around,” he said. “I ain’t letting no nigger gal see me. Only Gran Susie can do that.”
    She turned away, still gripping his wrist and her rock. She could hear him trying to get his pants unbuttoned with his left hand.
    â€œWait,” he said. “Can’t get em down.”
    They switched hands. “Hurry up.” She heard the water hit the leaves. “Hurry up!” she said again, feeling like she ought to help him; he was like the little ones she helped Granny with. But she had to make sure he knew she was the boss.
    They made it back to where they had been sitting and plopped down. Daylily had to go too, but she wasn’t about to do it while some stray White child watched her.
    Ten minutes later they heard a loud shot.
    â€œWhooee,” Luke hollered. “Got em!” In a minute he was there holding a rabbit by the feet. “Lookee what I got,” he said, grinning from one side of his face to the other. “First shot! Dinner.” He took Aunt Eugenia’s knife out of his overalls pocket. “Now we got to skin it and start up a fire. Oh man, rabbit meat!”
    Daylily said, “Who gon watch him?” She pointed at Caswell. “I got to go do somethin.”
    Luke looked away from her face. He pointed his gun at Caswell. “Go on. I got him covered,” he said, glaring at the little boy.
    Daylily scrambled up. Her bottom hurt from the long wait, but she flew into the woods, trying to get away from them so they wouldn’t hear her pee trickling down on the leaves. Then she got a long drink from the river, careful not to go anywhere she knew she’d find the dead bodies.
    She washed her face and hands, and scrubbed her cinnamon skin, and tried to braid her hair. It was matted with mud. She’d have to wash it in the river later.
    â€œWhere you been, gal?” Luke said when she returned. “I got to skin this rabbit so we can eat. Here, hold this rifle on this boy. Can you shoot? You sho look a heap better.”
    â€œCourse I can,” she said, even though she had never held a rifle before. “You ain’t too clean yourself, you know.”
    He ignored her remark. “Well, watch him, cause we gon eat in a little while,” he said, beginning to work on the rabbit.
    Luke slit and skinned the rabbit just like Unc Steph had taught him. He put it on a stick, and piled up his firewood. He took out Massa Higsaw’s flint and steel to strike a spark.
    â€œTomorrow us gon have fish?” Luke said, looking at Daylily with a sly grin. He didn’t believe she knew how to fish at all.
    She hadn’t thought about tomorrow. Was there a tomorrow? Would they ever see anybody else, or would they just be in the woods forever? And where was everybody she knew? Where was little Bubba, and Marylynn, and Andrew, and all the rest of them? Were they all dead like Granny and Buttercup and her babies?
    Caswell sat a few feet from Daylily and thought about his Mamadear having dinner at the Burwell plantation. Tomorrow he’d find a way to escape, as soon as he had some rabbit to eat.
    The rabbit looked a nice brown color as Luke turned it around and around on the stick. “Y’all better come on,” he said finally. “It sure is ready now!” His eyes sparkled even more as Daylily started to get up.
    â€œWait, we got to do this right,” Luke said. “I’ll eat first cause I shot that rabbit, and then I’ll watch him and you eat,” he said to Daylily. “And he’ll eat last cause we in charge-a him.”
    In Aunt Eugenia’s kitchen Luke