Box Set: The ArringtonTrilogy Read Online Free PDF Page A

my
heart instantly lifted, and my woeful thoughts of Daddy being far
away, gone with Mrs. Norton to be married, vanished. I saw everyone
around me smile my way, and I shyly smiled back, and then belted
out the remainder of the hymn. I was certain Mummy heard me loud
and clear, even all the way up past the gates of heaven and into
God’s kingdom.
    As soon as we sat down again, Reverend Carter
stepped forward and nodded approvingly to me and then slowly lifted
his long arms up into the air, tilted his head back, and roared,
“For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given!”
    It was one of the few times I actually
listened to the sermon. I was surprisingly interested and proud of
myself. I looked past Hattie to see if Mammy had noticed I wasn‘t
daydreaming, as she often caught me doing. She sat looking forlorn,
fanning herself. The morning grew hot and the church became
sweltering. Small beads of sweat dripped down from her brow, and
she periodically dabbed it away with a simple piece of cotton
cloth.
    We were all ready to exit the stuffy church
and hurry home late that morning to open our Christmas presents.
Mammy had some difficulty keeping up with Hattie and me as we ran
ahead. “You girls slow down now, you hear! I can’t keep up!” she
called.
    Hattie and I slowed down so Mammy could catch
up.
    “You knows I am with child,” she snapped. She
took hold of our arms and made us walk alongside her, all the way
back to the plantation.
    When we reached home, Mammy let go, and
Hattie and I rushed giggling past the small group of new slaves
that had just arrived and into the parlor to get to our
presents.
    “I know just which ones are mine!” Hattie
said as she ran to the gifts.
    I followed suit and reached around to find
packages with my name on the little tags.
    Mammy came in, along with Helen and Cordelia,
to clean up after us and to open what presents Daddy had left for
her. In years past, she’d received a pretty store-bought hat and
gloves, a lovely wrap, and even sweet perfume, which she wore on
long nights when Daddy took her for a stroll along the river. After
she opened her presents, Mammy would throw Daddy a shy, loving
smile, causing his eyes to sparkle more brilliantly than ever.
    After opening my dozens of gifts, I searched
through the mess of paper for Mammy’s special present. So far I had
found none. She was standing nearby, her brown eyes anxiously
scanning under the tree, and all too soon her happy grin faded.
    “Mammy, I’m certain there is a gift for you,”
I cried when her expression turned disheartened.
    “Never you mind, Miss Amelia. I got to see to
some things. You girls get washed for lunch,” she choked and
hurried out before we saw her cry. Cordelia and Helen looked
visibly distraught and went to console her.
    Hattie and I lost all interest in our gifts.
Even the store-bought blonde- haired porcelain doll Daddy had
bought me couldn’t keep me from feeling such sadness for Mammy. We
silently cleaned up by ourselves.
    Before making our way up to our rooms to wash
for lunch, we heard a sudden commotion outside and stepped out onto
the gallery to see what it was all about.
    “Lookie here at the dumb big man who can’t
speak a word,” one man said, while the others laughed and pointed
at the giant Negro slave, who’d been pushed off the wagon.
    “Get up, get up!” Grover, Daddy’s slave
driver, ordered.
    The giant man, who towered over any Negro or
white man I had ever seen, grabbed hold of the side of the wagon
and painstakingly lifted himself out of the pool of mud he had
fallen into. Mammy and the other women had been watching the whole
time.
    The men continued to snicker as the man, who
I later learned was named Hamilton, pulled his one piece of luggage
from the thick mud and stood looking humiliated.
    Mammy had seen enough. She knew if Daddy were
here, none of this would be tolerated. “You all get to your
quarters! Grover, what you doing letting those men push him