A Day To Pick Your Own Cotton Part 29

"I was picking cotton when I was younger than her," I said. "It's hard work, but I reckon if you're going to do it, she could help too."

"Then maybe it's time we told her what we were doing, Mayme. Maybe it's time to make her part of our plan. If she's going to help us save Rosewood, she's got a right to know."

"You should be the one to talk to her," I said.

"I'll do it tomorrow."

We both sat quietly thinking as everything we'd been talking about gradually sank in.

"When can we start picking the cotton?" Katie asked eagerly. "There's no time to lose."

"Any day," I said. "I'll go out and check the fields again just to make sure. Then we'll start getting things ready this afternoon."

MORNING IN THE F FIELD.

45.

THE DAY AFTER OUR TALK, BOTH KATIE AND I got up with a sense of antic.i.p.ation. got up with a sense of antic.i.p.ation.

We knew we were facing a crossroads. If we didn't do something, and soon, our little game of trying to make this plantation work by ourselves would be over. People would take us away and all four of us would go our separate ways.

We looked at each other with serious expressions, sort of saying, Well, I guess this is it Well, I guess this is it. Then we both went about our business of getting ready for the day.

There was just about nothing in the world I hated more than picking cotton. But for some reason now I was almost looking forward to it. Having it be our own own cotton, and knowing we cotton, and knowing we had had to do it to survive and keep going and eat and take care of ourselves and to protect Emma and William and save Rosewood for Katie-all that made it seem completely different. Of course, it wasn't really mine, it was Katie's. But it felt like it was part mine, because in a way it was all of ours. It was to do it to survive and keep going and eat and take care of ourselves and to protect Emma and William and save Rosewood for Katie-all that made it seem completely different. Of course, it wasn't really mine, it was Katie's. But it felt like it was part mine, because in a way it was all of ours. It was our our plantation now, just like Katie had tried to tell me a while back. plantation now, just like Katie had tried to tell me a while back.

I went out to the biggest field to look over the crop again. It was full of weeds growing as high as the cotton, but the field was full of white too. The bolls had opened and the white fluffy b.a.l.l.s were exploding out everywhere. It was the white that mattered, not the weeds.

The field was ready!

Could we do it? Could four girls trying to fend for themselves really harvest enough cotton to sell for real cash money?

How much could we pick? I didn't know. For a field this size a year ago, there might have been twenty or thirty colored men and women. But then the field might all be picked in three or four days. If it didn't rain, maybe it'd take me and Katie two or three weeks, maybe more. I had no idea. If Aleta and Emma could help us, it would go faster. But would that be in time?

I reckon we'd find out. And maybe the whole future of Katie Clairborne's and Mayme Jukes's crazy scheme would depend on whether we could.

I walked slowly through the field, white puffs of cotton all around me. I stopped, then reached down and picked off one of the little white b.a.l.l.s from a nearby plant.

I held it in my fingers and looked at it for a few seconds, then again around at the field surrounding me.

Well, you old cotton field, I said, I said, here I am again. But I don't hate you no more, 'cause I reckon the day's come when you're my own cotton now too, just like Katie said, or something like it anyhow. And I'm gonna pick as much of you as I can! here I am again. But I don't hate you no more, 'cause I reckon the day's come when you're my own cotton now too, just like Katie said, or something like it anyhow. And I'm gonna pick as much of you as I can!

I tossed the ball of cotton up in the air, watched it float to the ground, then turned and walked back the way I had come. Slowly I began humming the tune we'd sung on my birthday, then started softly singing it as I walked back to the house.

"We planted this cotton in April, on the full of the moon.

We've had a hot, dry summer. That's why it opened so soon.

Cotton needs a-pickin' so bad, cotton needs a-pickin' so bad, Cotton needs a-pickin' so bad, gonna pick all over this field."

While I'd gone out to the field, Katie had called Aleta and Emma together for a serious talk.

"Aleta," said Katie when they were together in the kitchen, "I need to have an important talk with you."

They sat down. Aleta could tell from Katie's voice that whatever it was, it was serious. She looked into Katie's face waiting, and a little afraid that Katie was getting ready to send her away.

"I want you to tell me where you and your mother lived," said Katie.

"Oakwood," answered Aleta nervously, glancing over to where Emma sat quietly waiting and worrying about what Katie would say to her next.

"That's where you were riding away from when your daddy was chasing you?"

Aleta nodded.

"What is your last name, Aleta?"

"Butler."

"Aleta Butler ... that's a nice name. What is your father's name, Aleta?"

Aleta looked down and remained silent.

"You know, Aleta," said Katie, "we have to do something about getting you back with your father. We must tell him about your mother. Don't you want to live with him?"

"No. I don't ever want to live with him again."

Katie was quiet for a bit, thinking what to say.

"You know, it's real special having a daddy," she said after a minute. "Mayme and I don't have daddies."

"Why not?"

"Because they are both dead."

At the word dead, dead, Aleta looked up into Katie's face with a sober expression. Aleta looked up into Katie's face with a sober expression.

"So you have something we don't have, Aleta," Katie continued.

"But my daddy's mean."

"He is still your daddy."

"What about your mamas?" Aleta asked.

Katie hesitated.

"They are both dead too, Aleta. That's why Mayme and I were here alone before Emma came."

There was another long pause. Again Aleta seemed sobered by what Katie had said, though also a little confused.

"But you tell people that she's not here," she said.

"She isn't here," said Katie. "But sometimes I don't tell them that she's not coming back.-Do you want to keep staying with us for a while?"

"Oh yes."

"Then we will let you, for a little while longer, until we decide what is best to do," said Katie. "You might have other relatives, like I do, that you might want to go stay with someday."

"Please let me stay here with you," said Aleta.

"You have to promise something, then," said Katie. "I normally wouldn't ask a little girl to keep a secret from grown-ups, but this is very, very important."

"Yes ... I will do anything you say."

"You have to promise not to tell anyone what we are doing, that we are alone here. No one can know. You know the danger Emma is in from that bad man who wants to find her. And you know what they did to poor Mayme. You saw the wounds on her back."

Aleta nodded.

"So no one must know there are no grown-ups here, for Emma's sake and for Mayme's sake. Some white people want to hurt black people like Emma and Mayme. So we have to make sure they're safe here, don't we? So can you keep our secret?"

"I promise, Katie."

"Even after you leave later, you can never tell."

"I promise.-But ... are there really no grown-ups? None of them are coming back? I just thought your mama was on a trip or something."

Katie nodded. "We are doing everything ourselves," she said. "We are just pretending that the grown-ups are still here."

"What about that colored boy?"

"Jeremiah? Yes, he knows a little. But we haven't told him even as much as we have you. And he's promised not to tell either. If people knew it was only four girls by themselves on a plantation, they would take us away and do bad things to Emma and Mayme."

"You mean ... it's all pretend?"

"The work isn't pretend. You see how hard we work to do everything. The only thing that is pretend is that we are alone. And now we have to work harder than ever to pick the cotton to sell so that the bank won't take the house away from us. So, Aleta, if you want to stay, you have to promise never to tell the secret of Rosewood."

"I will ... I will, Katie!" said Aleta, eyes wide with excitement.

"It also means you have to work hard. Look at my hands. I've never had blisters before. Now I'm sunburned and my hands are rough. Can you do that ... can you help with all the work?"

"Yes."

"And you promise not to tell?"

"I promise."

"Then you are one of us now. Just like Mayme and I became sisters and then a little while later Emma came, and now you are our sister too. Someday we'll find your daddy, and by then I'm sure you'll want to go with him. But for now you may stay with us."

Then Katie turned to Emma and explained to them both about the loan and what would happen if they didn't get a lot of money, and that they were going to pick the cotton.

"Do you think you can help some too, Emma?" she asked. "That is, when William doesn't need you?"

"Yes'm, Miz Katie. I kin do it. After what you an Miz Mayme done ter save me from dat William McSimmons, I'll do anything fer you, Miz Katie. I owes you my life, an' I's help, Miz Katie. You jes' show me what ter do."

"Good, then let's go find Mayme and help her pick that cotton."

KING C COTTON.

46.

WE BEGAN THAT SAME MORNING.

We hitched up the big wagon. Even with all four of us, we could barely lift the baling box up into the back of it. But we managed it, then drove the wagon to the field closest to the house, where I figured would be the best place to start. We parked the wagon and unhitched the horses and took them back to the house. It would take us several days, maybe a week-I didn't know-to get the wagon full. We got the smaller buckboard fixed up with blankets and water and shade for a comfortable place for William to lie and sleep and for Emma to sit with him when he needed her, but so she could help us some of the time.

Once we had everything ready, we went out into the fields with satchels slung over our shoulders and widebrimmed hats on our heads to keep us from the sun, and I showed Katie and Emma and Aleta how to do it.

"You gotta circle the fingers of your right hand around the ball of cotton from the top-see ... like this," I said, stooping down to one and showing them, "while your left hand keeps hold of the stem. Then you squeeze the fingers of both hands together at the stem and the base of the cotton and pluck it out with your right so it comes off at the bottom ... like this." I squeezed and pulled the ball of cotton off the stem and stuck it into my satchel.

They each tried it a couple of times. It was a little awkward at first. It was something they'd have to learn by doing.

"The main thing is to not get leaves mixed in with the cotton," I said. "Once you know how to do it, we gotta try to work fast. Cotton doesn't weigh much, and we'll get paid by how many pounds we bring in. So stuff your satchels as full as you can, then go dump them in the wagon and go back and fill them again. And you gotta drink lots of water, 'cause the sun can tire you out more than the work if you don't."

Then we started. We each took a row side by side and started out together. At first we were talking and having fun. But within just a few minutes I was moving ahead of Katie, and then Katie started moving ahead of Aleta in her row and Emma in hers. Within fifteen minutes the four of us were scattered apart in the field, and it was hard to do much talking after that.

We picked all day in the hot sun, taking time out for eating and drinking plenty of water and taking a break every now and then. I've got to hand it to Emma, she worked harder than I ever thought she could. She'd stop to check on William, or sometimes feed him, every ten or fifteen minutes. But when she worked she worked pretty fast and after a while was picking twice as much cotton as Aleta could. I dumped about two satchels for every one of Katie's, and Aleta was even slower than that, and pretty soon Emma was keeping up with Katie, even having to stop like she did. They all learned fast. I was mighty pleased and thought we did real good for our first day.