Chasing the North Star by Robert Morgan

ever tasted. It was better than communion wine at church.
    Jonah licked his lips and laughed. The fat girl licked her lips and giggled also.
    â€œWho let you have a party out here?” Jonah said.
    â€œAin’t nobody let us have a jubilee,” she said. “Nobody but ourselves.”
    â€œYou’re not afraid to be caught?”
    The woman began dancing again. She held her elbows out on either side and snapped her fingers. She twisted and looked him in the eye, grinned, and said, “Boy, you don’t know nothing.”
    â€œReckon I don’t,” he said and grinned back.
    â€œTime you learned a thing, or two,” she said. Jonah would not have guessed anyone so fat could move so fast or so deftly. She must have danced a lot to be that quick and sure. Her skin gleamed in the firelight.
    â€œNobody ever make your little colonel happy?” she said and turned so he could see her left side. He wasn’t sure what she meant until he saw her looking at his member.
    â€œWhat?” he said.
    â€œI thought not,” she said and laughed. She pushed herself up against him and then backed away. The firelight made her skin look the color of honey, dark clover honey.
    â€œAin’t no good less your little colonel be happy,” she said and looked him in the eye.
    Jonah felt something stir way down in his belly. It was a force pushing out and upward. The force started in the ground and came up through the soles of his feet and up through his legs and into his groin. The beat of the drum and blood of the chicken summoned a fountain out of the ground and into his loins.
    â€œLet me show you something,” the woman said. She took him by the hand and led him to the edge of the clearing, and just as they reached the trees she broke away and started running. He hesitated only a second and then ran after her. She dodged around a tree and stumbled. She squealed and jumped over a log and fell to the ground.
    It was so dark in the woods he could hardly see her. “Come here, boy,” she said, and when he stepped closer she took his hand and pulled him down on top of her. She was the softest cushion he’d ever touched. Her breasts and shoulders were like a cloud of warm vapors, and he floated on their comfort.
    She took his spigot in her hand and guided it into a place that was warm and wet. He pushed hard into her and she said, “Whoa there, boy, easy does it. Don’t make your little colonel sing out before he time.” And she laughed and he laughed.
    The fat woman rolled a little to the side and then back. She rolled a little farther and then back. “We make that little colonel sing for his supper,” she said.
    As she turned, it seemed her breasts were pillows.
    Jonah had never felt anything as right or as comforting. It was as if he’d spent all his life crawling on his hands and knees to this place. He no longer felt the sores on his back or the blisters on his hands.
    W H EN J O NAH WOKE THERE was just light enough to see the trees overhead. Birds were loud in the woods below. The leaves beside him were empty. He sat up and saw the fat woman was gone. He stood and walked down to the clearing and found ashes and burned logs where the fire had been. The tub of beer was gone. He was naked and leaves stuck to the dried sweat and pine resin on his body.
    If his clothes were truly gone Jonah knew he was in deep trouble. For where could he go without clothes? How could he ever get anywhere to steal clothes or buy clothes if he was naked? A naked Negro would be arrested on sight. Jonah looked around the clearing and finally found his shirt wadded up in the dirt under the bushes. He dusted the fabric off and put it on. Then he searched under the trees and brush for his overalls. Panic began to wash away the sweet memory of the night before.
    And then he saw his overalls half covered with needles under a pine tree. He brushed them off and felt in the pockets. The