Out From This Place by Joyce Hansen Page A

comment. But this evening it seemed that all Rose and Rayford did was talk, which was unlike Rayford. Easter wanted to ask them what they thought about her going north, but she couldn’t get a chance to say anything. Even Melissa noticed Rayford’s changed personality.
    â€œYou actin’ like a young boy, old man,” she joked.
    â€œHe ain’t no old man,” Rose defended him. Her dark eyes seemed livelier than usual. Then she hesitated as if she had something else to say but wasn’t certain how to say it. “We been livin’ like a family, so I guess you’ll be the first to get the news—me and Rayford is marryin’. A real marriage too. No slave marriage, where someone could sell him away from me or me away from him.”
    â€œThat’s why I never married before,” Rayford added, “because it didn’t mean anything.” He rubbed Rose’s arm. “And I never met anyone as beautiful as Rose.”
    â€œOr who could cook like Rose.” Sarah winked.
    Easter found her voice. She knew there was a special feeling between Rose and Rayford, but marriage? She neverthought of that. “Oh, Rose, it’s wonderful,” she said, embracing her.
    Rose frowned. “We have to find a minister who will marry us.”
    Easter waved her hand. “You could find a minister easy.”
    Rayford picked up his spoon. “One preacher already refused. Said that just because President Lincoln signed that Emancipation Proclamation doesn’t mean we’re really free. He said maybe we weren’t slaves, but we weren’t citizens either.”
    â€œAnd another preacher refused too,” Rose added. “He say we belong to the Yankee now, so let them marry us.”
    â€œPull up them long faces,” Melissa said. “You’ll find a preacher, and we goin’ to have a celebration.” As Rose, Melissa, and Sarah chatted about the wedding, Easter decided not to say anything about her problem. She’d have to make her own decision in the end, so she joined their conversation.
    â€œAnd that ain’t all, Easter,” Rose said excitedly. “Mr. Reynolds say we can buy one of them cottages near the big house that used to be for the house servants on this place. We have two whole rooms.”
    Easter tried to concentrate on Rose’s conversation but she couldn’t help thinking about Obi. Wondering whether they’d ever be together again. And a thought she’d never had before—whether someday they’d be like Rose and Rayford and get married. But suppose she went north? What would happen then?
    â€œEaster!” Rose said. “You ain’t listening to a word I saying.”
    â€œYes, I am, Rosie. I thinking about marriages and weddings. And we have to get busy to make you a good wedding.”
    Easter and the other women prepared for the wedding, even though no one knew when it would take place. “We’ll be ready when it happen,” Isabel said as she wove thecotton yarn in the spinning house one evening for Rose’s wedding dress.
    Easter picked up the carding brush so that she could comb the cotton fibers. “Maybe they could get that preacher who visit here sometime,” she suggested.
    â€œHe boring,” Isabel said.
    Another woman who was helping them laughed. “It only take ten minutes to say them marriage words. We tell him to just marry Rose and Rayford and don’t preach.”
    The wedding preparations helped Easter forget her own problems for a while. Rayford shook his head one evening as he watched Easter hem the white cotton dress Isabel had made for Rose. “You know what look right pretty, Rose?” Easter asked. “Isabel get some more of this cloth and we wrap your head in it.”
    â€œOh no. That look like I workin’ in the field,” Rose protested.
    Easter thought about Mariah. “The old grandmother down at the coast tell me that in