Slave Graves (River Sunday Romance Mysteries Book 1) by Thomas Hollyday
Authors: Thomas Hollyday
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“My father’s job ended when Jake went to his father and got him to throw out my dad and mom and me and my brother. Jake was angry at us two kids for some reason, some game out in the yard that he had lost. He made up that my mother was stealing some of the silverware. My mother never stole anything in her life but some of the silver was missing. I was pretty young at the time. I didn’t understand that Jake had probably hid the silver himself just to get my mother in trouble. I still played with Jake for a few more years. I just didn’t live there at Peachblossom anymore.”
“I remember the dancer woman kept a bottle of dye for her bright red hair. Jake told me one time that he poured the dye out on the floor. He got slapped around pretty good for that, maybe by her but I think by the old man.”
“Does she still live up there at the mansion house?”
“She never did live up at the big house. The old man kept her down in a little cottage about a quarter mile from the house. It was one of the old slave quarters that he had fixed up. She would just come up to the big house during the day. After the old man died, Jake sent her away. Jake told folks that she wanted to live in Baltimore. She was an old lady by then. Still had that bright red hair. I guess she and Jake didn’t get along. I bet he didn’t give her a cent out of the old man’s money either, probably not even bus fare.”
“Jake would do that?”
“It’s a side of him that people don’t know. The woman liked animals. She was superstitious sure but she never hurt animals. I remember she would take a fly outside. A housefly. Wouldn’t let anybody kill a fly. Jake may hate cats just because she liked them, just to spite her memory.”
“I guess you learn to figure out people, being a preacher. You get to know both sides, the good and the bad.”
“Yes, you do. Little hard finding the good side of Jake Terment, though. It’s been one of the toughest jobs in my ministry, finding something good to think about that man,” he said, as he climbed down into his probe pit to continue his work. “Even in all the evil I saw in Vietnam I was able to find some good in the faith of some of the men. Not as easy when I start thinking about Jake Terment.”
Frank paused, “I wanted to help children in that war,” he said thoughtfully.
“Children?”
“Yes, in those days I thought that the war was to make South Vietnam into a haven for children, a place where these kids would grow not being slaves to the communist government, a place where they would be free.”
Frank worked at the soil again, “I went over there to help kids. Then this little boy comes along and nearly kills me and kills all my buddies, guys I had spent months with.”
“Viet Cong sapper?”
Frank nodded. “Big explosion. We never knew what hit us.”
They worked silently for a few minutes. Then the Pastor changed the subject. “So you and Maggie worked together before.”
“Maggie was the best field school student I ever taught.”
“You two make a nice couple, both archaeologists. It’s good to have the same career. My wife and I were both in the church. We talked about similar things. It was good.”
Frank had never thought of Maggie that way, of the two of them as a romantic couple. The last time he had seen her she was a student finishing college and he was a hardened war veteran just getting his feet back on solid ground as a teacher. On this site, they shared their expertise as professional archeologists. It was a form of equality, a mutual outlook on the problems and excitement of this wreck excavation. The equality brought them closer together, made him look forward to her opinions on each new discovery, as the hours went by in the tension and heat. They were not related in the normal sense of the word, not brother and sister, but, the Pastor was right, a special kinship was there between them.
“I hope to meet your wife before I leave,” said
“My father’s job ended when Jake went to his father and got him to throw out my dad and mom and me and my brother. Jake was angry at us two kids for some reason, some game out in the yard that he had lost. He made up that my mother was stealing some of the silverware. My mother never stole anything in her life but some of the silver was missing. I was pretty young at the time. I didn’t understand that Jake had probably hid the silver himself just to get my mother in trouble. I still played with Jake for a few more years. I just didn’t live there at Peachblossom anymore.”
“I remember the dancer woman kept a bottle of dye for her bright red hair. Jake told me one time that he poured the dye out on the floor. He got slapped around pretty good for that, maybe by her but I think by the old man.”
“Does she still live up there at the mansion house?”
“She never did live up at the big house. The old man kept her down in a little cottage about a quarter mile from the house. It was one of the old slave quarters that he had fixed up. She would just come up to the big house during the day. After the old man died, Jake sent her away. Jake told folks that she wanted to live in Baltimore. She was an old lady by then. Still had that bright red hair. I guess she and Jake didn’t get along. I bet he didn’t give her a cent out of the old man’s money either, probably not even bus fare.”
“Jake would do that?”
“It’s a side of him that people don’t know. The woman liked animals. She was superstitious sure but she never hurt animals. I remember she would take a fly outside. A housefly. Wouldn’t let anybody kill a fly. Jake may hate cats just because she liked them, just to spite her memory.”
“I guess you learn to figure out people, being a preacher. You get to know both sides, the good and the bad.”
“Yes, you do. Little hard finding the good side of Jake Terment, though. It’s been one of the toughest jobs in my ministry, finding something good to think about that man,” he said, as he climbed down into his probe pit to continue his work. “Even in all the evil I saw in Vietnam I was able to find some good in the faith of some of the men. Not as easy when I start thinking about Jake Terment.”
Frank paused, “I wanted to help children in that war,” he said thoughtfully.
“Children?”
“Yes, in those days I thought that the war was to make South Vietnam into a haven for children, a place where these kids would grow not being slaves to the communist government, a place where they would be free.”
Frank worked at the soil again, “I went over there to help kids. Then this little boy comes along and nearly kills me and kills all my buddies, guys I had spent months with.”
“Viet Cong sapper?”
Frank nodded. “Big explosion. We never knew what hit us.”
They worked silently for a few minutes. Then the Pastor changed the subject. “So you and Maggie worked together before.”
“Maggie was the best field school student I ever taught.”
“You two make a nice couple, both archaeologists. It’s good to have the same career. My wife and I were both in the church. We talked about similar things. It was good.”
Frank had never thought of Maggie that way, of the two of them as a romantic couple. The last time he had seen her she was a student finishing college and he was a hardened war veteran just getting his feet back on solid ground as a teacher. On this site, they shared their expertise as professional archeologists. It was a form of equality, a mutual outlook on the problems and excitement of this wreck excavation. The equality brought them closer together, made him look forward to her opinions on each new discovery, as the hours went by in the tension and heat. They were not related in the normal sense of the word, not brother and sister, but, the Pastor was right, a special kinship was there between them.
“I hope to meet your wife before I leave,” said
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