ROSEWOOD

        The train was moving slowly west, past the thick forests of pine and down along the tracks towards the Gulf. It stopped in the town of Archer, the headlight of the train sweeping across the few storefronts of the downtown as the train pulled into the depot, the bright yellow paint of the station walls coming into view as the light of dawn came over the tops of the trees.

         Rose Winter was almost dreaming, hardly awake, as she had been for so much of her trip. I can’t wait to get off of this train! she thought as the train pulled out of the Archer station, jerking her awake on the hard wicker bench where she sat. She kept moving around, trying to be comfortable. I don’t care what it’s like here, as long as I can stretch out flat on a bed somewhere. I don’t think I’ll be able to stand up straight for a week.

         Rose slept for a while but a cold breeze zipped across the back of her neck and she opened her eyes and shivered. Rose tried again to close the window completely but it was leaky and bursts of air kept spitting from the seams. She looked out the window into the dark woods coming into view as dawn moved towards morning. Trees that seemed impossibly tall, trees covered in vines and surrounded by thick undergrowth lined both sides of the railroad tracks, filling the view for as far as she could see.

         There hasn’t been a real town since Gainesville, she thought. Where is this place, Rosewood?

         Another draft blew across her face, and she shifted around to get out of the cold air. When she faced forward she realized the old woman who’d gotten on the train in Gainesville was watching her, her needlework in her lap as her bright eyes looked at Rose. She’d gotten on the train and come straight over to the bench across from Rose, even though every other seat in the car was empty. Rose had closed her eyes at once and in her fitful sleep had forgotten her, but here she was, looking across at Rose.

         “Where you from?” the woman asked. “Where you going on this train? You’re not lost, I hope, since this train has only a few more stops before Cedar Key and you sure don’t want to go there. Town’s full of sailors and rustlers, no decent people there. Where you going?”

         Nosy old thing, Rose thought. “Ma’am, I’m coming from Chicago, going to Rosewood, Florida. I’m going to the home of Mrs. Sarah Carrier, do you know her?”

         The woman let out a snort and said “Course I know Mrs. Carrier, you’re kin to most everybody in the town, if you’re kin to the Carriers. Who’s your mama, young lady?” the old woman asked, leaning forward and peering intently at Rose.

         Rose did not want to cry in front of this stranger. She felt her eyes start to fill and drew a deep breath to keep the tears from forming.

         Old lady, I won’t cry in front of you, she thought.

         “My mother was May Love, she married James Winter, they moved to Chicago from Rosewood. She’s married now to my stepfather, Robert Thompson. Mama thought maybe Mrs. Carrier could use some help down here and they talked it over and sent me down for the winter to help out.”

         “Sent you off just at the start of the holidays? Must be Sarah Carrier needs a whole lot of help,” the woman said, watching Rose’s face. “Maybe she does with that big old house and all those children, children and grandchildren and cousins in and out of that house, more than you can count. Maybe she does need some help. She’s the same age as me and I’m sure tired.”

         Rose smiled at the woman, and the woman laughed.

         “Everybody sending their girls off here and there nowadays, and most of them too young if you ask me, you’d think there was some kind of shortage of young ladies the way they’re shipping them off to help out. Seems like the only helping out going on is for men who need brides and step daddies who don’t want to feed somebody else’s children.”

         Rose looked down at the floor, feeling embarrassed.

         “Well. I don’t know about that,” the woman said. “You say you came all the way from Chicago? All by yourself? You must be more grown up than you look.”

         “I’ll be sixteen in three months,” Rose replied.

         “Fifteen!  You came all that way and you’re only fifteen? You look young enough to still want a dolly, girl. Young enough to miss your mama, I guess. I remember her some, May Love, little gal with that sweet voice. Big brown eyes, real pretty. You favor her some. Your daddy I knew real well, he was a special boy, so kind hearted. He had a soft spot for every living thing. Sad day when they left town, and nobody missed your daddy more than Sarah’s son Sylvester. His heart ‘bout broke when your daddy died, girl. Terrible thing that was, terrible.”

         Rose nodded, tears threatening again.

         “Terrible thing, terrible things happening all the time. I come to get my sister Lucille this Christmas, same as I do every year, but this time I’m not bringing her back after the new year. Terrible things coming, and we should be together. Both our husbands gone and I am surely not moving back to this town. She and the other two can come to Gainesville, terrible things coming.”

         The old woman shuddered, and Rose felt her own skin hunching up in goose bumps.

         “I had a dream,” the woman whispered, leaning forward to take Rose’s hands in her own. “I dreamed I came for Lucille and she was gone, the whole town was gone, nothing here except the depot and it was covered in vines and the roof was falling down. There was someone standing next to me on the platform, but I couldn’t see her face. All I could see was the white flannel nightdress she wore, and she didn’t say a word but I felt as if my heart was about to break. Standing next to her I could feel the awful emptiness, the town and everyone in it, gone.”

         Rose was beginning to feel afraid but the woman let go of her hands and sat back, sighing.

         “There’s no store to put by dreams, girl,” she muttered, and slowly rubbed her hands across her face. “Leastways, not the dreams of an old woman, dreams my whole lifetime and I’m old, and tired, and I always dream rough when I have to come here.” She looked at Rose again and nodded her head.

         “You seem like a good girl, and promising,” the woman said. “I’m going to give you a hand, keep you safe for your mama. Probably nothing to worry about, I’ve never seen you in my dreams, but a hand won’t hurt you none.”

         The old woman pulled a red square of cloth from her sewing and held it out to Rose. Rose looked at it, puzzled, and the woman laughed.

         “You never seen a mojo before? Never had a Hand of Glory to keep you safe? You take this one, pin it inside your clothes. Put it right inside your undershirt, over your heart, and wear it all the time. I’ll say a prayer for you and ask the spirits to keep a look out over you.”

         Rose didn’t understand anything the woman was saying and was almost frightened by her intensity, but not wanting to offend she simply thanked the old woman and slipped the square into her coat pocket.

         “You mind me now, old Granny Goins, I’m going to keep you in my mind. You’ll meet my gal out there, and the boy, and Miss Sarah’s going to care for you so that’s all right. Good spirits won’t let the demons near. You reach up and get your case,” Granny Goins told Rose, “And you hand my basket down. You mind Sarah Carrier, she’s a good woman. You work hard, you’ll be all right. I think I see two of her girls waiting for you on the platform.”

         As they gathered their things Rose could see the two women waiting on the platform. They called out when they spotted Rose in the carriage window and began jumping up and down and waving. Rose smiled and moved towards the front of the carriage, but Granny Goins grabbed her arm and jerked her to a stop, startling Rose.

         “Here! You pay attention, girl!” Granny Goins whispered in a hiss. “Don’t you ever use the front door of a rail car on this or any other train!  The back platform is for colored. You got to be careful here, some folks is crazy and it never pays to give them ideas. You hear me?” She shook Rose’s arm.

         “Yes Ma’am, I won’t,” Rose told her, shocked and embarrassed.

         “Mind that you don’t. Don’t cause nobody trouble over nothing, like using the wrong door or looking the wrong way. You got to be careful down here.” The old woman shook Rose’s arm once more, then let her go.

         “That’s enough about that,” she said. “Now come on, let’s go meet your aunties.” Leaning on Rose’s arm, Granny Goins and Rose moved to the rear steps of the car and onto the platform of the railway station.