Early the next morning all of the older children and the adults were in the kitchen eating. Beauty was dressing to leave for work, pulling on her gloves and looking in the mirror by the back kitchen door to pin her hat.
“You make sure Mrs. Pillsbury drives you back tonight,” Sarah told her.
“Yes Ma’am, she already said she would. Stop worrying, Mama,” Beauty told her mother as she kissed her and left out the back door.
“I believe I’ll go along our trap lines today, clean up what’s there and re-bait. Keep out of the way of those people,” Sylvester said, stretching as he stood from his place at the table. “We’ll probably be all right, the lines haven’t been out that long, just two days. We can still keep them running, keep up our good take. We made over three hundred dollars off of those lines last year.”
“Leave these boys here, son. I want them in one more day,” Sarah said, nodding at Roy and Daniel.
Both young men looked at their uncle, pleading clear in their eyes, but Sylvester just grinned at them.
“You keep them in one more day Mama, get them to strip the wax off your floors for you. Keep them good and busy all day,” he laughed as his nephews groaned.
“You two can stay in again and help me. Your uncle’s right, get out the lye bucket and get going,” Sarah told them.
“We’ll keep you two here, safe away from those mobs and Fanny Taylor’s stories. Don’t worry Roy, we’ll still do fine with the trap line this month, make even more money than last. We’ll show them what a colored man can do, once he gets the chance to really try,” Sylvester laughed.
A strange look crossed Sarah’s face. Everyone turned and looked in the same direction as Sarah, towards the hallway kitchen door.
A woman was standing there, pale and trembling. “I’ve come, I’ve come for Mrs. Taylor’s wash,” she stuttered. “You all have her wash, she said, and she needs it back. I can come back though,” she told them as she stumbled backwards into the swinging door.
“Mrs. Eustis, hold on now,” Sarah called and followed after the woman. Everyone in the kitchen could hear the woman, making a high pitched moaning sound, as she fled down the hall, Sarah calling after her. They all winced at the sound of the front door as it banged open against the wall.
“ What’s gotten into her?” Daniel asked. “She looked scared to death.”
“ Maybe all the commotion out on the road frightened her?” Rose guessed. They turned back to their breakfasts, looking up towards the hallway door from time to time, shaking their heads and shrugging at one another.
Sarah returned to the kitchen. “That woman is a fool. She ran right on out of here.” She told them how Mrs. Eustis scurried up the hall, crying, refusing to wait for Sarah, flinging open the front door. Once she was on the porch she turned, crying out.
“I heard what he said, I heard what he said. No woman is safe any more,” she’d squealed.
Sarah followed the woman to her automobile and tried to calm her but the woman shook off Sarah’s hand and scurried in the driver’s door. She almost ran over A.T. as she drove away after he cranked her car for her.
“What did she hear?” Rose asked, mystified. “What did you all say that was so bad?”
“What did who say?” Sylvester asked.
“What was said?” Daniel asked, puzzled. Everyone looked around at each other, thinking of the laughing comments and good-natured teasing.
“You said something about the trap lines, making good money off the trap lines,” Rose said.
“That woman’s crazy”, Sylvester shook his head, “What’s she all scared of, somebody says that?”
Sarah was frowning, lost in thought. “You said ‘Keep these boys safe from the mob and Fanny Taylor’s stories’. ‘...Just goes to show, what a colored man could do if he had the chance...’ ‘Fanny Taylor... colored man do if he had a chance.’ You think she thinks you were talking about Mrs. Taylor?”
“What!” Sylvester exclaimed. “But that’s not what I said, Mama, not at all.”
“She thought you said something so terrible she ran right on out of here. Oh Lord, give me victory over these troubles,” Sarah said. “That woman is the worst scatterbrain in Sumner. We better take that wash on over there right now, and try to calm her down. No telling what she’ll say to those men coming around here. Marlene, get Mary and A.T., you all grab that laundry and we’ll go on over. The rest of you get busy with the chores, let’s try and get some work done today. Son, make tracks on out of here, stay off for today,” she warned him.
“I didn’t say anything,” Sylvester repeated as everyone went out from the kitchen.