It was Watch Night, December 31st, and there was a cakewalk scheduled as part of the evening’s festivities at the church. Rose wanted to bring a cake called Lady Baltimore; she liked the romantic name.
Sarah told her “That’s kind of a fussy cake, temperature and everything needs to be just right. Why don’t you make a One-Two-Three-Four cake for your first try?”
But Rose was set on the fancy white cake with a Sea Foam frosting, so Sarah got out her recipe box and found the card for Rose and helped her set out the tools and ingredients she’d need.
Nothing went easily in the kitchen that morning. First she broke a rotten egg into the three she had already separated, so she had to dump out all four and wash the bowl. Then the egg whites wouldn’t whip in to peaks.
Happy walked by, looked in the bowl and told Rose “You probably have a little egg yolk in there, you can whip all day and they won’t get stiff. Dump that mess out, clean the bowl really well, and try again.”
The next bowl of whites finally whipped up and Rose mixed the batter, but she must have accidentally left out some ingredient because the cake was a fallen, soggy mess. Refusing Queen’s help, Rose started over with more egg whites, more ingredients, and tried the recipe again.
“Maybe you should bring pudding,” Happy said, earning a stern look from Sarah. Happy’s Devil’s Food cake was already in the pantry, frosted and ready for the bidding.
“I’m going to bring a Lady Baltimore cake,” Rose told her, a grim look on her face.
Happy and Sarah couldn’t help but smile at each other, faced with Rose’s determination.
“All right, your choice,” Happy told her.
The second cake looked wonderful, puffed high and golden brown.
Rose started on the Sea Foam icing, a cooked mixture that required many steps. She caramelized a cup of sugar. She chopped pecans, raisins and figs, grumbling at the sticky glob she created. She rinsed the knife in hot water, chopped until it gummed up again, rinsed, and chopped until it all was cut up in tiny separate pieces. She separated two more eggs, mixed in the sugar, water and cane syrup, put it in a double boiler and started beating it with the hand mixer.
She kept beating it, watching the timer. Two minutes, and her elbow started to complain.
“You must have a real important reason for making such a difficult cake,” Happy probed.
“I’m going to make this cake,” Rose told her.
“You want me to beat it some?” Queen offered.
“Nope.”
Three minutes, Rose switched hands. Four minutes, she switched back. Both elbows were aching.
“Let me take over, Honey, you’re going to hurt your arm,” Sarah told her.
“No Ma’am, thank you but I’ll do it.”
Five minutes, six minutes, whirling the eggbeater in the foamy mixture. She switched hands again, blew a strand of hair out of her face. Seven minutes.
“You better give it one more minute if you’re adding caramel for Sea Foam icing,” Happy warned her. “I’m serious, the caramel can make it too soft.”
Eight minutes.
“Get it right off that heat!” Sarah directed. “Add in the caramel, and don’t forget the vanilla.”
The three women were all gathered around Rose, watching the pan as the frosting started to cool and she kept beating.
Ten minutes of constant beating. Fifteen minutes, eighteen minutes of mixing.
Sarah told her “That looks just right, Rose. Give it a taste.”
Rose took the spoon that Queen offered her, dipped up a little of the glossy light brown confection, tasted it. Her arm muscles were so tired it felt like the spoon was floating in her hand.
“What do you think?” she asked Sarah, and passed her another spoon.
Sarah took a small bit, tasted it. Took another spoon and passed it to Happy.
“Hmph. Not bad,” Happy told her, then grinned. “Real good.”
Sarah smiled and told her, “It is good, just right, and it looks beautiful.”
Rose smiled wide, her eyes shining.
“I know, look at how pretty it is!” she agreed, and gave Queen a taste.
“It sure is pretty, Rose,” Queen said. “Now hurry up and frost those layers, you need to get your clothes ready.”
Rose split the two cake layers in to four thin layers and frosted each one after she stacked it on a pink glass plate. She spread the top layer and sides with a thick coat of frosting and moved the cake to the pantry to wait until that evening.
“You look good,” she told the cake, and grinned.
“Somebody’s going to pay a whole dollar for that cake,” Sarah told her when she returned to the kitchen.
“Oh, do you think it will bid up that high?” Rose asked with a worried frown.
“Oh, I think a certain young man will bid a dollar right off, make sure nobody else gets it, and I think you know who, too,” Sarah teased.
Rose just smiled. “Maybe, but maybe Uncle Syl will bid two dollars. It’s an awful good looking cake.”
Both of them laughed as Rose headed off to get her clothes ready for the party.
Since Rose had never worn any of the party dresses Beauty and Happy had made over the years, she had several to choose from, and the two sisters made her try them all on. Beauty and Happy discussed and argued over every choice, and Queen also had lots to say; but in the end Rose chose the simplest one, a dark blue wool with black velvet collar and cuffs, jet buttons and a blue satin sash.
When the four of them came down Sylvester and Gertrude were in the hall outside the parlor door, giggling.
“Mr. Hall is waiting in the parlor,” Sylvester whispered to the ladies. “He’s in a staring match with A.T. and Roy.”
Daniel came in to the hall, pulling on his coat. He stopped still when he saw Rose.
“You look... you look so beautiful,” he said.
Rose could feel her face heat up.
“You look so nice in your suit,” she told him.
“Love is flying all over the place tonight,” Sylvester told a smiling Gertrude. “No man is safe.”
“Let’s get this over with,” Happy grumbled. Beauty and Sylvester smiled at each other, shaking their heads.
As they entered the parlor, Roy and A.T. were truly staring at John Hall; he was wearing a tuxedo and they weren’t sure what kind of suit it was, having never before seen one. Mr. Hall hastily rose from the sofa when he saw Happy and took her hand, which she had sullenly outstretched in greeting. He returned her solemn words of hello, took her other hand in his and turned her from side to side.
“Why Miss Carrier, you look so lovely, red should be your signature color,” he complimented her.
Happy rolled her eyes.
“All right, let’s go then,” she mumbled, and marched out to the porch with Mr. Hall hurrying to open the door for her. The rest of the group followed them out, calling their goodbyes to Sarah, who was following with Roy, Marlene and the younger children in the wagon.
“Aunt Sarah will bring the cakes, won’t she?” Rose asked.
“We brought them this afternoon,” Daniel told her. “We had four cakes and all the other food to bring so Grandmama sent us while you all were getting ready. Your cake looks fine, Rose, I can’t wait to taste it.”
“How do you know the winner will share it with you?” she teased him. “Maybe Uncle Sylvester will be the highest bidder. He could eat the whole thing all by himself.”
“I think I’ll be having that cake,” Daniel said, smiling.
Rose shivered and had to look away, she felt so happy and nervous at the same time.
In the late afternoon light the sun’s long rays were making stained glass of the space between the tree trunks surrounding the church. The church pews, carried outside to make room for the party, were full of people sitting and talking and eating.
Beauty moved off to join a group of women from the church choir. The two older couples went inside and left the three younger people outside to greet school friends. All of their classmates were present, most sitting or standing near their teacher and her husband.
“It was the most wonderful pageant we’ve had,” Mrs. Gussie Carrier was declaring as the three young people walked up. “We’ve never had so many good voices. They did a wonderful job with the songs.”
A shadowy figure drifted through the trees, then was illuminated in the torchlight as it approached.
“Look Queen, it’s Miss Goins,” Rose told her friend.
Approaching them was Queen’s other grandmother, looking tiny and old, with dark circles under her eyes, her hair in wild braids.
“Granny, you come sit down here,” Queen exclaimed, surprised by the disheveled appearance of her grandmother. She and Rose helped the older woman to sit; she leaned heavily on them as she lowered herself to the bench and gave a muffled groan of discomfort as she sat.
“I thought you were in Gainesville,” Queen said as she sat next to her grandmother and took her hand.
“I came on the last train, and I’m going back on the return from Cedar Key. I only have an hour to fetch you and your brother. You’re coming back to Gainesville with me. You run on and find him now, and we’ll go on down to the depot.”
“Gainesville? Why? Granny, there’s a big party here tonight, and besides, we’re not packed or anything,” Queen protested.
“Forget it! Forget it all! You run and find your brother. I can’t change what’s coming but I can pull you out, all those things don’t mean a thing if I lose you! Now go and get him, you mind me!” Miss Goins ordered, shaking her hand at Queen.
“Go find Auntie Sarah,” Rose whispered to her friend. “She must be here now, or go look for Sylvester.”
“You should come with us,” Granny Goins, wild eyed, told Rose as Queen hurried off. “There’s no reason you have to stay here. Not your kin, not your part, you can avoid it all. Come on now to Gainesville, maybe that one action can avert all that awful mess. No lonely widows, no frightened children alone in the cold and darkness. They all look like ghosts, little ghosts in white running across the open road, on to the black train. She’ll wave it down with a black flag, they’ll all run out, little ghosts, but that’s all that will be left, ghosts, all the men locked up and gone forever, nothing left except the depot and all these ghosts,” she moaned, clutching Rose’s arm as she stared in to her eyes.
Rose could feel the hair on her neck rising up and a cold chill shook her as she held on to the frail old woman.
Gussie Carrier looked up, noticed Rose’s distressed face, and hurried over.
“Miss Goins, are you all right?” she asked as she sat down. Rose could see Sarah and Queen hurrying over from the wagon.
“Don’t let her fall,” Sarah warned.
Rose could feel the old woman sliding down on the bench; she had fainted. With the help of the schoolteacher she propped Miss Goins up until Sarah could reach her. Sarah slid on the bench next to the unconscious woman and held her around the shoulders as Gussie ran for some water.
“She was talking all wild, Auntie, about ghosts and dead people,” Rose told Sarah.
“Poor thing, when she was young she used to have these fits sometimes, grow wild and fearful, then fall into a faint. I haven’t seen her like this in a long time. Let’s have Sylvester carry her back to the house in the wagon, she can stay with us and I’ll be able to watch over her,” Sarah decided. “You go tell him to come help.”
When Rose returned with Sylvester, Miss Goins was again conscious and sitting up, arguing with Sarah.
“I’m going tonight and taking those children with me,” she was telling Sarah as Rose approached.
“Amelia Goins, you’re not well and you should at least let me care for you tonight. I hate the idea of you on that train after you’ve had a spell,” Sarah was pleading. “Please, just tonight.”
“Tonight is too late! We have to go now, my grand babies need to get out of this town and that other one too, her,” Miss Goins cried, pointing a trembling finger at Rose. “The rest of you are doomed, doomed and no one can save you, no one will listen to you, no one will help. The train will come but come too late, only ghosts will be left,” she sobbed as she turned around to look at the group of people, standing in a circle around her.
Daniel and Queen went to their grandmother and each took her by an arm as they tried to lead her to the wagon. She shook them off, started towards the road and the depot, calling out to them.
“You come on now, there’s no more time to argue,” she cried.
They turned towards Sarah, who came over and took the two of them by the arm, leading them back a step.
“Don’t you hold them!” Miss Goins screamed, "Don't lay your dead hands on them! I can save them, don’t you doom them to your own fate, rotting in an open grave!” she cried, running at Sarah and striking her in the chest.
A cry of dismay went up from the crowd, and Daniel held his granny off as Queen stood between her and Sarah.
“I see the way it is,” Miss Goins told them, shoving Daniel away. “I see, she’s most important in your hearts now. I can do nothing here. I knew, I knew it was hopeless, I watch and I can see it all burning, like a circle of fire from above, but even if I can fly over and see I can’t touch or change anything. You’re doomed, my poor babies, you’re doomed,” she moaned.
“You’re all doomed,” she cried, pointing her finger around at the people standing in front of the church. “It’s all ashes, and I can’t do anything to save you. Goodbye then, goodbye Sarah Carrier, your pride will do you no good now,” she called out as she turned and fled up the road towards the train depot.
“Grandmama, let me go get her,” Daniel asked, and Sarah nodded.
“Make sure she makes her train, son, bring her back if she doesn’t.”
The church members were shaking their heads, some coming to ask Sarah if she was all right.
“I’m fine, the poor thing, she’s just frightened and confused. She’s told us all before the same story, told us many times over the years.”
Several older women nodded in agreement, remembering.
“I don’t know what about this place frightens her so,” Sarah said. “She moved to Gainesville years ago after one of these fits. I kind of wondered if one was coming after she came for her sister last month. I hope she’s not ill on the train, they’ll put her off somewhere along the line if she acts too wild. Maybe Daniel should go with her.” At the stricken look on Queen’s face, Sarah told her, “Never mind, I’m sure she’ll be quiet and sleep. Usually she does after one of her spells. I’ll send Sylvester to the depot to send a telegram to Gainesville, have someone meet her. Let’s go in,” she said, “And get these children settled down.”