Love, Freedome and the Owl

1.

Love, Freedom, and the Owl

By Louis Porter II

There was something about that old owl that got Lizzie’s attention.

Instead of being in the barn, like the one before him, this owl always perched on a tree next to the cabin she shared with Josh. Josh was her husband and she loved him so much. Like, Lizzie, Josh worked for Mr. Adams. They were slaves, but didn’t think about it much, especially Lizzie. They just worked and worked and worked, six days a week. Worked so much that work was all Lizzie knew. Early in their marriage Josh started talking about being free and it scared her.

Lizzie had been content, if not happy, until she met Josh. Josh worked hard, just like her, and didn’t complain much. “What good it do to whine? Just make it worse,” Lizzie’s mama had told her, and Lizzie would always nod her head. Mama died young and Lizzie felt so alone, even when the other women and families went out of their way to be nice to her, share their food and check on her. Aunt Sing, like a sister to Lizzie’s Mama, kept her eyes on Lizzie a lot, just like Mama used to do.

Even though she shared a cabin with one of the families, Lizzie had the kind of lonely hurts. The youngest girl in that cabin called her Aunt Lizzie and inside Lizzie laughed because she was not much older than this cute little girl who called her aunt. Still, Lizzie felt like the only person on Earth, until Josh.

Josh had talked to her every chance he got when they had breaks from picking cotton or fixing things around the Adams Plantation. Breaks were few and far between, but Josh always looked for Lizzie, sat next to her. Sometimes, it seemed like Josh didn’t finish his food he was so busy looking at Lizzie. Lizzie wondered how such a big man could forget to finish his lunch, stuffing leftovers in his overalls.

“How you doin, gal?” he would say and smile. Looking, down Lizzie would always say “fine” even if she was hurting. She tried not to let on how much she liked Josh at first. Her mama had taught her to be careful around men. All men. Lizzie was always careful, but with Josh she knew, deep down, she did not have to worry about him. He was big and tough-looking, but she knew he had a good heart. A soft heart, the kind her mama said her daddy had. “Ain’t many men like yo daddy,” Mama would say, and Lizzie would nod. Daddy was sold off to the Miller place when Lizzie was six. She tried to remember him, but sometimes it was like Daddy was nothing but a dream.

Days, weeks, and months went by and they were all the same to Lizzie, except when she got to spend time with Josh. Sometimes, on Sundays after church Lizzie would pull together some of the food her family had and make a picnic for her and Josh. There would always be cornbread and vegetables, and even a little bit of pork if they were lucky.

2.

The moments with Josh made life more bearable. She found out he had been sold from a plantation far, far away. He had worked there for a while until he came to work on her side of the place. Josh kept mostly to himself, except he had an uncle on the plantation. That uncle was his mother’s brother and thought of Josh as a son, maybe because all of his children were girls.

Although Josh was supposed to be in a cabin with the other single men, too many of them for the size of the cabin, Josh spent most of his time with his uncle and aunt and their girls. Overseer didn’t mind, as long as Josh got his work done. And Josh always worked harder than most of the men.

One day, almost out of nowhere, Josh said to Lizzie, “You’s a fine woman and I wants ya to be ma wife.” Lizzie thought she misunderstood, and she still thought of herself as a girl. So, for this big man to call her a woman didn’t seem quite right. All she could say was, “Huh?”

“Ya heard me, I wants ya to be my wife.” Lizzie tried to talk, but .it was like molasses, a whole lot of molasses, was in her mouth. “I gotta go,” was all she could blurt out and she ran away, leaving Josh looking confused.

Lizzie ran until she could find Aunt Sing. “Auntie, Josh dun ast me to marry him!” she said, without saying hello to Aunt Sing and the other women she was sitting with, finishing their lunch. “Well, hello to you to, Lizzie. I know Mary taught you better than that. Girl, you is outta breath. Sit down here. What did you say?”

The other women were holding back laughter. “I said, Josh done ast me to jump ‘da broom!”

Her aunt answered, “Well, I knew he would, wit his big self. Y’all looks a sight, he so big and you so little. I been watching you two make eyes at each other. What answer did ‘ya give him?”

“Nothing, auntie, I ran away,” Lizzie responded.

At that, the women could not hold back any longer. Their little circle erupted into laughter and the overseer looked at them before Aunt Sing said, “Y’all stop laughing at my chile,” which didn’t have much power because Aunt Sing was laughing too. “So you ran away without answering that boy. “Ya done probably gone and hurt his feelings.”

“I would never hurt him Aunt Sing, I love him from his big head to his big feet,” Lizzie blurted out. The other women were, once again, trying to hold back their laughter. One woman wiped a tear from her eye and Lizzie wondered why her auntie’s friend was laughing and crying at the same time. Old women were strange sometimes.

Lunch time was almost over, and Aunt Sing told everybody it would soon be time to get back to work. “As soon as you can, you give Josh his answer, tonight, when work is dun fo de day, we go up to the big house and ask Mr. Adams if you can marry Josh.”

“How ‘ya know I’m gonna say yes?” Lizzie asked.

“Girl, git back to work and stop ‘actin silly,” was all Aunt Sing said.

3.

When she got back to the spot, Josh was still there, stuffing food in his overalls. Crumbs of bread fell to the ground, lunch for the birds in a few minutes, Lizzie thought.

He asked her what was wrong, running the way she had. Lizzie did not answer that question, mostly because she couldn’t. She just kept saying yes over and over again.

A broad grin came over Josh’s face and then it was his turn to run because the overseer was staring at him and he knew that meant it was time to get back to work.

That night, Lizzie and Aunt Sing made what seemed like a long walk up to the Big House. Mr. Adams was in his study and Aunt Sing asked Cookie the head cook if she could speak to Mr. Adams for just one minute.

“Aunt Sing and Mary’s girl?” Mr. Adams asked Cookie. “Send em in, but I just have a minute.”

“Suh, we not gonna take up too much of yo time. That nice boy you brought here a while back, Josh, done ast my Lizzie to marry him an she wanna know if it be alright wit you.”

Mr. Adams turned around in his desk and Aunt Sing saw he looked much older than he did the last time she saw him. Still, when he smiled, he looked somewhat better. “You’re Mary’s girl. I remember you,” Mr. Adams told Lizzie, who responded with a smile.

“What’s matter Aunt Sing, that gal can’t talk?” asked Mr. Adams.

“She’s kinda shy,” Aunt Sing said, nudging Lizzie in the side.

“You old enuf to marry, girl?” Mr. Adams asked, and Lizzie got up the courage to nod her head and say, “Yes suh.”

“Well, Josh is one of my best workers. As long as you two still work hard I guess y’all can get married. But no slackin’ off, ya understand?”

Lizzie was not sure what slackin’ off meant, but it must be bad if Mr. Adams said not to do it, so she nodded again and said, “Yes suh. I thanks ya suh!”

“Well, we’ll be goin’ suh,” Aunt Sing said and the two left, walking gingerly until they got out the back door. Once outside they laughed and hugged each other. The first hurdle was over.

Now, Aunt Sing had a wedding to plan, and she tried to hide the tears from Lizzie. She was crying because she knew Mary should be planning her only child’s wedding; not her. And she knew how happy Mary would be to see her Lizzie so happy. It was alright, Aunt Sing thought, I can stand in for Mary, who died too soon.

4.

As they left the Adams house, Lizzie saw that old barnyard owl perched in a tree. It looked as if the owl had his gaze directly on Lizzie and no one else. Big birds didn’t show up much around the plantation, but when they did Lizzie was almost afraid of them and the strange noises they made. This time was different. That old owl made her feel calm after having her nerves stirred because of meeting with Mr. Adams.

“Did you see de owl, Aunt Sing?” Lizzie asked.

“Honey, I ain’t got time to be lookin’ at no owl. I gotta ask Sadie if she will let me use the dress from her wedding. I’ll have to make it over to fit you, but that’s alright. You gonna be sooooo pretty when you marry dat big boy.”

Lizzie smiled at her aunt and thought how much she didn’t care about looking pretty. She just wanted to be with Josh, who told her she was pretty even when she was in her oldest work clothes, dirty and smelling musty.