The Gallant South- Part Two

Chapter X- April 18- May 6, 1913

    In the morning, Cora dreaded having to get the mail. Reluctantly, she forced herself to walk out to the mailbox to retrieve the paper once it was delivered. Everyone was waiting on-edge to see what the news had to say, as it would either be incriminating or safe.
        "Here goes," Cora said, opening it to the breaking headline which was, of course, the attack. It read:

        MASSIVE EXPLOSION AT HIDDEN SPEAKEASY LEAVES 48 DEAD AND 122 INJURED!
        Last night around nine-o'clock, an accidental explosion was set off in an abandoned bank office on Cent Street. A hidden speakeasy created by a group of friends existed in the basement of the building, which was owned by Miss Bettirose Carter, a prominent socialite. Unbeknownst to the bar's patrons, the five floors of the building were still stocked with supplies, several sticks of dynamite among them. We do not know how they exploded, but we can indeed confirm it was an accidental explosion. The blast killed 48 of the bar's patrons and injured another 122. Some people have been critical of the police chief, Joseph Nielsen.
        "How can he allow something like this to happen?" A bystander at the scene asked, to which Nielsen replied with a broad statement: "We cannot control the actions of individuals that believe they are safe in the basement of a 50 year-old building. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes."
        Due to the fact that the bar had darkies in attendance, some people think the bar was attacked by a group such as the Ku Klux Klan, which has recently seen an increase in activity. However, both Nielsen and Carter have disproven this claim.
        An investigation is ongoing.

        "Well. He actually complied with us," Bettirose said.
        "I'll be damned," Eveline agreed.
        "I hate this," Cora admitted. "He can just kill 48 of us and get away with it."
        "Someday, he'll get what's comin' to him," Eveline said vengefully. Cora nodded and re-read the article while everyone got ready to go back to the hospital to check on everyone. She felt guilty. She'd fallen for Colby's trick, both she and Bettirose, and how easily they'd fallen for it. If she'd been smarter, she could have prevented this.
        "Nothing you could have done would've stopped it. Even if you hadn't fallen for his trap," Alice said, reading Cora's mind.
        "I know, I know," Cora said. "But I still feel bad."
        "Of course you will. We all do," Alice replied, leaving Cora to her thoughts.

        The Society was unreachable now, so at church on Sunday, Cora reminded everyone that her house was still open to anyone who needed it, and of course, there were lots of people that needed it. Church was a very somber event, as everyone prayed for the souls of the murdered to get into heaven, and they prayed for something to be done about Colby and Nielsen.
        After church, they went again to visit Theo. He was awake now, and doing much better, though he couldn't walk very well.
        "Is everyone else ok?" he asked when they went to see him.
        "No," Cora admitted. "48 people are dead."
        "I know that much," Theo replied. "Oliver told me. I mean the people who aren't dead."
        "Oh. I think so. We're all ok," Cora replied, just as the door opened and Alice walked in.
        "Hey Alice," Theo said. She smiled sadly and nodded. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. Colby was bragging about how he shot you," she explained.
        "Yep. Right in the side," he said, nodding to the bandages. "They had to pull the bullet out of me with tweezers."
        "Oh, that's so gross!" Bettirose exclaimed, while the others laughed. Theo was in a joking mood. That meant he was alright.
        "Hey y'all," Jack said, sitting in a chair and reading the newspaper.
        "Hey, how come you're still here?" Andre asked. He'd been released yesterday, all three fingers in braces.
        "They say I got a small concussion. That means my brain's all scrambled," Jack said, nodding to his head.
        "Do you feel any different?" Cora asked. Jack shrugged. "Sometimes I have trouble remembering things, but that's about it," he replied. "I mean my head hurts, but I don't feel like I can't go back to work."
        "Where's everyone else?" Bettirose asked. The hospital had almost been cleared out.
        "Emery and Caroline went home yesterday. Most people that weren't shot went home. Only a few of us are still here," Jack explained. "What about the Society?"
        "Off-limits for the foreseeable future," Bettirose replied. "It's not really safe now that everyone knows about it."
        "So the attack wasn't just to kill us. It was to let everyone know about it so we wouldn't be able to go back," Jack said. Everyone nodded sadly.


        "Fifty-two years. For fifty-two years, that place has been there, giving refuge first to slaves and freedmen, then anyone who needed it," Mama Elsie was saying when they went to visit her afterwards.
        "We know," Millie said dejectedly.
        "I can't believe it's just gone. Like that. I 'member when there was nothin' underneath that building save for that tiny room at the bottom of the stairs. We dug out each of those original rooms ourselves, then fixed 'em up. Took years," she said.
        "We'll rebuild. And we won't tell anyone. We just gotta be more careful next time, and wait for this hysteria to die down," Cora explained. "And we'll put in more security measures."
        "Or we could kill Colby," Bettirose suggested sourly.
        "You know what happened last time we tried that?" Cora snapped. "Killing him would help a lot, but unfortunately, we don't have that opportunity."
        "We certainly don't," Eveline agreed.