Unlikely Angel

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Johnny?” asked Pat.

“You got a better one?” Johnny answered him quickly and a bit defensively. “’Sides, it wasn’t mine. Tusk came up with it. Just seemed it made sense to me.”

Pat leaned against the back of his chair.

“I don’t, it’s just, I don’t know…”

His voice trailed away because he didn’t have real reasons for his unease but to think that somehow Susan could be hurt in all this and that it was too risky. Of course it might just be a risk that needed taking.

Johnny turned to the little girl next to him.

“Do you understand what we’re talking about?”

She nodded. The mean words followed her and were now coming from new people and Johnny wanted to find a way to make them stop. She’d not been exposed to many people aside from her family but even her own father had been known to utter the words from time to time. Sometimes travelers would happen upon her family’s small farm and they would say words that they thought no one heard but she did and when she didn’t, Joe did. He hated that anyone would say those things about his little sister and told her so often. His anger at those people scared her sometimes but she knew it came from how he loved her.

The people that ran from being slaves never said the mean things. They were always kind but then Susan knew that few had been kind to them and anyone who was helpful to their plight would be rewarded with their kindness. The men always called her “Miss Susan” and the women taught her songs. It was always the white people she met who were mean and laughed at her and called her the ugly words. But then a thought occurred to her.

“What if the words are true? Everyone says them about me, what if they are right?”

“They’re not,” her daddy answered her firmly. “Just because a lot of people all say or think something, don’t make it so.”

Hound Dog jumped in.

“Did you know, Susan, that at one time, every person on earth believed the sun went round us instead of the other way ‘round? And that when a man finally figured out how things really was, he was punished for it?”

She shook her head wide-eyed at him.

“People are scared of things they don’t understand so they’re scared of you.”

Susan could sit and listen to the marshal talk forever and sometimes she was pretty sure he could talk forever if allowed to do so.

“They are scared of me?”

She could not fathom such a thing. She was so small and scared of so much herself.

“Yes, because you are a mystery and folks like to solve mysteries or shove them aside so they don’t have to think about them. It ain’t in human nature to just accept things we don’t know. They figure if they put you down then they can just go on along and forget about you. But you’re still there and letting them pretend you’re not ain’t good for anybody. ‘Sides, we can’t deprive them of the privilege of knowing you.”

Hound Dog winked at the girl and she somehow understood he was playing a little bit with the final remark. She turned her attention at last to the man who had become her entire world.

“We are having a party?” she did not understand this idea in the least. She knew that Johnny had thought it over and that Tusk had suggested it. Maybe they knew that they were talking about after all but she was frightened. She had never been to a party of any sort.