Jack: Book 3 in the Trilogy

A Good Boy Part 34

Photo: Cooper River, Charleston, S.C.

It was a beautiful chilly November morning. We awoke at 6 A.M. We had to tend right away with another problem - what to do with the darkies, nine of them who had sailed into Charleston Harbor with us. Jack and I decided to tell Mauricia and America about our plan to see if Ginny and Molly would move them along the 'underground railroad' up towards Maine or Canada. We figured that would be a good way of leading into our concerns about Pendleton, and about what we should do with the girls. Jack and I had considered moving them along that underground system too. They weren't going to like that no way. But maybe something else could be done.

Maurice and three of the men had caught some large catfish along the river and had headed back toward the ship along a path on the shore. They had taken one of the boats and had been fishing for about an hour since dawn and had a good dozen one pounders. They stopped and began to clean and prepare to cook them just off the ship on shore where they had gathered some dry twigs and dead tree limbs and had started a fire, placing several fish over a spit for cooking them.

"Oh, those smell wonderful," said America. "And so does that crackling fire! So this is America!" she said, adding "Jamaica is America too, kind of, but I always wanted to be in the real America with real Indians and taste the great American outdoors. I love it so far," she said.

"Glad to see you're in such a good mood there girlie, but we have some problems to discuss and it's kind of important that we chat about them now. You can enjoy the great outdoors later and hike and fish all you want if that make ya happy but let's get to the business at hand," Jack said.

"What's the big problem?" said Mauricia. "Are you tired of us already and want to ship us back home?"

Women's intuition. They always seem to sniff out anything that might be not quite right. Morris had paddled the boat over to the ship which was about 25 feet off shore and took us to the camp fire.

"What be these kind of fish?" Morris asked Jack when we sat around the fire on some rocks that Morris and the others - Jonah, Lester and Charlie - had arranged for us. We all sat around the fire getting warm and started to eat.

"Those be good old Cooper River catfish," said Jack. "Here, this one is ready," Jack said. "It's delicious Morris." Jack had taken a piece with his fingers and tasted it, saying "Oh yes, this one is definitely ready to go. Here Jonah, Lester and it's Charlie? Right?" Jack said, handing three other fish to them on a pewter platter.

"Yeah boss, you right 'bout dat - it's Charlie, boss." Jack told me later he didn't correct the darkies whenever they'd call him boss because that's what they'd have to do in Charleston and elsewhere in the USA if they got involved in a situation with any white men.

"So Jackie, we're all anxious to hear about your problem. What's going on? What problem?" said America.

The smoke from the fire got into my eyes making them water as the slight wind blew it my way. I got up and sat next to America. "We have a problem with you and Mauricia living at Pendleton's house alone or with him," I said. "We don't trust him. And we also need to move these darkies out of the state northward or they'll get sold by the first white men that sees they don't have any masters and speak little or no English. That's what we need to talk about before we deal again with Pendleton."

"You fools have been worrying about nothing," said America. "We can trust Captain Pendleton. He likes us and wouldn't let anything happen to us - not now."

"Really girlie," Jack said. "And what makes you so sure there girlie girl?"

"Just chalk it up to our feminine intuition," said Mauritia. "We just know."

"Your feminine intution? And that is what again?" Jack said. "Oh yes, that's something that you just have a deep feeling in your gut that something is true."

"Look at that Jackie," said Mauricia. "You learned a new big word." We all laughed.

"Can I speak, sah?" asked Maurice.

"Of course you can," Jack replied. "What you wanna say Maurice old friend."

"I'm with Miss America and Miss Mauricia. "The good captain Pendleton - we can trust. He'll do good by us. I have this feeling too here," he said pointing to his abdomen. "Ah, hah, hah," he laughed. Jonas, Lester and Charlie laughed too.

Charlie, who spoke a tiny bit of English as all of the darkies were being taught English every day by the girls, said, "He the captain a good boy!" Everyone laughed and Mauricia said, "You're right there Charlie, Captain Pendleton is a good boy."