Disinterred

Chapter Six - Astonishing Discovery

     The sound of Dan's police car speeding around hair pen turns and screeching tires are heard all the way from Brookshire to Natchez.  Where are we going in such a hurry dad?  Hurry up and lets just get there, if I'm right there is going to be a lot of questions that need to be answered.  Well, if I going any faster the only place we will be going is the morgue. 

     Where are we going dammit!  We are going back to the county archives, but this time I am going to look in a different place.  The youngest daughter kept a dairy and she was very close to the oldest brother because he nursed her back to health when she came down with yellow fever.  Yellow fever?

     If we want to learn anything about Gentry's oldest son the dairy will be a good place to start.  What time does the library close in 10 minutes.  You do know that I am a police detective of a very small town and if I want the library to stay open a little longer it shouldn't be a problem?  

    Here you dial and I'll drive and talk.   Well, you're gonna keep the library open little longer huh, what about the librarians civil rights?  If we don't find out what is going on, one of these librarians might be this guys next victim. 

    (Heavy knocking on library door repeatedly)  Thank you so much for letting us in.  Of course detective take your time, I don't have three hungry kids and a husband to feed today after a long days work of chasing kids running around the library instead of reading.  

    Yes, Yes, we won't be long and thank you again, so much.  Okay, here it is I ran across this a couple days ago when they were looking for you.  Here it is right here, the diary of Abigail Esther Gentry.  Okay there is about two-hundred pages here lets start reading. 

     Bingo Dan!  What?  Bingo!  What you found something?  Here, right here she starts talking about her oldest brother and how their father has been arguing with him quite a bit about the coming war and how she doesn't want to leave him behind.  

    See it says, "my dear brother and father have started to hate each other more and more, and I am very worried what might become of him when and if this war does begin."  Then she goes on to talk about why they are arguing, "my father and brother hate each other more every day he remains in union with the our help."  

     Wow, okay so they were actually married?  According to this dairy they were.  That apparently made the old man very angry. Wait there is more, "my brothers have sworn a blood oath to the land and my oldest brother refuses to give his oath.

     Without his oath my father grows impatient and worried that the land will stop producing the abundant cotton crop that has kept our family out of poverty for decades."  Blood oath, what is that?  

     She could be talking about the practice of voodoo in which the slaves took chickens blood and nurtured the crops with it.  Blood rituals often involve a symbolic death and rebirth. Blood oaths are typically seen as very powerful, and sometimes as unclean. 

     Blood sacrifices are sometimes considered by its practitioners to be ritual magic, and  are meant to intensify the power of such activities.  Blood?  Yes, But this practice was frowned upon by plantation owners because killing chickens everyday would get pretty expensive. In the diary though it seems the father is encouraging this practice.  

     Although, I'm still not sure why the son would need to take an oath to the Gentry land or why this would be such a big problem between the oldest boy and his father.  Unless,  Dan I have got to know what door this key belongs too.  Well, I didn't want to say anything, but I did see an iron door in the tunnels and it was locked we couldn't push it open.