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Rhythms
By Donna Hill St. Martin's Press
Copyright © 2001 Donna Hill
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-0550-3
CHAPTER 1
Down in the Delta, somewhere just beyond Alligator, Mississippi, rests the colored section of Rudell, a community of less than five hundred, divided unequally by race, wealth, and religion by the Left Hand River. It was named such because from the top of the highest tree in Rudell the rippling river looks like a man's left hand. Yes, it sure does.
Well, today all the folks, black and white alike, moved heat-snake slow along the dusty, unpaved roads, pressed down by the heavy hand of the July sun.
Towering yellow pines raised their angry fists toward the blinding white sky demanding a long, cool drink. Mosquitoes buzzed and bit, zealous in their hunt for sweet, moist flesh, especially the plump legs of little brown baby boys and girls. Good chewing grass, razor thin, glistened like emerald fire, fanning out as far as the eye could see.
Funny how nature plays its tricks. Earlier that same year, the spring of 1927, the mighty Mississippi River rose higher than ever before in its history. Before its floods were over, the river had turned the Delta valley into lakes of despair. Dikes and levees crumbled, while the river swallowed whole towns and farms with an insatiable appetite that could not be stopped by man.
The war between man and nature rode the ever-increasing tide. Still, months after the devastation, lost land and lost lives, recovery was a slow and painful process. The Father of Waters had spared no one, colored or white. But times being what they were, the colored who already had so little now had even less. Yet even the oppressive, relentless heat and untold tragedy couldn't stop the parishioners of First Baptist Church from stomping and shouting on this Sunday morning just as on any other.
The white clapboard building, put together plank by plank by the men of Rudell, offered them little refuge as the steam ascended from the momentum of the congregation bunched together along the crowded, wooden pews.
The sun streamed in through the handblown windows casting rays of shimmering color across the wooly heads of the congregation to explode in a ball of brilliant light that gleamed off the ten-foot cross of Christ. The strongest members of First Baptist, male and female, had carried that cross in through the narrow door five years ago, piece by piece, nailing it together in silent reverence. It stood in proud testament of all they had endured. And they were grateful.
Today, more than ever, they had much to be thankful for. They'd been spared.
"We done seen the wrath of the Lord," Reverend Joshua Harvey ebbed and flowed, his voice an instrument of persuasion. "His mighty hand swept the Mississippi from Arkansas to the Gulf of Mexico. Wiped out sinners and nonbelievers with a puff of his breath."
"Amen! Yes, Lord," shouted the pulsing throng.
"'The great flood of '27' we hear tell it called. I say it be the great cleanser. The Lord's way of riddin' this earth of those who continya ta do us harm." He stretched out his arm and passed it over the packed room. "And y'all know who I'm talkin' 'bout."
"Praise the Lord!"
"But many of our innocent sistahs and brothas have suffered, too. They been left with even less than the nothin' they had."
"That's why we's here t'day, Reverend," shouted Deacon Earl, looking round to see the nods of assent.
"Amen," again came the response.
"I knows y'all don't have much," the Reverend continued. "You works hard to feed yo' families from sunrise till set. But it's up to us who have little to share with those who have less."
Government relief had come to those stricken by the devastation of the flood. But it was slow coming, if at all, to some of the colored sections along the Delta.
Joshua gazed out at his congregation, the beaten, the downtrodden. His dark, all-seeing eyes peered into their souls; his heart heard their prayers. He witnessed the unflinching pride in the bent backs, the clawed hands, and leatherlike faces. Sorrow shadowed their eyes, but hope hung on their lids. In each one he saw strength from a people who had seen much for any one lifetime. Still, he knew he could ask for more.
"I knows what I'm askin' is gon' be hard for the lot of ya. But I needs ya to dig deeper than yo' pockets. I needs ya to dig inta yo' hearts to help those who cain't help themselves. We here in Rudell gotta come together once again as a community and as a people." He paused to let his words rest a spell. "The doors ta the church gon' be open all day. Brang what chu kin. Deacon Earl gon' be in charge of collectin' whatever y'all kin brang."
Cora sat in the front line of the choir. The flick of her slender wrist moved the circular cardboard fan in a steady flow in front of her face. She gazed out at the rows of black bodies, a melody of color, size, and shape. They were hypnotized by the power of her daddy. Pride puffed her chest. Papa Daddy could do anything. He could make you believe the impossible, give you strength when you had none. He made it so easy for her to lift her voice in praise, as much for him as she did for the Lord. She wanted to do them both proud.
Like so many colored communities, the heart and soul of Rudell could be found in the church. Reverend Joshua Harvey was the bedrock upon which Rudell was built. Their lightning rod. The calm during the storm. It was to him the white folks came when they had trouble with their coloreds, Cora thought. Daddy always found ways to make the peace. But, of course, he made them think it was their own doing. He knew white folks in a way few coloreds did in those parts. He spoke their language, knew the power of their words as well as those of his flock. Daddy carried the weight for all of Rudell on his back.
While he was not seen as the equal of the whites, something in Daddy's bearing made them tolerate his uppity ways. He was like the esteemed Booker T. Washington with the powerful white folks up north. Daddy was just like that. White folks feared as much as respected him and the quiet power he held over the town. His church was the visual symbol of that power.
"I want y'all to stand now and join our choir in song." Joshua turned briefly toward his daughter, a smile of pride on his thick lips. "Lift yo' voices to the Almighty in thanks."
The choir stood in unison and Cora stepped forward.
David Mackey stood out on the dusty road, his starched white, high-button shirt clinging to his moist back. Even his sweat tried to find a place to hide from the beating sun, securing sanctuary beneath his stiff shirt collar.
He whipped out a spotless white handkerchief from the pocket of his blue serge pants and mopped his brow, then set his straw hat squarely atop his close-cropped head.
He'd fretted for hours about what to wear, wanting to make the best impression. His customary work pants and clean but frayed shirts were fine for visiting his sick and laid-low patients, but not today. Today was special.
David drew up a deep breath and checked his scarred, gold pocket watch, a gift from his father.
Service would be over directly, he calculated, and then he'd see her again. As a matter-o'-fact, if he shut his eyes he could see her face plain as the day is long, as he was sure it would appear while she led the choir through the strains of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." Her powerful contralto voice poured out of her tiny body, entered the soul, grabbed and shook it.
The age-old cry of the weary souls seeped through the walls of the one-room building. But it was Cora Harvey's rapturous voice that soared above them all.
Cora Harvey. She was something else. A right pretty thing. He'd spotted her months ago, and upon discrete inquiries he'd found out who she was. That discovery compelled him to keep his distance as much as he wanted to do otherwise. Since then, they'd passed each other on several occasions when she made her monthly shopping trips into town. However, up until the other afternoon, she'd never paid him no never mind other than a passing wave or flashing that smile of hers. Then they'd run into each other at Sam's market earlier that week, and she'd given him his first look of encouragement. Of course her daddy wasn't looking. But he dared not approach her, not with the good reverend close at hand.
David sighed. They came from different sides of town. Cora Harvey was a sharecropper's daughter turned preacherman who worshipped in the Baptist Church. He, on the other hand, was the one and only colored doctor in Rudell, the surviving son of the now prosperous Mackey family, who paid his homage — at least some of the time — at the Episcopal Church on the other side of the dividing line.
It shouldn't matter none, he mused, but it did. The Baptists were considered common, while the Episcopals were made up of the few educated coloreds, those with a bit of money. As much as colored folk had endured since they were brought in chains from Africa and stuffed like garbage into the bowels of death ships, one would think that now they would band together. That was not to be. It wasn't enough that the white folks made no secret of their disdain for the coloreds; the coloreds did it to themselves.
David snapped out of his woolgathering at the sound of voices surging through the now opened church doors. He took a quick look at his shoes — which still held their shine — wiped his face one last time and walked forward.
Cora stood on the plank wood steps of the church, flanked on either side by her parents, Pearl and Joshua. She looked so soft and beautiful in her pale peach cotton dress, David thought, just like one of those dolls he'd once seen in the Sears Roebuck catalog. Her smooth, pecan-colored skin, with undertones of red, glowed as if lit by an inner sunbeam. Her thick, neatly plated hair was pulled back in one braid that fell to the center of her back, protected by a sun bonnet that matched her dress. She sure did look pretty.
She shook hands with each of the churchgoers, accepting their praises of her singing with grace and the right amount of humility.
"Sister Cora, that voice of yours gon' take you straight to heaven, chile. Lordhammercy! Mark my words," professed Lucinda Carver, as the sweat rolled in waves down her plump face.
"Thank you, Sister Carver. I sure hope so."
"You just make sho' you hold them pearly gates open for this old sister," Lucinda chuckled, patting Cora heartily on the arm.
"See you tomorrow, Cora," Maybelle said, giving her friend a kiss on the cheek. "Is goin' to meet Little Jake at the river," she whispered in Cora's ear, before running down the steps.
Sassy, Cora's friend since they were both in diapers, stepped up beside her. "That girl gon' get herself in a heap of trouble if her mama ever finds out." Then Sassy giggled. "Harold Jr. say he gon' come by and sit on the porch later when it cool down some. I'll see you later." Sassy, it wasn't her real name, but that's what she was always called, skipped down the stairs.
Cora watched her two friends leave and wished she had someone waiting on her, eager to see her under the stars.
When the last of the parishioners filed out, Joshua slipped into his role as father, husband, and protector. "Come along, ladies. We best be gettin' on outta this here heat," he instructed them.
Pearl eased up alongside her towering husband and slipped her arm through his.
"Comin', Daddy." Cora took a step down when movement across the road captured her attention. She felt the muscles in her heart expand and contract, creating a moment of light-headedness. It was him, that handsome, quiet doctor who made her stomach feel funny inside.
Pearl's eyes followed the trail of her daughter's. "Oh, Joshua, here come that nice young doctor." She gave his arm a "come on" squeeze and a quick wink to Cora.
"How nice kin he be ifn he thinks he's too good to worship in a Baptist Church? Humph."
"Joshua," Pearl hissed in warning as David crossed the first step.
"Afternoon, Mrs. Harvey, Reverend." David tipped his hat and looked at Cora. "Miss Cora."
"Dr. Mackey," Cora gave him her sweetest smile and wished her mother and father would leave her be.
Silence hung over the quartet as heavy as the heat. The poor boy looked so nervous from the glare Joshua was hurling his way that Pearl's maternal instincts leaped to his rescue. "What brings you to First Baptist this hot day, Doctor?" Pearl asked, finally breaking the silence.
"Well, ma'am," he paused and looked from one parent to the other, wishing that his heart would stop hammering long enough for him to take a breath, "I was hoping you'd allow me to take Miss Cora here over to Joe's for a soft drink, maybe some ice cream." He swallowed down the last of his fear and plunged on. "That's if Miss Cora is willing." He snatched a quick look at Cora. "I have my auto-mo-bile right 'cross the road. I'd have her back in plenty of time for supper. I —"
"What 'chu know 'bout what time we has supper?" Joshua pulled his black, wide-brimmed hat a little farther down on his brow, with the intention of giving his dark features an even more ominous look.
Cora's face was afire, and it had nothing to do with the heat. She was mortified. Here she was seventeen years old — eighteen in six months — and her daddy was treating her like a knee-high. When would she ever be able to court like the other girls she knew? Daddy was always preaching about how she needed to settle down. How was she ever supposed to do that if he wouldn't let no respectable man near her? Not that marriage was her goal no how. It was just the whole notion of having someone interested in her, especially a doctor. All the girls would be green with envy.
She wanted to know what it felt like; wanted to know what she'd heard some of the girls of the church whisper about. She had yet to be kissed. How could her daddy embarrass her this way? Maybe the earth would just open up, like she'd read about in the picture books, and swallow her whole.
"Joshua, for heaven's sake, let the young man speak his piece," Pearl cajoled, seeing the possibilities in the union. "That sounds right nice that he wants to take Cora for a soft drink. Matter-o'-fact, I could use a long, cool glass of lemonade myself." She looked at Cora, who flashed her a smile of thankful relief. "You ought to take the good doctor up on his offer, Cora. Don't you think so?"
"Sounds invitin', Dr. Mackey. Is it all right, Daddy?"
Joshua heard the soft plea in his daughter's voice and saw the eagerness shining in her eyes. In that instant he remembered all too clearly what it felt like to be young. What it felt like when he'd met his Pearl. He weren't nothin' more than a paid slave workin' the cotton fields. When he'd drag his weary body home after a day under the Mississippi sun, Pearl would run down the road from her beaverboard shack and bring him a tin of water and a piece of dried beef or a biscuit.
"I figured you'd be thirsty," she'd always say.
"Right kind of you," he'd answer.
She'd walk with him part way down the road till he finished his water.
"Thank you much, Miss Pearl."
She'd duck her head all shy. "Tomorrow," she'd whisper and run off.
That musta gone on for months. That and things they didn't talk about no more, till Joshua said the two of them would do much better as one.
"Whatchu sayin'?" Pearl had asked, taking a seat on the top of a flat rock.
Joshua squeezed his hat in his hands, trying to find the right words. He shifted from one foot to the next. "You what I look for at the end of the day, Pearl," he finally said. "Thinkin' 'bout you out in dem fields makes me remember I's still a man, not some pack mule like Mistah Jackson make me out to be. I kin be somethin', Pearl. Somebody. You believe that?"
"I knowed it from the first time I saw you hitchin' down that road yonder."
"I got dreams, Pearl. I want to have my own church one day, preach the word. I — I want you to be a part of that."
"That yo' fancy way of askin' me to jump the broom wit you?"
Joshua grinned like a young boy, seeing the challenge in her eyes. "I 'spose."
"Then I 'spose I will."
And she'd been by his side ever since, sunup to down. Never complaining, no matter how bad times had gotten. Pearl was his strength, his reason for everything. Her faith in him, her unwavering love, was his joy. And Cora was just like her.
Truth be known, he'd like nothing better than to see his strong-willed Cora married off and secure. It would sho' nuff make Pearl happy. A good, solid husband may just be the thing Cora needed to tame her willful ways. But that didn't mean he had to make it easy for any man who thought he was good enough to come a courtin' his baby girl. Especially an Episcopal doctor — and one from the other side of Rudell at that.
"I 'spose," he finally grumbled. "We have Sunday supper at four o'clock sharp."
Pearl briefly lowered her bonneted head to hide her smile. "You might think 'bout joining us, Doctor. I fix a fine table."
Joshua threw her a cutting glance, but kept his own counsel.
"I just might, ma'am. Thank you." He looked at Joshua, who gave an imperceptible nod of approval. The day is beginning to look better every minute, David thought.
Cora gave her mother and father each a peck on the cheek and stepped down.
"I'll be sure to have her back in plenty of time for supper, Reverend."
"Be sho' you do," Joshua added for good measure.
Cora couldn't believe her luck as she walked side-by-side with David down the church steps out onto the road. The saints must surely be with her today, she mused, tossing up a silent prayer of thanks. Her father had never so much as entertained the notion of her courting, even though all the other girls her age had a steady beau. "You're not other girls," Joshua Harvey would boom in his preacher voice. "You the daughter of the reverend of this town, and you ain't gon' be seen with just anybody."
Well, Dr. David Mackey must sure be somebody, she thought, delighted.
"I'm right happy your folks let me take you out for a spell, Miss Cora," David said in a hushed voice as they crossed the road to his Model T.
She looked up into his dark face, eyes like polished black opals, and her young heart panged in her chest. "So am I, Dr. Mackey." She batted her eyes demurely as she'd seen some of her churchgoing sisters do, and she would have sworn David blushed beneath his roasted chestnut complexion.
Strong, large hands caught her waist as David helped her step up into the seat, and Cora was no longer sure if it was the force of the blazing sun or a fire that had been lit inside of her that caused the surge of heat to run amok through her body. Settling herself against the soft, cushioned seat, she adjusted her hat while David rounded the hood and hopped up beside her.
"All set?"
Cora nodded, suddenly unsure of herself.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Rhythms by Donna Hill. Copyright © 2001 Donna Hill. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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