Read Sweet Song for Free Online Page B

and thought of Martha again. She had been his mother and sister, his only playmate when the other children teased him.
    They all lay quietly, spread around the shack to create as much privacy as possible. But there was no real privacy, only a false sense of it. Surely, everyone in the shack new what went on in there, but each in his or her own way ignored or forgot or hid behind those truths as lies, and hid behind the lies as truths.
    That day Martha worked hard to break that notion down, Leon thought, then Big Leon took a step in that direction too. Even Leon had changed the course of events when he left that evening. What strange chain reaction did all that signify? What would break down next? He thought he knew the answer. He closed his eyes harder against the thought. His mind racing, Leon lay still until he fell off to sleep.
    *          *          *
     
    Leon woke groggy and slow. Bess had already gone off to the big house. Big Leon stood naked, raising his pants from the floor. Martha sat with her head turned from Big Leon.
    Noticing Leon’s movements, she said, “Don’t think Leon should do no white chores today. Got a bad feelin’.”
    “Not ours to say,” Big Leon said.
    “If you need him more? You could say that. You boss of it.”
    Big Leon looked over at Leon then pulled on his shirt. “Feed him. I’ll see.”
    “What are you feeling?” Leon asked.
    “Feelin’ those boys a his gonna be rammin’. They gonna feel righteous.”
    Big Leon left without another word.
    “I don’t care,” Leon said.
    “This is a bad time, boy, a bad time. People be confused what’s right. They feelin’ guilt now it’s too late. They want to hide their guilt behind wrong doin’s. You don’t get in the way of that, you hear?”
    “I hear you, but I don’t know what I can do about it. Like Pa said, ‘Ain’t our say.’”
    “Don’t mock your pa’s speakin’ ways.”
    Leon pulled on his clothes. “I didn’t mean to. I was just saying what he said.”
    Martha got up to feed him. “He tole me what he tole you in the field.”
    She put a chunk of bread in his hands.
    “What was that?”
    “You know. You doin’ it. You talkin’ white. You remember how to do that. It save your life out there.” She pointed out the window. “I’m thinkin’ you be workin’ with your pa today.”
    “I’m not afraid.” Leon bit off some bread and walked outside. He skipped heading for the barn and went straight to the house, collecting the kitchen garbage from the back. The kitchen help heard him and someone he didn’t recognize peeked out at him, then jerked back inside.
    After he had everything bagged, Leon carried two bags at a time into the woods. As was his habit, he emptied the bags and sat for a moment.
    He watched three squirrels appear from nowhere and chase one another along a felled tree, up another, and across a branch to a third tree. Their tails fluffed and twitched. They chattered and ran, bumping into one another, rollicking and chattering some more. He laughed at their play and wished for the return of his own innocence. When he decided to retrieve two more bags from the main house, the squirrels scurried away. Leon looked into the ravine. The run flowed steadily, still high from thaw. He breathed deeply, letting out a long relaxing breath, then repeated the act allowing his shoulders to loosen and drop.
    Two more bags, another, shorter stay in the woods, and Leon headed for the barn. Hank and Earl weren’t there. Leon knew the chores that needed to be done and set to work filling feed bins and water buckets, setting hay and cleaning stalls for when the horses came back that evening. He worked until early afternoon, deciding to ready a place for new hay even though that was months off. He didn’t mind organizing bales and cleaning the bays. He enjoyed the calmness of the broom swing. In all, the first part of the day went smoothly. Leon did what he knew to do.
    He stopped in to see