Continuing with SO WONDERFUL AS WANT. Ch. 20, Ex. 6. Likes, shares, comments appreciated. Dinah parked in front of a simple wooden structure on one of the nicer streets of Safety Hill. The home belonged to Jubal, all grown up now with a family of his own. Here, she’d organized a small reading and play group for youngsters too young to attend the local colored school. The toddlers, Jubal’s little Chloe among them, always enjoyed her visits, listening raptly as she regaled them with the adventures of Alice or the misadventures of Peter Rabbit. After the reading group disbanded and she had a few moments to herself, she sat in the kitchen with Ruthie, Jubal’s wife. When Ruthie, now expecting her second child, set out a plate of hoecakes, Dinah’s mouth began to water. She hadn’t had hoecakes since she left Caloosa. Although she’d tried to interest Tyler in the tasty corn meal pancakes, he considered them peasant food and refused to have them on his table. Consequently, she’d had to satisfy her cravings elsewhere. More important than the food, however, was the companionship of other women, the swapping of recipes, and the gossiping that accompanied these get-togethers. After filling herself with the simple fare, Dinah bade Ruthie and Chloe goodbye. As she headed for her car, she noticed three colored men loitering nearby. Thinking it odd that she’d never seen them before, she looked more closely. Although the weather was unseasonably warm, the men wore knit caps and long sleeves, their hands sunk deep in their pockets. Sensing something amiss, she quickened her pace. She’d nearly reached her car when the largest one bent his head, revealing a swath of pink skin on the back of his neck. She broke into a run. Realizing she was on to them, the men in blackface lunged for her. She opened her mouth to scream, and one of them stuffed a dirty rag in it. Then they threw her in the back seat of her car, blindfolded her, and bound her wrists and ankles with cord. Trussed like a Sunday chicken, Dinah felt the car lurch forward, race a short distance, turn a corner, then stop. The burly fellow restraining her hauled her into a building and dropped her onto a pallet of smelly rags. From the disagreeable odor of motor oil and manure, she guessed she was being held in an old barn recently converted to a mechanic’s shop. The men whispered loudly, almost angrily to each other. One dropped down beside her and began to stroke her ankle. She kicked at him and he snickered. The man then raised his sights higher, to her knees and thighs, lingering in the soft white flesh above her stocking tops. From the far corner of her prison came a boyish protest. “Hey. How ‘bout savin’ a little o’ that for us?” Next excerpt on Friday. Links in comments below.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:25:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015