CHAPTER 1
PLACE: TUPELO, MISSISSIPPI IN THE EARLY 1940'S 1942
The sky was bright on a full moon night about two o'clock am. It was very quiet in the sharecroppers' quarters. In the faint distance, the sound of a newborn baby cries. Jim and his wife Jewel just had their first baby — an eight pound six ounce girl. Very pretty chocolate brown skin, hair straight like a mixed breed of Black and Indian. Jim, standing outside the door, rushes into the room when he hears the baby cry. As he entered, the midwife was carefully cutting the umbilical cord separating mother and baby. Jim stood there watching in awe.
Jim thought to himself, my first baby a beautiful little girl, a princess. My beautiful princess, that's gonna be her name — Princess. He leaned over and kissed Jewel, her face dribbling with sweat from the new birth. He told her how beautiful she was and she managed a smile as a sharp pain went through her stomach. The midwife prepared for the afterbirth. She asked Jim to leave the room, until the baby was cleaned up and his wife's stomach was wrapped around with a special cloth to keep down the stretch marks. Jim slowly backed out of the room with a big wide grin on his face and quietly closed the door. He walked outside, looked up at the full moon and let out loud yell, "Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord, thank you Holy Ghost." He rolled up a Prince Albert cigarette, called him back into the room.
Jennie, the midwife, cleaned up the baby washing her carefully making sure that the cord was sewed up. She then wrapped the baby in a small quilt and handed the baby to the mother. Jewel holds her new baby in her arms and the midwife says, "Oh, what a fine baby girl. Jennie, she is beautiful. Here's some chamomile tea, drink this it will help you to sleep." The midwife calls her daughter Joan to help her clean up all the mess. When they finished cleaning up, Jennie washed her hands and changed clothes. Then she sits down by the bed, eats a little bit of food and rears back in the rocking chair and closes her eyes. It's been a long night. She sleeps, catnapping and waking up every now and then, making sure everything is okay between Mother and baby. Jim says, "Yes, you need some rest, sleep now" He sighed, turning looked out the window, now the sun is shining bright looking over the fields of corn and cotton. "Time to hitch up the mules and go to work," he says to himself as he walks out the room. Jim, the new father plows the fields.
"Giddy up mule, go mule," as the plow cuts into the ground, turning over the dirt. He hears a horse galloping in his direction, he looks up, it's his boss, Mister Hinton.
Jim: "Good morning, Sir," he says, "How you feel this morning, Sir".
Hinton: "Much obliged, boy." How come you ain't out he plowing this land this morning.
Jim: I was up all night; my wife had a baby — an eight-pound baby girl.
Hinton: Well nigger you shoulda had a boy, we need more nigga boys than gals, next time you better have a boy or I'll have your woman myself and give her a fine half breed boy ya hear."
Hinton laughs and turns his horse to ride away. "Hey boy, I bet your old gal is a good lay. Soon as she gets well, I'll pay a visit." Hinton laughs again, turns away and rides off. Jim says to himself "over my dead body, ain't no goddamn peckerwood gonna screw my wife, I'll kill that son-of-a-bitch." Jim goes to the water trough where the mule is drinking, he washes his face, relaxes and cool off.
He takes a deep breath, sits for a moment and looks at the pocket watch his father gave him. "Uh, lunch time."
He unhitches the mules to feed them and takes them to a shade tree nearby. He ties them up while they eat. Jim stops by the well, pumps some water and puts his lips to the lip of the pump. He takes a drink and spit part of it out, wrenches his mouth and drinks.
Jim is 26 years old, a big strapping man at 6'3". He has brown muscular skin, a hard body and cold black eyes. He inherited his semi-straight hair from his great grandfather who was part Cherokee Indian. He walks to the porch, pats his dog Root, and smiles to himself. He washes his hands in a tub of water drawn from the well. He dries his hands, walks to the bedroom over to the bed and kisses his wife on the forehead. He picks up the baby and kisses her on the jaw. Tears came to his eyes at that moment, he had a flash that they had to leave Mississippi. He saw his little girl making it big as a singer in the big city. As he day dreamed, he was jolted back to reality by his wife calling him, "Jim, Jim." He looked at his wife and a tear rolled down his eyes.
Jim: "Yes, Jewel."
Jewel: "Don't hold her so tight you'll squeeze her to death."
Jim: "Oh baby girl I am sorry, I am just so happy to be a father, my little queen, my little princess, she gonna make us all proud one day."
Jewel: "Oh Jim stop daydreaming, go eat your lunch. There's hot biscuits, black eyed peas and okra, if you want it."
Jim walks back to the kitchen and looks to the left by the door, he sees a baby cradle with a rocker on both sides. "Where'd this come from?" Jewel replies, "Old man Hinton sent it for the baby by his Uncle Tom house nigger Joe."
Jim mutters under his breath, "That mutherfucker, I'll kill him. We got to get away from here." Jim sits down to eat. As he was eating, he was thinking of how he was going to get his family out of Mississippi. He thought of his friend Jessie who helped people get to Chicago.
For a price he would drive to Jackson. For a price they could catch the train North. Next Sunday he'd talk to Jessie at church. He knows he would have to sneak out late at night, walk about two miles through the fields to meet Jessie at a certain point or leave from Church on a Sunday. Then he'll drive about five hours to Jackson to the train that takes them to Chicago. Everybody knew that up North they were hiring everybody to work at the war plant and the slaughterhouse. All you had to say that you were leaving to fight for your country, and you wouldn't have no problem with the law when on the train.
After all, World War II had started in Germany, France and England. Before he knew it, he was through eating, heard the midwife call him, "Jim, Jim", it's 1:00, time to go back to work." Jim drank his last drop of milk, cleaned off his plate and put them in the dish tub with the rest of the dishes to be washed for supper. As he walked past the bedroom door, as saw that his wife Jewel was asleep with the baby on her stomach. Her eyes looked up at him and smiled with her big ole pretty eyes. He blew her a kiss, walked out the door to hitch up the mules.
"Damn this sun is hot, said Jim. I'm tired of this shit, kissing peckerwoods asses no sir, yes, sir, no ma'am, yes ma'am. Me and my family are getting out of here as soon as I can." Jim didn't have much money saved, only about $10.00 just enough to pay for the trip to Jackson. He hitched up the mules and went back to the fields. At six p.m. he took the mules to the barn to feed and give them water and brush them down He went home to wash up and eat dinner: black eyed peas, fatback greens, corn bread and lemonade. The old RCA radio was playing on the kitchen shelf. He heard Gabriel Heather, the announcer, talking something of the war in Germany overseas. Jim is not concerned about the war, he's only thinking of his wife and daughter, how he's gonna get the hell out of Mississippi.
He goes outside, rolls up a Prince Albert cigarette, sits...
