In the Essence of Love
It was a steamy July night in 1859. Brand Plantation was full of slaves who had ventured out of their cabins. The plantation was located right on the river about 10 miles from the town of Vicksburg. The slaves longed to go down to the rivers edge for one of their secret meetings, but they dared not, for they knew that the overseer, Truman, was watching from his cabin window ready to run to Master Brand.
Master Brand was a mean and horrible man. One could find himself under the lash for the slightest offense. He was a firm believer that any slave who stepped out of line must be quickly and firmly put back into place, or this could mean his financial ruin.
Adora had experienced this many times herself. An attractive mulatto with unusual gray eyes, she was Miss Calprina's personal maid. Miss Calprina was a girl of twelve, five years younger than Adora herself, who shared her father's beliefs about the discipline of slaves. Scarcely a day went by when she didn't slap Adora for some assumed wrong doing, and if she saw fit, she called on Truman to have Adora whipped, a job he loved.
This treatment often angered Adora so that her blood would become as acid eating away at her flesh, and her soul would become enflamed ten times hotter than the oozing lava of nature's most powerful volcano. To have a child constantly raising her hand against her was almost more than Adora could bear.
Adora thought long and hard about all of this as she sat idly upon a stack of freshly cut kindling. After a while, she heard her mother's voice telling her to come in and get ready for bed. Being Miss Calprina's personal maid she was obligated to go into town with her the next day. Adora liked the habitual trip into town with Miss Calprina
and her mother every Saturday. It gave her a chance to get off the plantation and see the town's people.
The next morning, Adora got up at five as usual to begin her morning routine before preparing for the trip. Mrs. Brand and her daughter rode in their carriage while Adora rode on horseback to town. When they finally arrived, mother and daughter headed to a dress store. Calprina had been nagging her mother all week about buying her a new Sunday school dress, and her mother finally agreed. Adora was ordered to remain outside by the door while the girl and her mother shopped.
She stood there enjoying her view as well as the summer breeze that was blowing. She looked up to see a handsome young man. He was stout, with broad shoulders and muscles that stood out for miles. He had, not the face of a slave who has suffered years of unfair torture, but of a valiant warrior seeking to win a triumphant battle and just to look into his cold black eyes made Adora shiver. Several white boys age's six to eleven were teasing him by throwing rocks. One boy ran up and kicked the side of the stand causing the leg of it to collapse and produce to spill onto the sidewalk. The boy jumped back as if bitten by a rattler. His acquaintances were already retreating at top speed down the street. The frightened boy wasted no time in joining them.
Adora left her place by the wall to help the boy who had replaced the leg and was now trying to reclaim the produce.
"Let me help," she said scooping several oranges into her apron.
"Thanks," he replied, "kids will be kids"
"Kids will be kids but they don't have to act like that. A good licking to their backsides ought to teach them a lesson," she answered.
"Don't I know it? I saw your mistress go into the store. Where are you from?" he asked interestedly.
"We're from Brand Plantation. I don't see anyone with you. What are you doing in town?" she asked.
"I'm a hire out. My master's in the seed house stocking up for the cattle. We're from Dustan Plantation," he replied.
"That's not far from us. Well, seeing as we've managed to get all your stuff back, I'd better get back to my post. But it was very nice meeting you," she said.
"It was nice meeting you too. What's your name?" he asked as she was leaving.
"Adora"
"Jonathan"
Adora hurried back to her place by the door just as the Mistress and Calprina walked out. She carefully took their bags and placed them on her arm in a position where they wouldn't fall.
"Put the bags into the carriage and wait for us there." Mrs. Brand ordered.
"Yes'm Mrs. Brand."
Adora moved hurriedly to put their bags away before mounting her horse. She glanced over at Jonathan who smiled at her. She smiled back, and they just held each other's gaze for what seemed like an eternity until their enchanting spell was broken by
the sound of Calprina's voice as she and her mother approached the carriage. The two climbed in with the aid of the driver and they were on their way back home.
Adora carried on her day as usual and was finally allowed to retire to the quarters. Unlike most personal servants, she and the rest of the family's personal servants were not permitted to sleep in the house at night. Master Brand wouldn't hear of it. According to him, "No-good niggers are likely to try to do anything to a white while they were sound asleep and any white that would subject themselves to that kind of danger ought to be murdered in their sleep for their stupidity."
Adora returned to her place on the kindling, glad to be away from Miss Calprina and nursing a contusion on her calf where she'd kicked Adora because she said Adora didn't iron her new dress right.
Adora rested her head against the shed where the kindling was piled. She thought about the supposedly coming war between the North and South. The Master seemed utterly obsessed with the topic these days. She knew more about the war than the "anti-Christian Quakers" and the "nigger-loving abolitionists" that the Master always cursed for promoting this "bunch of pig slop."
The concept sounded rather nice to her, the idea that there were white people out there who thought that she deserved freedom. She was wrapped in her longful wishes, when suddenly she heard a noise in the trees nearby. She looked up to see emerging a boy of tall statue who looked to be about her age. Jonathan! He was standing there looking at her.
"My goodness, what are you doing here?" she whispered moving closer to him.
"I haven't stopped thinking about you since we met in the market today," he blurted out.
"I haven't stopped thinking of you either," she replied matter-of-factly.
The two tenderly reached for the others hand and when they closed fingers, they stood as if in a trance, each wondering what to do next.
"I think I like you," he said at last.
"I think I like you too," she agreed.
"Here, I brought this for you," he said letting go of her hand and reaching into his pocket.
He pulled out a tiny wooden bracelet, painted light blue with red hearts.
"Adoraaaaaaa. Adoraaaaa. It's bedtime, Adoraaa." It was her mother calling for her.
"I'd better go, that's my momma. Thank you, this bracelet is the most wonderful thing anyone has ever given me."
Adora's mother called for her again.
"I'm coming momma," she answered.
"Well, I better be getting back my self," Jonathan said.
The two parted company for the night, each holding within their hearts a new found place for each other.
Throughout the next year, Jonathan continued to visit Adora every night. He constantly brought her little homemade trinkets.
The more he visited, the more the two fell in love with each other. Adora's mother learned of this and absolutely forbade her see this boy again, because Master Brand wouldn't like it if he found out that she was courting a boy form a different plantation.
Through the arguments and her mother's frequent slaps Adora was destined not to give up her mission to see Jonathan. Finally, her mother reluctantly agreed to their dating as long as they stayed in secret and made sure they didn't get caught.
One night Jonathan came to Adora. He told her that he had something special to give her and to ask her. She wondered impatiently what it could be. He knelt on one knee and took hold of her hand.
"Adora, I love you more than anything or anyone on this Earth. Your pretty eyes and the way you smile and the way we talk make me feel different than I've ever felt. When we're together I no longer feel like a slave. I feel like a free man. I love you and I would be honored to have you as my wife," he said never taking his eyes off hers, and slipping a tiny stoneless ring around her finger.
"Oh, I love you too, Jonathan, and I would be more than honored to have you as my husband," she answered throwing her arms around his neck as he stood and swung her around. The two discussed how they thought that they could finally be together as they wanted. The decision was finally reached that Jonathan would ask his master to buy Adora for him. It was all so wonderful. They would finally be together.
The next month, Adora was carrying on her afternoon chores in the house. She was just about to clean the library when she noticed Truman slipping into the Master's
study. She decided to ease to the door to see what poor soul he was trying to get sold or whipped now.
"Mr. Brand it has come to my knowledge that our Adora has been conversing late nights with some young buck from another plantation. I started to tell you right off, but I decided to wait and observe things for a while. This has been going on for some time now and I thought that it was time you knew," Truman tattled.
"Well, I certainly admire your style Mr. Truman. This matter must be addressed at once. I don't know what's wrong with Adora. She's one of my most faithful servants. She knows I don't allow courting off the plantation unless I instruct them they may do so, but only under my conditions then. You see why I have to maintain such strict discipline over my slaves. If I didn't, the entire place would be total chaos," Master Brand replied.
"I was thinking that we could perhaps wait one night to catch them together and give them either a good lashing with salt, or maybe a good cat-hauling," suggested Truman eagerly.
"No, I have another idea. I've got a friend from Georgia who has been looking to buy for some time. I hadn't wanted to let Adora go, but considering this act of blatant disobedience, I see no reason for her to stay on. I'll simply call her to me Saturday morning before the auction and tell her that I know of her secret meetings and inform her that she is to be sold. I think that is enough to make her think twice," decided Master Brand.
"And the young..." Clark was saying.
Adora didn't wait to hear what was to be said next. She eased from the door, hot silent tears streaming down her face. She decided right then that they had to run away, that night.
As soon as she saw Jonathan, she told him what she'd over heard.
"I'll never let you go," he said earnestly, "Come on. I know people who can help us make it to the Ohio."
The two started out. They traveled as far and as fast as they could making sure to go through every little puddle or stream that night. When morning came, they made a hiding place and slept. When night fell again, they once more began their journey. They had only a loaf of bread and a small canteen of water that they had gotten before they left, so they were trying to travel fast so as to be able to make it to the person's house.
Finally, after four days of travel, they made it. They cautiously approached the house and knocked on the door. It came open much to their surprise. They stepped inside to discover the entire place torn to shambles. Not a soul was in sight.
"Patty rollers," Jonathan said, "They've been through here. Come on; let's find what food and water we can and get out of here.
The two found enough food and water to hold them for three weeks, which was more than enough.
A week and a half of travel brought them at long last within faint earshot of the Ohio.
"We did it baby, we made it," Adora said hugging Jonathan close.
"We're yet about two miles off, but there's someone, I want you to meet."
"Who is it?"
Adora turned to see Master Brand and Mr. Truman, and another man she didn't recognize emerging from the forest. Adora, not knowing what to do, grabbed Jonathan's arm.
"There's no need in grabbing me," he replied coldly, "Master Brand talked to my master before Truman ever told on us. He'd sensed mischievous works and wanted to talk with Master Dustan," he said waving to the unfamiliar man Truman, "to see if he was having this problem also. My master talked to me and said that if I would help him and Master Brand catch you, he would give me, my wife and our children our freedom."
"Wife and children?" Adora shrieked.
"Why yes, I've been married for two years. I have a daughter and a son," he replied.
"But I thought you loved me. After all we've been through, don't you have any feelings for me?" she asked crying.
"At first yes, but thankfully I came to my senses," he said coldly.
"Time's up girl," said Master Dustan.
"NO, I WON'T GO BACK!!!!!" screamed Adora who then tried to run but was caught.
"You're not going back. Jonathan here, who also happens to be the best driver I've ever had, has agreed to take care of you for us," said Master Dustan.
Adora stood frozen in a time wave of shock. He heart was shattered and her very soul cried tears of blood. She found herself helpless to fight against Jonathan as he
moved behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Softly he whispered into her ear, "The essence of love can be the viper's bite." With that he tenderly kissed her on the jaw, and then he grabbed her by the chin and with one swift wrench snapped her neck into.
Jennifer says:
Wow - the twist took me by surprise, but this story needs more character and plot development.
Plot - 18
Characters - 15
Mechanics - 19
Enjoyment - 19
TOTAL - 71
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