Free Promises to the Dead by Mary Downing Hahn

He ain't a bad man, just a mite short on charity."
    After Athena left, I was all alone in the dark. Though I meant to stay awake, my eyelids grew so heavy I soon gave up and drifted back into dreams I didn't want to dream. In some I was burying Perry in a deep hole in the woods beside his mama. In others, I was ducking bullets from the colonel's pistol. In the worst ones, Lydia came after me with that big sharp knife of hers, threatening to kill me for breaking my sacred vow.
    I feared I'd never get a good night's sleep again, not with dreams like mine.

CHAPTER 9
    I don't know how long I lay on that pallet in the cellar. The sun never shone through the little window, but sometimes the light was gray and I knew it was daytime. Other times it was black and I knew it was night. But mostly day and night ran together in a blur of fever dreams.
    Athena came and went, bringing me food and her swamp water concoctions. Slowly I got stronger. First I could sit up, then I could totter around. I was like a baby learning how to do things all over again.
    One morning I decided I was strong enough to go upstairs and see if Athena might let me start hunting for Perry. The more time went by, the less chance I had of finding him. I waited till I was sure the judge had left for the courthouse, and then I tiptoed up the steps. My legs shook a little, but I figured they'd bear my weight. Fresh air would do me good, too.
    At the top of the stairs I stopped and listened. I could hear Athena laughing and talking with a man, his deep voice rumbling. I peered through the doorway to see who was with her. A young Negro man sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. I guessed him to be Nate, the judge's man Athena had told me about.
    I figured it was safe to join them, but when I stepped through the door, Nate stopped in the middle of a sentence and stared at me, his face as sober as a preacher's.
    "Is that the boy you been tending to?" he asked Athena.
    She nodded, her smile gone, too. "Like I said, Nate, Jesse's a good boy. He won't cause us no trouble." She motioned me to sit down and went to fix me a bowl of oatmeal.
    Nate watched her set the bowl in front of me. I was hoping he'd finish the funny story he'd been telling. After all I'd been through, I could have used a good laugh. But all he said was, "He looks like something the cat drug in, but that don't mean he won't bring us grief."
    "Now, Nate," Athena said. "I told you why Jesse came here. He's trying to get Lydia's child back from Colonel Botfield."
    Nate shook his head, but he didn't say nothing. Just sat there drinking his coffee while I tackled my oatmeal. Every now and then, he glanced at me like he was sizing me up. It was clear he had no use for me. Which hurt my feelings, for hadn't Athena just told him I was trying to keep a promise to a slave like himself? Surely he couldn't be thinking I was up to no good.
    When I was done eating, I told Athena what was on my mind. "I can't wait no longer. I've got to find Perry."
    Athena studied me as if I was a horse she was considering buying. She examined my eyes, my ears, and my throat. She even ran a finger across the raw red scar on my forehead.
    "Just look at you," she muttered. "Skinny as a bean pole and whiter than cake flour. A gust of wind could blow you away like milkweed seeds."
    "I've always been skinny, and I've always been pale," I said. "Besides, I made a promise, I told you I did, and I got to keep it."
    Athena sighed. "You been here almost four weeks, Jesse. How do you expect to find that poor child now? There's no telling what's become of him."
    "Just tell me where Slattery's slave jail is," I said. "I'll go down there and ask about Perry."
    "If Mr. Slattery's got the boy," Athena said, "he's going to want money for him."
    "Perry is Judge Baxter's grandson," I reminded her. "Surely he'd pay any price to get his own kin out of a place like that."
    "If you have the sense you were born with," Athena said, "you'll keep your mouth