Free Out From This Place by Joyce Hansen Page B

She flashed a wide smile at Rayford.
    People began to talk, and Brother Thomas hushed them.“I hope you women is happy now. Another thing I have to say is that the missionaries suppose to be sendin’ teachers to all these plantation to open school for the children.”
    Easter was too happy and excited to listen to any more discussions. She walked over to Rose. “You sure do know how to get what you want,” Rose said as Easter approached her.
    â€œYou not angry with me, Rose?”
    â€œNo. Why should you work in the field if you ain’t workin’ for your own land?”
    â€œI make Jason do his task.”
    â€œThat be harder than pickin’ cotton.”
    â€œJason know if he don’t work he won’t get pay. I let him keep the whole two dollars. He work then.”
    Rayford walked over to them. “You’re a clever gal, Easter. I hope you don’t regret not trying to get a piece of land.”
    Easter spent the rest of the day cleaning an open shed near the cabins, which had been the plantation cookhouse. She was satisfied, feeling that she’d gotten something for herself.
    On Monday, instead of going into the field, Easter stood outside her hut and waited for the mothers to bring the children. There were the two infants, several three- and four-year-old boys, the girls who had been chasing butterflies, and two girls, a little older, with their baby sister.
    â€œGood morning, Miss Easter,” the girls chorused when their mother brought them to her.
    She let the children play in front of the cabin while she sat on the step and watched, as she’d seen the old nurse on the Phillips plantation do. Later on in the morning she went to the shed to prepare lunch. She put the infants on the floor near her. The other children played close by, where she could watch them while she prepared a lunch of rice and cow peas. When it was time to eat lunch, Isabel and the other young mother came to nurse their infants; afterward they took the lunch out to the fields for themselvesand the other women. Easter fed the rest of the children.
    The infants were fast asleep, and Easter could tell that the older ones were tired. Carrying both babies, Easter took the children to a shady pine grove near the creek. They fell asleep under the trees. Easter was glad for the quiet and the chance to rest too. She spotted blades of sweet grass, almost the same kind of grass that she and Mariah had used to make their rugs and baskets. She pulled bunches of it out of the ground and found several palmetto fronds nearby. She wrapped a palmetto leaf around the grass. She’d make small rugs for all of the children to rest on, and baskets for the infants.
    As she formed a pattern, one of the five-year-olds woke up. “What you doin’, Miss Easter?”
    â€œThought you was asleep, Charlotte.” Easter showed her how to make the pattern, forming at that moment the pattern of their days together.
    In the evening, when Rose and the others dragged in from the fields, Easter had supper prepared. Jason plopped down onto the floor as soon as he entered the cabin. “I really goin’ to get two dollars?” he asked.
    Sarah rubbed her feet. “Well, least we have our own cook now.”
    Things were better than she’d hoped for. She got two new children when several more families came that week to live on the plantation. Since twenty-five cents seemed fair to her, she charged that amount for the new children. Even Jason was cooperating. “Anytime he slack up, I tell him he ain’t gettin’ his two dollars,” Rose informed her.
    Everything went well the following week also, until Friday. After lunch Rose stormed over to the creek. “Easter, that Jason tell me he goin’ to the outhouse ten minutes ago and he not back yet.”
    â€œYou watch the children. I find him for you.”
    Easter was angry. The other boys and girls were working, and Jason was