Free Absalom's Daughters by Suzanne Feldman Page A

You be careful, gal.”
    It was dark by the time Cassie got to where the road crossed Duncan Justice’s land. She saw the familiar flicker of firelight in the trees and crouched down to peer through the weave of naked branches. The car was a boxy shadow in the dim light. Empty liquor bottles glittered in the leaves on the ground. No one seemed to be around, but the fire was lively. Someone had stirred it recently.
    Judith was singing in a drunken, mournful voice. Cassie stepped into the cool murk of the winter woods. Twigs snapped under Lil Ma’s hard-soled shoes. Maybe Judith wasn’t alone with the bottles and the fire. Cassie crept to the edge of the clearing. She huddled behind a spreading briar until she could see into the shadows of the car.
    â€œJudith?”
    Judith looked up like a surprised pigeon. She swung her legs over and slid out of the driver’s seat, wobbly. Inebriated , Grandmother would have said in her most disdainful tone.
    There were smears of lipstick across Judith’s chin and the side of her mouth.
    Cassie stepped out of the bushes into the light of the fire. “Where them boys? Where’s the albino boy?”
    Judith gestured into the night with a bottle. Her dress was torn at the sleeves. “They been here an’ gone.” She fell back into the seat behind the steering wheel.
    Cassie looked at the wheels and saw the tires—not new, but not flat either. “They comin’ back?”
    â€œThey wenta git more booze.”
    Cassie went around to the back of the car and opened the trunk. It was too dark to see much, but sure enough, there was a fist-sized hank of smoked ham, a sack of cornmeal, eggs, and an iron skillet. She didn’t see the horse pistol. She shut the trunk and came around to the driver’s side. She leaned in the window. “Can you make it start?”
    Judith pulled halfheartedly at a handle in the dashboard. Smoke poured out from under the hood. The engine sputtered, and the car shook like Beanie Simms’s old truck, but it kept running.
    Judith’s lower lip pushed out, and tears ran down her face. “You comin’ with me to Virginia?”
    â€œI’m comin’ with you,” said Cassie. “An’ I guess we’re gonna find your daddy.”

 
    CHAPTER FOUR
    In the morning, with Heron-Neck hours behind them, Mississippi looked no different. Flat muddy roads, straight lines through stands of piney woods. They followed the railroad tracks. Now and then they rattled past a mean little shack, where ragged colored children and their equally ragged relations stopped what they were doing to watch the old junk car go by, white gal behind the wheel, colored gal in the passenger seat.
    Judith always waved, singing out Hey y’all , like she was already a famous reddio star. Cassie would pretend to read the map spread over her knees. She’d found the map in the glove compartment. It had been folded and refolded so many times that most of the roads and names of counties had worn down to nothing. Vague areas of color and intermittent lines covered the map like stains. There was no sign of a place called Hilltop or of a town called Porterville.
    That morning Cassie managed to convince Judith that she’d driven Beanie Simms’s old truck plenty of times, and Judith finally let her get behind the wheel. Cassie shoved the gearshift until it seemed to hook onto something. She moved her feet on the clutch and gas pedals until the car jerked forward. The ride wasn’t smooth, and Cassie didn’t look like she knew what she was doing, but Judith settled into the passenger seat with her bare feet up on the door. Cassie tried to make herself comfortable between the lumps and springs of the driver’s seat. They would have to find a cushion somewhere. Maybe two or three.
    Cassie gave the car a little gas, and it rattled down a shallow hill. A breeze blew between Judith’s dirty toes, and