Free Northern Light by Annette O'Hare Page A

song you were singing? I’ve never heard it before.” Margaret wiped the tears from her face.
    “Oh, it’s a slave song they sings back on the plantation. My mammy sing it all the time. Mrs. Stoltze say it talk about the River Jordan in her Bible where them Israelites crossed over to get to the Promised Land. She say it also the river where Jesus got baptized. I know she right, ’cause Mrs. Stoltze sure know her Bible.” She didn’t look at Margaret as she shook her head. “But back on the plantation they say it a song about a river up north where a slave can cross over and be free.”
    “Why would they sing a song about the Jordan River if it was really about escaping their masters?”
    “Now, Miss Margaret, if they sing about running away where the massa can hear, they all gonna get a whoopin’.”
    Margaret gasped. “Oh, I suppose you’re right about that.”
    “But for me, I wanna believe that song is really about that Jordan River they talk about in the Bible. I know I never gonna run away. There nowhere to run to on this ol’ peninsula. What’s I gonna do, swim away?” She gave a contagious smile. “I just stay with Massa and Miss Stoltze and pray someday my Jesus gonna deliver me to the Promised Land.”
    Margaret was amazed at how Necie could have any faith at all in the midst of such a hopeless situation, but somehow…with Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior…she was able to overcome.
    How had she not understood before? The Bible said God had made man in His own image. Not just the white men—all men. Slowly, the idea sank in. A Negro was capable of having feelings like anyone else. To think she’d believed what a few people had said…that Negroes were soulless like the animals.
    Oh, Lord, how could I have been so ignorant? Of course Necie has a soul…a loving and caring soul. And a good heart that loves unconditionally…not like me, putting provisions on everyone. Oh, Father, please, please forgive me! The Lord’s cleansing forgiveness came as suddenly as the words had poured from her heart. She rose from the driftwood log and put her arms around Necie in a long embrace. She didn’t deserve the soft patting she felt on her back, but it comforted her to know she’d made a new friend.
    “Goodbye, Miss Margaret. Tell yo sista, Miss Elizabeth, I says hello.”
    Margaret was taken by surprise. “Elizabeth has been here?”
    “She come by here earlier today. She come by all the time when she goin’ up to the Langley place. Sometime I be outside tending to our vegetables and she come by and say hello.”
    So that’s where she’s been going. “Goodbye, Necie. I’ll have Mama come by and check on Mr. and Mrs. Stoltze soon.” Margaret waved as she walked away from Necie’s washing place. She wanted to feel the cool water around her feet and the soft, squishy sand beneath them. There was much she needed to think about on her way back home.
    So many things had happened in such a short span of time. Everything she’d known as truth about the slaves and the reasons for the war had changed. Thomas had been right. He understood so much more than she. Maybe the Yankees aren’t such horrible people after all. Maybe Thomas isn’t the monster I’ve made him out to be. Maybe it’s OK that I have…feelings for him.
    Her mind drifted to what Necie had said about Elizabeth. How long has she been going up to the Langley place? There is no reason for her to be there. Both of Widower Langley’s sons went off to fight in the war. Only one came back, and he was one of the hard cases. The war left him limbless, save for one arm, and that wasn’t the worst of it. What kind of business would Elizabeth have with an old man who hates everyone on earth and his son, who doesn’t even know he lives on earth? Dear Lord, help us all.

10
    Thomas told Mr. Logan what happened between him and Margaret, but the man already knew, admitting he and Mrs. Logan had seen the whole exchange from the kitchen window.