Free Harlem Redux by Persia Walker

really tried. He had more in common with Gem than he wanted to admit. They’d both become wanderers. Both had rejected their upbringing and tried to reinvent themselves.
    But he was ashamed of his new identity. He lived in a personal hell of his own creation—and from what Annie said, he suspected that Gem did, too.
    He could imagine Lilian’s shock when she opened the door and found Gem standing on the family doorstep. They hadn’t heard anything from Gem since December of’21, when she’d sent a postcard from Paris after six months of silence. At the time, they’d wondered whether she was paving the way toward asking for more funds, but as far as he knew, nothing more had been heard from her. Not before that Halloween night.
    Gem’s return meant that her money was gone. She had set sail for home and the one sure touch for easy cash. But someone had gotten to the till before her: a watchful husband. Gem might have figured that it would be difficult to manipulate Lilian, but easy to seduce Sweet. She had never had to do more than crook her finger to make a man come running. But Sweet was different. He had refused to budge. For once, Lilian had it all: the man and the money.
    Sister Gem was down on her luck. Is that why she hightailed it back to Europe?
    Perhaps. But it was unlike Gem to give up easily. Especially when it came to men and money. He would’ve expected her to make another play for Sweet. Instead, she had reconciled with Lilian. That was surprising.
    But then she left, although she knew that Lilian was ill. Now that was not surprising, not surprising at all. And her silence since Lilian’s death, it fit her pattern also.
    He resented Gem’s absence, but he was relieved by it, too. He preferred to handle this matter alone. She might have been able to help him, but he doubted she would have been willing to. She might have been the only one, other than Annie and Sweet, who could help him understand why Lilian died. But Gem knew how to set his teeth on edge and enjoyed doing so. She was fickle and unreliable, two qualities he despised. She had an easy charm he found suspect. She had never once thought about pleasing anyone but herself. And she had nothing but contempt for her family.
    Had Lilian given Gem money to go away? Not exactly paid her off, but ... Gem must’ve gotten the money from someone. From whom else, but Lilian?
    “I wasn’t in the house when she did it,” Annie was saying. “She told me she was going to stay with friends for the weekend. Said she’d be back Monday afternoon. That’s when Mr. Jameson was supposed to be back, too. So I went and visited my nephew. I’ll wish to the day I die that I’d stayed here. She musta done it sitting on her bed. The mattress was soaked. Blood everywhere. On the walls, the bed canopy, the floor. Pools of blood. Dried hard, dried black. I don’t remember much more. She was wearing a white gown, I think. Or it had been white. And she was sitting under the window, looking up to Heaven. Her eyes, those beautiful sweet eyes, was wide open. And she had these deep cuts, one in each wrist. I’ll never forget that. All it took was them two wounds, just them two wounds, and Miss Lilian’s life poured out.”
     
    4.      Lilian’s Grave
     
    She was buried in a municipal cemetery at least an hour’s drive away in Brooklyn, amid a sea of white and gray headstones. Standing at Lilian’s graveside, David gazed out over the memorial park.
    She was never fond of Brooklyn . Except for Coney Island, she had no use for the place. That she should end up here, of all places, here …
    “It was the only place Mr. Jameson could find for her,” Annie had told him. “It’s a shame Miss Lilian couldna been buried in consecrated ground, closer to home.”
    It’s a shame she’s here at all.
    Crouching down by the grave, he reached out to touch the hard mound of earth. Slowly, his hands balled into fists. It was such a struggle to believe that Lilian—gentle,