The Cellar (11 page)

“Thanks Johnny, you were always a good friend to me
both in life and in death. You’re right about something else, I am not in a
loving mood toward Mrs. Micheline Pendleton right now.  I saved her life
Johnny, and she repaid me by taking out my eye and chaining me to a wall!  The
best I can do is not to pray for her to drop dead or burst into flames.  I
suppose I should have faith and pray for her mind to heal, that would be asking
for a miracle.  I should have just left her in the cellar and ran when I had
the chance.”  He thought for a few moments and grew even angrier.  “I should
have set fire to this damned house with her in it and made my escape.  The fire
would have been a diversion to keep the Home Guard occupied.”

“You couldn’t have done that Ikey, you just don’t have
it in you to let someone die like that.”

“I let Emma die!”  Ike moaned out loud.  “I should
just have went into the flames with her, at least she wouldn’t have died alone!” 

“Johnny, I would have been better off if that
confederate had done a better job of it and killed me that first day, I would
be with Emma now instead of being chained up in this cellar with an eye missing
and just waiting for a crazy woman to finish me off.”

Ike slept again and dreamed of the time of Emma’s
loss.  The flames came again and Ike knew what they meant.  He had been drinking
at a tavern and staggered toward home just in time to see the house engulfed in
flames.  He had run toward the structure and was trying to get in when his
neighbors caught him and pulled him back.  The burns on his hands and arms were
excruciating, but the suffering from the loss of his wife was more than his
mind could deal with.  Enlisting in the army was a way to escape the life that
was so full of reminders of Emma.   

Mrs. Pendleton tried to converse with Ike on several
occasions as he was recuperating, but Ike would only roll over on his side and
face the wall.  “You are angry with me Mr. Lowery and I suppose you have a
right to be.  The news I get from Todd reveals that he is recovering at about
the same pace as you.  I believe that I have gained God’s attention for now and
you both will survive this war and return to your homes and those who love you
.”  When Ike remained silent she retreated up the
steps.  Before the door was closed she spoke loudly “...it is profitable for thee
that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be
cast into hell.”

“Matthew 5:29!” was Ike’s only reply.

“That was quick, Ikey!” Johnny said in awe.

“It’s a verse that has been on my mind lately…. and on
hers too.  It starts out with “If they right eye offend thee, pluck it out….’”

“That one always made me uncomfortable.”  Johnny
sniggered.  “I always wondered if I oughta’ be cuttin’ off somethin’ that got
me into trouble.  That Johnny Reb took care of that for me.”

Under Marcus care Ike recovered and grew stronger.  He
resumed his exercise and walking back and forth in the cellar.  The chain had
been carefully measured to allow him enough freedom to walk from one corner of
the cellar to the other.  He could make it up the steps far enough to gaze out
of the knothole.  

 One day as he was pacing, Marcus brought him a small
gift from his mistress.  “This from Missy, she made it herself, she made one
for Todd and one for you.” Marcus said handing Ike the small package.   It was
a black silk eye patch.  Ike sighed and looked at it for a long time, thinking
of refusing it.  “It’d mean a lot to her if you’d wear it.  She wasn’t in her
right mind when she done it and she sorry for it now.  This the closest she can
do to givin’ it back.”

“She just wants to hide what she did to me.  I saved
her life and this is how she repaid me.  Why should I help her cover up her
guilt?”  Ike spat out the last line with more anger than he had meant to
convey.

“Marcus, she hasn’t been in her right mind since I’ve
been here.  Sometimes she’s better than others but not much.  You know if Todd
dies she will kill me.”

“I won’t let her do that.  If I had know what she was
gonna’ do, I would ‘a stopped her.”  Marcus said and then paused.  “If I’d
known she was this bad off I might have just let you go before this all
happened.  Trouble is, if you had escaped the Rebel army would probably have
caught you anyway, and you might have lead them back to Missy and caused her
trouble.   If you had made it to your own army they might have caused her
trouble too when they found out what she did to you.  That situation is even
worse now.  I don’t see any harm in you staying here.  For now, I’m keeping you
here for your sake and for hers, and maybe for my own.”

 “Hey, Ikey, Marcus is talkin’ different!”  Johnny
observed, noting how contractions and mannerisms had left the man’s speech like
a snake shedding its skin.

“I noticed it too, Johnny.”  Ike thought.  “He puts on
the slave talk.”

“Marcus.  Why are you so devoted to her?”Ike asked.

The big man paused and looked at Ike for a long moment
and then sighed.  “I suppose I owe you an explanation.  She is my sister, the
only family I have.”

“Your Sister?” Ike and Johnny said simultaneously as
Marcus paused as if to gather his thoughts and consider what he was about to
say.

“Her Father’s….our Father’s first wife died shortly
after they were married.  Our father, Julius Broussard, was somewhat of a
loner, but he was lonely after his wife died.   My Mother moved into the big
house to look after things and the Master became infatuated with her, she was a
very attractive woman, a good and intelligent woman.  He treated her well and
she fell in love with him.  He sired me and treated me like the son I was.  We
kept to ourselves mostly, his plantation was off by itself and he wasn’t one
for social gatherings anyway.   His family was furious that he was living with
my Mother and me as if we were the family that we had truly become, but he paid
them no mind.  He was not one who felt he needed to be involved in society in
order to be successful.  He managed his affairs well and had carved out a
prosperous operation which he believed allowed him the freedom to live as he
pleased. We were happy until my Mother became ill when I was about five. She
was expecting again, and they were praying for a little girl.  My Father sat by
her bed with me and cried his eyes out when she died.   He had her buried right
next to his first wife in the family cemetery in spite of his siblings’
protests.”

Ike pictured a man mourning the loss of a wife and
then another.  The thought was poignant to him now that he was in the process
of coming to grips with having lost Emma.  As bad as it was having lost one
wife, something in him wondered if losing a second would be any easier or would
it be worse.  He shook off the thought and re-focused his thoughts on Marcus’
narrative.

“His sisters fixed him up with a white woman not long after. 
He was reluctant at first to meet her, said he wasn’t ready yet but my aunts,
who could barely stand to be in my presence insisted.  The woman was a beauty, even
more beautiful than Missy, and my Father, our Father, fell hard for her, and
she for him.  They were married soon after they met and she moved in and took
over.  She was nice enough to me when no one else was around, but I was to be a
servant when there was company, and she involved herself more in the community
and craved company far more than my Father did.  I may be foolish to believe
it, but I think she did it to protect me as much as to keep up appearances.  She
had Missy when I was seven.  I thought that baby was the most beautiful
creature I had ever seen.  I looked after her and played with her and pulled
her around in a little wagon.  I was so proud of my little sister that I felt
like I would explode, but I couldn’t tell anyone. 

By the time I was thirteen I was bigger than most
grown men.  People told my Father that I should be a field hand but he wouldn’t
hear of it.  He wanted to keep me up at the house to look after Missy.  He knew
she’d always be safe when I was around and he knew that making me her personal
servant would keep me out of the fields.  

Missy grew up and was educated by her mother and a
private tutor.  I believe that even as a child she was different.   She often
seemed to live in an imaginary world.  She spoke out loud to people who weren’t
there and insisted that I talk to them as well.  She had long conversations
with God, the prophets, the apostles, or whoever might have been in her daily
Bible readings. Once she became convinced that I was Moses and I disappointed
her by not being able to create her a dry path across the creek.   Her parents
and I worried at her actions but she was a happy and loving child and there
seemed to be nothing any of us could do.  

Missy liked to play school and she taught me
everything she knew.  I wasn’t supposed to learn to read of course but our
Father didn’t care as long as I didn’t let my knowledge show.  He was proud of
my progress.  I read the books in his library and have read the Bible through a
dozen times at least.  Missy’s mother was frightened by the fact that Missy had
broken the rules by teaching me so much.  She wanted my Father to send me away
but Missy cried until she became ill and our Father wouldn’t hear of it.  My
candle was kept under a bushel so to speak.

As she grew older, Missy seemed to understand that her
behavior was disturbing to the rest of us and I believe she managed to control
it or at least hide it most of the time.  I sensed sometimes when she would
have a spell and I would watch her closely.  By the time she was in her early
teens her voices seem to have left her.  She confided in me once that she
missed them and wondered if she had been abandoned.

When Missy was about fifteen her Mother became ill. 
She was confined to her room for weeks and the local Doctor could do little for
her.  Father was desperate and asked around and sent for someone more skilled
at his craft.  That’s when we met Doctor Jasper Pendleton.  He examined Missy’s
Mother for a long time and went outside with Father to talk.  Doctor Pendleton
told Father that his wife was a going to die but it might take a long time.  He
could give her medicine for the pain so she would be comfortable, but that was
about all anyone could do.  Our Father didn’t want to accept the hard truth. 
He and Jasper went for a walk to discuss Missy’s mother’s condition.  Something
in the young man’s manner convinced him that he was going to lose yet another
wife.  They were coming back into the house when Jasper Pendleton saw Missy for
the first time.  The young Doctor lost his heart the moment he laid eyes on my
little Sister.  He was a gentleman and very respectable about it but he set his
mind on her right then and there.  He kept coming back to see about Missy’s
Mother and did all that was possible to alleviate her pain, but she was gone
inside of six months.  By that time Missy had fallen in love with the Doctor
and our Father saw that it was a good thing and gave his blessing to their marriage.

By the time of Missy’s marriage the plantation was in
trouble, Father had let things go while he looked after his wife as she was dying
and he was too overwrought after she died to pay attention to it.  He had
entrusted the operation to a bad overseer who lost through mismanagement what
he didn’t outright steal.  I was sent along as part of Missy’s dowry when she
and Jasper got married so I couldn’t be sold off.

My Father had tears in his eyes as we parted.  Jasper had
inherited this farm which was many miles away and we would not be able to visit
often due to the distance.  My Father looked at me and told me how proud he was
of me as a son.  His last words to me were to ask me to please look after
Missy.  It was an easy promise to make; I would have walked through fire for
her anyway, I still would.”

Ike winced at Marcus’ mention of walking through
fire.  The opportunity to walk through fire for someone meant more than a
figure of speech to him.  He looked down at the old scars on his hands as the
other man continued his story.

 “That was the last time we saw our Father.  He was
standing on the porch of the big house as we drove away in Jasper’s carriage. 
Later that week he lay down in the cemetery where the three women he had loved
were buried and shot himself, he was so far in debt that there was little
inheritance for Missy except for me.  She had only Dr. Jasper and me to look
after her.

So I made my life with Missy and Jasper.  Jasper
treated me well in the beginning, he knew I was Missy’s half brother and I
believe he thought of me as family.  He was a very good and successful Doctor
and made enough money to support his family well.  I oversaw the place and
looked after the crops and livestock and the other slaves who worked for us.  I
also helped them raise their boys.  You never saw five more lively boys than
that bunch.”  Marcus finished, shaking his head and remembering.  “I was always
‘Uncle Marcus’ to them, even when they left for the war.”   

Marcus looked grave and paused for a while as he
seemed to gather his thoughts and dredge through old memories.  Ike sensed that
this was the first time the man has spoken of these things to anyone.

“Things were as nearly idyllic as most could have
asked for in our lives here.  Missy had her husband and her sons.  I had work
to do and people to care for.  I was even married for a time, but like my
Father before me, my luck was bad and my wife died giving birth to our son. 
The child only lived a few days.”  Marcus paused again as he recalled his
personal tragedies.  Ike felt a wave of sympathy for a man who had suffered a
similar loss to his own.  He wanted to tell Marcus about Emma, but held back as
the big man resumed his narrative.