The note was written in a scrawl

Chapter 23) Joel goes to Blacktown/ The Revenge Card
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Mons woke up late the next day, surprised she’d been asleep.
Top Hat and some of the boys stopped by the night before asking around. She shooed them off the porch, saying, thet got nothin fo me.

She had enough problems without a bunch of freeloaders. It was hard to make life without her family. Her little granddaughter made the house feel big even though it was just two rooms. But now there was no clatter in the kitchen no slamming door no walking around no complaining about the heat and flies. It was soundless and empty.

There was a note at the corner of the kitchen table she hadn’t seen before. It was folded in half and she didn’t recognize the writing but it had to be from Abagail.
Mons knew how to read. She was beat one time by a white man because he found her reading a book.
She taught her daughter and her granddaughter how to read and told them that white people didn’t want to see a smart Negro. They needed to hide it.
A very deep part of Moms was happy that her granddaughter escaped to Memphis.
But now that little face was gone. Her smile, the tears the bellowing and burping that was perfected to annoy her grandmother.

The note wasn't very long. It said I'm sorry and I'll come back soon. I miss you. I love you.
There was one more line at the bottom that said, don't be afraid, but when she read it again it said something else. It was hard to make sense of it. Whenever she held the note, a terrible rage filled her. Except she was alone with nobody to protect her. Nobody to sooth her in the night. Nobody to watch over. Yet no, she wasn't afraid. She had no fear. She wanted revenge on the people who caused this.
That's when Walter knocked on the door.

Walter was a tall, polite man, but there was a hard fight that came out of his eyes. He lived in a Negro community up next to Abbeyville and came down because he wanted to be with his brother.
His visit caused Mons to think about the note again, but she kept getting interrupted by her visitor.
I came to find Jesse.
Oh dey all up in the woods hidin.
Well yes ma'am I hear the Klan is a comin, but I really need to find my brother.
I don't know where they are. Theys lot of problems coming around right now.
Yes ma'am, but maybe you know where Top Hat is. We heard they killed him.
Oh no, Mons said laughing, he was here last night. That's done.
Yes ma'am.

Mons said, I tell you now, you walk up that hill, maybe you can see wher they went.
Yes ma'am I'll do that. Sarah told me that Blacktown has a mayor.
A mayor?
Yes ma'am. They say he a white boy.
Mons hooted a squeal until her lungs turned out coughing. She said, that’s River Boy.
River Boy?
Yeah, he live with his grandpa down the road there.
How long he be mayor?
Oh quite a while now, still laughing.
Well Sarah say he went to see Mr Churchail.
Mr Churchail? Mons laughed again. That damn boy.
Yes ma'am. Sarah talk with her sister who work at the big house. Her sister say he walk in the front door and went straight to Mr Churchail's office.
Did they throw him out?
No. Sarah said Mr Churchail was happy after he left.
Mons laughed again, well I'll be dang like a june bug, that boy always doing something, in her mind thinking that ol' Top Hat must have gotten River Boy into it.

Another knock at the door, Mons yelled, well whoever ya are come on in. A young Negro girl came in.
Oh hello, this here Walter.
Nice to meet you.

Uh, we need to borrow the stew pot.
Hell no, Mons said, if I give it to y'all, I never get it back.

Walter said, have you seen Jesse?
He with us. Everybody hidin' cept some that run off.
Mons interrupted. y'all sitting up there in the woods like a bunch of foos that can't even cook dinner. Look at chya. Them squito bites on yo arms. Probably got em on yer ass too.
Walter laughed.
Mons said, we done takin it. You get up there and tell them folks to get back here. Dammit, we gonna fight. We done runnin. My daughter run off, and look what we got. Y'all don't even have a stew pot. Whacha gonna to do after the Klan take everything? Nothin. And you worry about another beating and one more killin?

Walter said, yeah. It's time for a fight.
The girl nodded.
That was it. Walter and the girl took off to the woods to bring everybody back to town.
Yes sir, there was some bad in the air going around, and Mons just brought it boil. Those hard-working folks stormed back to town howling and cheering, gathering up tools and heavy rakes, ready to make their monument against tyranny, knowing full well they were going to get killed, stabbed, and some hung, with the whole place burned out to the ground. But it didn't matter.

There’s probably been stupider times that a man could go to Blacktown, but this was about the worst, because that's when Joel showed up.
To think that a white man who understood nothing would seek an answer to a question he knew nothing about from people he didn’t like and professed to own was just white folks being white folks. Careless as they wanted. Stepping on whoever and whenever, terrorizing apart lives with a grin, never knowing how it might feel to walk down that path themselves.
Oh sure, white folks feared the Negroes yet managed to walk safe from the menace enough that they swelled with pride at the Klan's arrival. But then ... they were the Klan.

Joel was up early that morning, expecting Dr Mason.
Dr Mason left Latchy's house before the houseladies came.
Latchy made up her mind. She needed to talk to a few people in town. But almost thirty years away, and nothing but mystery surrounding her, she needed help, and it was unclear what might do, or who could help.
The doctor got to the Winston's and stayed a few minutes. Joddie was in pain, but there was no fever or infection.
After he left, Joel talked to Joddie. She still refused to tell who the Negro was.
Maggie heard her father and snuck downstairs to avoid him. Ruth had eggs and bacon ready for the family, but it was going to be another fractured day.
Maggie ate fast then lept out the back door, headed downtown to get away.
River Boy woke early and decided to walk into Trinity and find a piece of glass for the window.

Joel was mad and wanted to find River Boy. That's why drove the dirt road down to Blacktown.
The street was empty except for a large dark-skinned Negro standing in the way holding an axe handle across both hands.
Joel got out the car in the middle of a dusty street between the cluster of shotgun houses with broken porches and leaking roofs.
Men and boys started coming out and from around back carrying sticks, pitchforks, shovels. Whatever they could hold in their hand.
Joel looked around and said, I'm looking for River Boy.
A big man on the porch said, hey not here and you not neither.

Joel said, uh, well, ah ... a Negro brought my daughter home yesterday. He was wearing a gold ring. And driving an Oldsmobile.
I ... I ... I, well ... I wanted to thank the man that's all ... that's all. I thought maybe River Boy could help.
Joel hardly got out the words before starting to cry, looking down muttering, I'm sorry.
He didn't know what he was sorry about or why he was there at all. He was mad a minute ago, but now his tiny stick legs wouldn't hold his weight and he was leaning on the car door.

It was ridiculous this white man standing on someone else's soil pleading for his own self, thinking of no one but himself.
His tear couldn't remove a life of wrong on either side of an argument, as if there is a negotiation over what is right. It didn't matter if he stopped a beating at his store one time, there was nothing he could offer.

The man from the porch came down the steps and yelled out, you tell the Klan we gonna fight this time. The people began to clatter the tools in a drum as they started moving toward the car.
Joel said, the Klan? What? Why would they come? They're not coming. I've haven't heard anyth .... then he stopped himself.
Yeah, they knew he was in the Klan.
That put him back in the swirl of angry people gathering up, not trusting this white man or knowing if it was a lie or if it was true.

Different sparks let different fires burn all across the south.
It was greed of the Upstate Boys and Crackling Green that kept re-lighting this seething hatred.
And Spade's murderous action accelerated the explosion that was about to happen.
Negroes fought back for centuries and were beat every time. But what do you do? How do you live inside a world that hates you at the sight of your skin?

Joel stood there, unaware of the hatred or reasons why. He only wanted to know why his daughter, and only his daughter could be violated and pregnant with a Negro baby.

Mons moved up front of the crowd. She had the revenge card in her hand and started shaking it in Joel's face, yelling.
I lost my daughter and grandbaby cause of yo kind mister. My son run away fo you white people. I got no family cause of you. You thin yo a man? Yo evil. And yo come here askin for help? I hate your kind same as yo hate mine and nuttin ever be differnt.

The big Negro from the porch pulled Mons back but she whipped around on him and pushed back. Tis my show. I got pain all the way through. You not touch me why I talkin to da cracker here crying lik a baby. I lost my baby, and I don't care ifa Klan kill me all day, it won't bring em back. It can't stop my hate.

For some reason Joel wanted to touch Mons, poor dear broken-hearted Mons. He'd never touched a Negro. It never occurred to him that Negros were people, or they felt pain.

Top Hat came from around back. He measured what he knew.
His leadership was under question now. Things were different.

He had a choice. Try to resume leadership or relinquish to a younger more violent man.
Spade would've been that man if he managed to kill Top Hat.
The big Negro from the porch was standing tall. Top Hat couldn't match him but it was Top Hat's moment to win. Not that he trusted Joel, but why would this lone white man, a family man, a man full of hate and fear of Negros, come to Blacktown if he wasn't telling the truth? Why would he be standing there stupid?

Top Hat bumped up and said real loud, dat man tell the truth.
Few turned around. They heard him, but his words were short. People were angry and afraid with wicked revenge.
Until Mons spoke.
The note was soft in her hand. She turned and walked away a step, and said, let him go. We see what he knows.
She turned back to Joel and said, ther always be a Negro da'll help a white man fo money.
An yo always kill us for money. An itz not cause this man this way or that man that way.
It's just how things are.
You leave and done come back, but you remember who we are, ya hear me?
Joel looked up and nodded. He crawled back in the car and the crowd let him drive away.

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