Walter Mosley - 47

"What happened to Mr. Stewart?" I asked then.

come upon him before the vitality had gone out of his blood. Wall resurrected him to do his bidding."

"If he can do all that then why can't he build his own machine to dig down in the ground for that powder?"

"The Calash are not as evolved in technology as are the

Tamal," John said. "They work mainly with biology. They

even travel through space using certain unique qualities of

their anatomy. Wall needs my machine or it will be more

than a century before he will receive the power to try again."

"So it's our job to keep Wall from getting to your ma

chine?" I asked.

"Yes."

"I promise to help you do that if you help me save Mama Flore and Champ and as many slaves as we can." "As I said," John replied, "I will follow your lead."

When we got back upon the Corinthian Plantation it was just before dawn. Everything was calm.

"Are they still under your spell?" I asked John. "No. Everyone is sleeping normally. But look." John put his hand on my shoulder and pointed to the woods on the other side of Tobias's mansion. Somehow his touch allowed me to see what he could with his superior alien perceptions. Suddenly I could see behind the woods, making out a group of a dozen or so heavily armed men. The one-eyed ghoul, Mr. Stewart, was in their lead.

All of the men were white, armed with rifles, and had pistols-

stealthily toward the big house and the workmen's dormitory.

"Quick," John said. "Hurry down and release as many slaves as you can while I warn Tobias and his men."

Before I could run he added, "I will be weak from the effort of waking the slave master's clan, Forty-seven. You will have to save your friends alone."

Maybe if I had time to think about his last words I would have changed my mind. But I was mostly thinking about saving my friends.

"Where I find you aftah?" I asked John.

"Under the hanging tree," he said ominously.

I nodded and then I was gone.

I ran as fast as I could toward the Tomb, having made up my mind that Champ Noland was the first man that I had to free.

Again I was amazed at how fast I could run. I moved as nimbly as an African cheetah and so was in front of the small prison in no time at all. But when I got there I saw that it was padlocked.

I knew where the key to the Tomb was kept because of all the years I'd spent near Mama Flore. It was on a hook in the kitchen. With my newfound speed I ran to the back kitchen door. I found a ring of keys hanging from the hook. Then I hurried toward the Tomb and tried three keys before one of them opened the padlock.

"Champ!" I cried.

He was curled up on the floor with his head down between his knees. When he heard my voice he roused himself and raised his eyes to see who had opened his door.

At once I went to work finding the right key for his

manacles.

His face was all bruised and the flesh above both his eyes was swollen from beatings. There was dried blood about his mouth and there was something wrong with his jaw. "What you doin' here, Forty-seven?" "Men wit' guns comin'," I said, still fumbling for the right key. "We gotta get the other slaves and run 'fore they kill us all."

I might have been John's people's hero but Champ Noland was mine. He took in my words and forgot his pain and torture. I found the right key and his chains fell away. He rose up and strode out of that prison just as if it was any other door. He knew that if Tobias had seen him defy his punishment that he would be killed no matter how valuable he was as a worker and a stud. But having heard my call he rose to the task regardless of the danger.

"AWAKEN, TOBIAS TURNER AND TENNESSEE BOB AND WILLIAM THORNDEN AND MILLER JONES!" the voice boomed in my head so loudly that I lowered almost to the ground.

"What's the mattah, Forty-seven?" Champ asked. "You

shot?"

"Don't you hear it, Champ?" I said.

He pulled me to my feet and started dragging me toward the slave quarters.

"RISE ALL YOU MEN OF THE CORINTHIAN PLANTATION!" the voice boomed again. "BRIGANDS ARE ATTACKING WITH MUSKETS AND KNIVES!"

I knew that it was John somehow speaking in my mind and in the minds of all the sleeping white inhabitants of the Corinthian Plantation. I could hear the voice because of the light in my chest but Tall John wasn't speaking to the slaves, and so Champ remained ignorant of the call.

As we moved toward the slave quarters the voice got weaker. And by the time we were at the men's cabin I could barely make it out at all.

"Wake up, boys, they tryin' to kill us all!" Champ yelled as we barged into the men's quarters.

"What you doin' here, Champ Noland?" Pritchard asked as he rose up from Mud Albert's mattress.

I realized in that instant that Pritchard had been given the job as the new top boy in the cabin. Mud Albert wasn't even in his grave yet and the cowardly, mean-hearted Pritchard had already taken his place.

Champ stepped forward and struck Pritchard a mighty blow while still shouting, "Wake up, men, they comin' to kill us!"

Champ took the key from Pritchard's belt and ran from cot to cot unlocking shackles.

"Go to the women's cabin," Champ told Number Thirty-three. "Run down there and tell 'em all to run!"

Thirty-three, a tall slave with coal-black skin, hesitated for just a moment, then he grabbed the keys from Champ's hand and ran out the door. Meanwhile all the men I had sweated and strained with in the cotton fields leaped from their cots. The sun was coming up and I heard a crack from over where the mansion stood. After a moment there were more cracking sounds and someone cried, "Gunfire!"

The men started shouting then. They rushed out of the cabin and scattered. I came to the door and in the first weak rays of dawn I could see fighting in front of the master's mansion. There were flames rising from his house.

"Mama Flore!" I shouted, and then I was running.

White men were firing their muskets and fighting hand to hand in front of the mansion. I saw Tobias and two of his men struggling with the bald and disfigured Mr. Stewart. Stewart had superhuman strength. As soon as one of those men jumped on him he'd throw that man off as if he were a child. Tobias and his men kept coming though.

It was a terrible sight but I didn't have the time to worry about what happened to Tobias and his people. All I cared about was Mama Flore.

The flames from the mansion had spread to the barn. I hastened to Mama Flore's side. She was still unconscious. I tried to lift her but the speed John had given me had little effect on my strength. I could barely lift one of Mama Flore's big arms.

I could hear the yells and struggles outside of the barn while the flames crackled around, closing in.

"Wake up, Big Mama!" I cried. "Wake up! It's a fire!"

When she didn't stir I took her by the arm, intent on

dragging her from the blazing barn. I had managed to move her about three feet when my strength gave out.

I looked around to see if there was a blanket that I could roll her onto. I thought maybe pulling the blanket under her would allow me to move her. In one stall I saw a blanket and grabbed it before realizing that it was the pall John had used to cover Mud Albert's body. I was mesmerized by the uncomfortable pose of his death. I thought that he would remain like that through all eternity, all twisted up and suffering because of Tobias and his evil. I hurried back to Flore's unconscious body. I was afraid of being burned to death in the barn but I couldn't bring myself to leave the only mother I ever knew. I begged her to wake up but she was still unconscious from that white man hitting her.

The barn door was just beginning to burn when it burst open and Champ Noland came running in. He went to Big Mama and took her up in his arms.