Susan Wiggs - The Key Ingredient

I think the woman’s name was Jubetta Johnson. My grandpa pointed out a cryptic note in the fat family Bible we keep in a glass barrister case. On a certain page, in old-fashioned, spidery penmanship, someone wrote: Jubetta Johnson, arrived from parts unknown, and thence departed, 1861 . And that’s the year the twins were born.

The house on Rush Mountain still has its secret staircase, located behind a movable bookcase in my childhood bedroom. During the Underground Railroad years it was used to access the root cellar, which in turn led to a tunnel that let out near a creek. According to the Switchback Historical Society, dozens of escaping slaves followed that creek into Canada – and freedom.

Having a secret staircase in the bedroom is enough to fire any kid’s imagination. The bookcase pushed against the wall has a hidden hinge, and if you trip the latch and move it just so, it pulls back just enough to slip behind with a flashlight. I didn’t mind the dank, fecund smell, or even the spiders running for cover, because it was the perfect hiding place. As a girl, I had an imaginary friend named Glory – an escaping slave in a homespun pinafore and high-button boots. She and her parents ran away from a cruel master in the Deep South to find freedom in Canada, but Glory stayed with me for quite a while. She told me about the red clay soil and palmetto trees, the okra and hominy cakes and red peas in a dish called Hoppin’ John, and black-eyed peas topped with spicy chow chow. Like me, Glory was overly preoccupied with food, and we perused library books about regional cuisine together. There was a time – right around the time of my parents’ divorce, I believe – when Glory was as real to me as my other best friend, a dog named Rocket.

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