“How?” Maggie asked.
“We were out there, working in the hot sun, and my owner’s son, Sully, came riding out and told Will and me to come with him because he had some work for us at the house.”
“Sully Weatherspoon?” Maggie asked.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Of all the men to work for…”
“Yes, ma’am, he was a tough one.”
“He was,” Will agreed, remembering that day. “But I was happy when he told us to go to the house, because it gave me a chance to straighten my back and leave that cotton sack behind for a while.”
“Backbreaking work,” Rufus said. “That’s the one thing I won’t ever do again. No, sir. It’s no use being free if I gotta pick cotton. I’d sooner starve.”
“I don’t blame you,” Will said. Then to the women, he said, “Ended up being worse at the house than out in the field, though.”
“Oh,” Rose said, putting two and two together. “You’re the one who dropped the dresser?”
Rufus smiled sheepishly. “Yes, ma’am. That was me. I wasn’t very big at the time, and my hands were slick with sweat, and the dresser was heavy.”
“Wait, I’ve never heard this story,” Maggie said. “What dresser?”
“Sully had bought this big old dresser in town,” Will said. “It was sitting there in the back of the wagon, and he told us to carry it inside. I asked if maybe we ought to get a couple more people to help, but that just made him mad. He told me to move it or he’d fire me. We needed the money.”
Mama frowned. “I remember this story now.”
“We were carrying it in, and my end slipped,” Rufus explained, “and the mirror on top broke.”
“It was loud,” Will said. “Sully came running out of the house, shouting with a riding crop in one hand. I had never seen anybody so mad in all my life.”
“Then, when Sully started asking what happened, Will said he had dropped the thing, not me.”
Will shrugged. “I knew what Sully did to his slaves. But all he could to me was fire me. Or so I thought.”
“Sully started cursing out Will and hit him with his riding crop, and then…” Rufus grinned.
“I warned him,” Will said.
“What happened?” Maggie wanted to know.
“I warned him not to hit me again, but he slashed that crop right across the side of my head. So I punched him.”
“Broke his nose and knocked him out cold,” Rufus laughed. “I lit out of there like my tail was on fire. That was the last time I ever saw Will.”
“Is that what Gibbs meant?” Maggie asked Will. “When he said he wished he’d been there that day?”
Will nodded. “That’s what he meant.”
“You run into Gibbs?” Rufus said, looking half-sick at the mention of the overseer’s name.
“You could say that.”
“More like Gibbs ran into Will,” Maggie said. “And specifically, Will’s fist. A whole bunch of times.”
“You scrapped with Gibbs?”
Will nodded and held out his bruised hands. “Just this morning.”
