'And,' the strange boy continued, 'if no one owns even their own clothes how can they possess another?'
'So you savin' that Master Tobias don't own his black leather boots?' I asked.
'Every single particle in the whole wide universe is responsible for its role in the unfolding of the Great Mind.' 'What's that s'posed t'mean?' I asked. 'It means that if you stick your hand in a fire and burn yourself that you are the one responsible for the pain,' John said. 'It means that if a man calls you slave and you nod your head that you have made yourself a slave.' 'Are you crazy, niggah?' I said.
He stopped and turned, pointed his elegant finger at me
under moonlight, and said, 'Neither master nor nigger be.'
A sudden scurrying came up behind him and I could
see Master Tobias's bloodhounds coming fast. They were bounding at us under a sickly lunar glow.
My breath caught and John turned around. When he saw the dogs bearing down on him he fell to his knees. I figured that he lost all of his arrogance and was now kneeling before the Almighty in the moment of his death. I would have knelt down too but my faith wasn't so strong. I was trying to get my legs to run when the dogs leapt on John. He put out his hands and I thought that they were biting his fingers until I realized that they were licking him all over like he was their long lost mama come home to suckle and love them.
He cooed to them in a language that I couldn't understand. One by one they fell on their backs and exposed their bellies for him to scratch and thump.
'Come over here and meet my new friends, Forty-seven,' he said.
'Nuh-uh,' I said. 'No, suh.'
'Come on,' he insisted. 'These dogs won't bite you.'
One of the vicious hounds got up and came over to me. When she licked my fingers I started to laugh. After a while the dogs, John, and I were scampering around the yard, playing as freely as little white kids under the moon- cast shadow of the Master's mansion.
After a long while John bade good-bye to the dogs and led me back to the slave cabin.
Once inside John slapped his hands together on one of
the three glass tubes he stole. This covered his hands with a thick clear paste that he rubbed into the brand that Pritchard had burned into my shoulder. It felt cool against my skin and the pain that still lingered from the burn went away.
John returned the lantern to its place and snuffed out the flame. We got back on the cot and put the shackles around our ankles. Then he gave me the two soft-glass tubes to hold, one in each hand.
'Squeeze these as hard as you can in both hands,' he told me.
I did what he said and both little pipes burst in my hands. A cold sensation went through my wounds and I shivered there in the hot and smelly cabin.
'Keep your fists clenched like that,' John said to me. 'Keep them tight and in the morning the infection will be gone.'
I held on tight and John put his hand on my shoulder.
'This wax will heal you,' he said.
I was feeling good because for the first time since I had come to the slave quarters I wasn't hurting. My hands and my shoulder felt good and I wanted to talk some more.
'What you thinkin' 'bout?' I asked him in the dark.
'My home,' he said.
'Where that?' I asked, 'Africa?'
I was beginning to think that maybe Mud Albert was right and that boy was actually an African deity come to free the slaves.
'Is that a boat wit' a sun on it?' I asked.
'Not exactly,' he whispered.
'What's it like where you're from?' I asked my new
friend.
'My home,' he said, 'is very different from anything in Georgia or anywhere else on Earth. It has red skies and floating lakes and many of the animals can speak and use tools.' 'Horses that can swing a hammah?' I asked. 'Like that,' he said in the dark. 'Yes.' 'That's crazy talk.'
'Here it is,' John said, 'but on my world everything is different. People are much smaller and they have skin coloring from green to blue to red.' 'Any white people there?' 'Some,' he said.
'When did you come here?' I asked him. 'A long, long, long time ago,' he said, a little sadly. 'And you haven't been home in that long time?' Even in the dark I could see that John turned to look
at me.
'My home is so very far away that there was only enough power to bring my ship here with not nearly enough to bring me back again.'
'And so you cain't never go home?' I asked, feeling sorry
for him.
