up until that point.
'So all of us are here but at the same time our idees an' our dreams is swimmin' in this river?' I asked.
'Exactly. It is in a place beyond space and time. It is another place that cannot be touched or seen or heard.'
'Except if'n you spin that green powder,' I added.
'No, but that's what Wall believes,' John said in the dark.
'An' this Wall is also Andrew Pike?' I asked.
'Yes. His people, after they split off from our race, developed a taste for the small trace of spirit that makes its way into our bodies. They suck out the energy and souls of sentient beings for their sustenance. But they're greedy; they yearn to obtain the Upper Level where they can feast on the God-Mind.'
'So all this man Pike, who really is Wall, gotta do is dig down an' git that green powder an' then everything gets blowed up?' I asked, trying to string together all he'd said.
'No,' John said. 'First he must acquire a machine. When Wall got here he sent off a message telling his people to send this machine from a colony they have in this galaxy. When it arrives it will be able to mine and then spin the green powder. Wall and the Calash believe that this will open the universe to their perverse appetites.'
'How long before it gets here?'
'One hundred and eighty-seven years.'
'We all be dead by then,' I said, thinking that John and I would probably be dead before the next day dawned.
'Maybe so,' John said, 'and maybe not. But regardless there is another quicker way that he might attain the green powder.'
'What's that?' I asked.
Listening to his story I forgot my situation. I was more worried about that green powder than I was about the bugs biting me and the heat sweating me to death.
'I came here in an extremely powerful craft called the Sun Ship,' he said. 'The engine of that ship can be altered to help Wall excavate the green powder. Wall must not have it.'
'And you took this ship on the Universe Ocean to come here?'
'Yes.'
I didn't even understand most of the words he said. But I could feel the urgency in his tone. I could feel his fear. And even though I was in dire trouble myself I worried about my friend and my world.
We stayed in that hotbox all day. After a few hours I began to swoon in and out of consciousness.
'I think I'd like to go up north now,' I said to John once when I had awakened.
'I can't take us for a while,' he said. 'My power was greatly weakened by the healing of Eloise. I won't be able to flee or even unlock these chains for a day or two.'
What could I say? He'd only saved Eloise because I had asked him to. It was my fault just as much as his that we were in the Tomb.
While we wasted away in the hot stench of our prison I worked my wrists around in the manacles. My sweat made the skin so slick that I was finally able to slip free.
'John.'
No answer.
'John.'
A slight moan sounded from where my friend lay in the pitch black of our prison closet.
'John, I got my hands free,' I said. 'Maybe you could too. Maybe we could get outta here an' run.'
'Too . .. weak .. .,' he whispered. 'Too . .. hot...'
'But you gotta try,' I pleaded. 'If we don' get free an' run mastuh gonna kill us.'
'No master...,' he choked, and could not finish the admonition.
I reached out and touched his shoulder. I could tell that he was slumped backward, hanging down in his chains. This was the first time I had been with Tall John that he was helpless. I realized then that he was a person just like I was, that he could suffer and need help too.
This was yet another major moment in my young life. There I was in chains and still I was worried for my friend. I was trying to get free so that I could steal us both away from Tobias.
That's what running away for a slave was theft. Because taking myself from the plantation meant that I was taking the master's property me away from him.
Somewhere in my mind I realized that it was absurd to think that a person could steal himself. But I also knew that if I told a white man these thoughts I would be put instantly to death, so I couldn't share my rebellious ideas with other slaves.
Deep in my mind an even more radical thought had begun to form. I realized that I was free even though I was clamped in chains and locked away. I was free because I had made the decision to run away if I could. Most of the slaves on the Corinthian Plantation would never actually try to run away. They knew that they'd probably get caught and whipped or worse. And I could see that the real chains that the slave wore were the color of his skin and the defeat in his mind.
