Flore's mouth opened and tears flooded her eyes.
'Free?' she said again.
She rocked forward and put her arms around me. When she hugged me I was her little boy again. I grabbed on tight.
In the distance dogs were howling and the smell of smoke was in the air but we didn't care about all of that. We were free under the pale blue morning skies. Even if they caught us and hung us from the tree we hid behind we still had the greatest treasure in the world.
After a while Flore fell asleep too. Nola had taken a sip of Tall John's water earlier on and so she was dozing peacefully.
'Will they find us?' I asked my friend.
'I don't think so,' he said. But his brow was furrowed and his words were heavy.
'What's wrong?' I asked.
'There's a place about ten miles north of here where my machine lies hidden under the ground. There's an alarm set on it designed to tell me if one of the Calash is somewhere nearby.'
'Did that alarm ring?' I asked.
John nodded.
'Maybe it's just some animal rubbed up against it,' I suggested, wanting to calm my friend down.
'No. It's Wall. He has found my ship while I was distracted here with you and your friends. He will soon be able to utilize the mechanism and dig the green powder from the earth.'
'Then we bettah go an' stop 'im 'fore he can do that,' I said, speaking right up. 'You helped me save my friends an' now I'll help you.'
John smiled then.
'You would help me even though you are just now free?' he asked.
i 'If'n we can put Flore an' Champ ovah wit' Eighty-four then I'd be happy that they was free an' you'n me could go an' take that green powder gin away from Andy Pike.'
'It will take him a while to open the door,' John said. 'And together we might be a match for him.'
I smiled and shook my friend's hand.
'We gonna do it,' I said.
Then John said something that I didn't understand at the time but it struck me as being rather odd.
'Your courage gives me the strength to surrender myself,' he said. 'All life flows toward the Upper Level.'
After that John gave me a drink of his sleeping water and I drifted off into a dream that was not a dream at all.
I was floating in the air among thousands of the tiny, multicolored people of John's race. Then I felt something pulling and pushing at me, and the sky disappeared and there was nothing above but blackness and stars. I was thrown out of the company of the little people and I was flying faster than anything toward one of the glittering stars.
All of a sudden I knew that I wasn't dreaming about me
but about Tall John when he got into his Sun Ship and headed off toward Earth.
The star I was heading for became as big as the sun. It was a wide field of fire that sang with power and majesty, but I wasn't afraid. I slipped through the white flames of the star and came to a place that was pure and red. It was hot but there was a place right in the middle of the star that was black and cold. I/John dove into the center of the blackness and suddenly I/John was somewhere else. I/John was far, far away from my home, and lonely. I/John would never be home again. All of my people were far behind me while I/John would find star after star traveling so far away from my home that it would be as if there was no home for me, anywhere.
I woke up crying for that loneliness. And I knew somehow that the dream was not really a dream but a lesson about my friend Tall John from beyond the stars. His light was a part of me now and it was telling me about my friend, his history, and my mission.
'You awake, boy?' Champ Noland asked.
It was nighttime. Champ and Flore and Tall John and Nola stood around me as I lay on the ground. The moon illuminated my friends.
'Where's Eloise?' I asked.
'We sent her home,' John said.
'She was like in a spell,' Nola added. 'John put the evil eye on her.'
I could see that the newly freed slave girl was of two minds about my friend and his powers.
'Yes,' John said. 'I put her in a trance and suggested that she tell her friends that we saved her and then headed west for the river. That should give us enough time.'
I got to my feet and clasped hands with Champ. Then I kissed Mama Flore and touched Nola's arm.
'Are you still willing to help me?' John asked.
'Yes, sir,' I said.
Champ was walking just fine and Flore stood on her own two feet with no assistance. I was happy that Nola
