47

"Clouds," he said. "We may have to find shelter."

Him saying the word shelter reminded me of something.

"How did you know where that tree trunk where we sat down on was?" I asked. "I mean you walked right to it just like you knew it was there."

"You see, Forty-seven?" he said as if I had just proven a point. "You notice things and you don't only notice but you ask why. Those are only two of the reasons why you are destined to become a great hero."

"You ain't answered my question, John."

"I've been hanging around the plantation for almost a week," he said. "Looking for you."

"Me?"

"I could sense you, hear your music among all of the music that men make with their blood."

"Music in they blood?" I said, suddenly afraid that John might be some kind of devil that drinks men's blood.

"Yes," he said with a smile. "Every living being has their own song thrilling through the strings that hold them together. I knew your song. I just had to make sure I really heard it playing in amongst the others. And once I knew you were here I had to meet you to make sure that you were up to the task."

"What task?"

"Saving the universe."

"Where's that?"

"Everywhere," he said, "all over the world and up to the stars."

"Like a ocean?"

"Something like that," John said.

"If you was free an' lookin' fo' me den why'd you let 'em make you into a slave?" I asked.

"Because of a creature named Wall," John said seriously.

"Who's that?"

"He's the one who might destroy everything unless we stop him. He found out that I had been on the Red Clay Plantation "

"What was you doin' there?"

"Looking for you. All I have done for the past three thousand years is look for you. That's because I knew that you would be but I didn't exactly know where and when. That's why I was on the Red Clay Plantation, because someone with a song almost like yours was there. But when I realized that it wasn't you I ran away. After I left Wall caught my scent and he took over Andrew Pike's body and came looking for me."

"And so Andrew Pike is under a spell?"

"Pike is dead and Wall walks the earth in his flesh."

"And who is this Wall?"

"He is, as far as you are concerned, the devil."

These words shook me to my soul. I didn't want to ask any more questions. I didn't want John to tell me any more.

Again he looked at the sky.

Again he said, "Clouds."

"Maybe it'll rain," I said, grateful for mundane conversation. "That'll be good for the gardens."

"But I can't carry you if the sun isn't out."

"Why not?"

"Because my powers, such as they are, are derived from solar energy. My body is like a battery that converts power of the sun into action. If I were to attempt to carry us home without the sun shining my energy would run out and I might even die."

"How far is we from Corinthian?" I asked.

"Sixty miles at least."

Before I could voice my dismay John grabbed me by the wrist and we took off. We ran for a short time and finally came to one of the big trees we'd passed earlier. Fat raindrops had started to fall and the sky was dark with rain clouds.

"We'll have to stay here until the sun comes out again," John said.

"What if it don't come out?" I asked.

"Then we will have to wait until morning."

"Mastuh'll kill us we do that," I wailed.

"As long as you see him as master he may very well," John said. "But if you see that you and he are equals and you realize that he needs you more than you need him then, just maybe, you will be reprieved."

My heart was beating fast and my guts were churning.

"Let's try to run back," I cried.

"It's at least thirty miles away, Forty-seven, maybe forty. We would never make it in time."

"But he'll kill us."

"Kill us and he kills his precious Eloise."

I wanted to beat the smug slave's face in. Here he had shown me the best time of my whole life and now he was going to get me killed. Why did I ever go with him?

The rains came down hard but the thick foliage of the ancient tree kept us mostly dry. The ground was mulched pretty well by dead leaves and so the space was like a big, carpeted room. When the night came on it became very

dark. John and I leaned against the bark, shoulder to shoulder. The dark and the sound of the rain, and maybe the fear of Tobias, made me very tired. I nodded and almost fell asleep.

"Do you want to see where I'm from?" I thought I heard him say.

"Might as well," I said, "seein' as it'll prob'ly be the last story I hear 'fore Mastuh tie me to that wagon wheel an' have 'em whip me till I'm dead."

I turned on my side and I'm pretty sure that I fell asleep.

I opened my eyes on a beautiful day in some far-off and wonderful place. Not only was I awake but I was ru

Somewhere in my mind I worried that I might be seen by some white man who would beat me like the slave laws demanded. I worried, but the road was broad and straight so I figured that if I saw somebody coming that I could run away before they could catch me and bring me back to the plantation.

But when I looked around I realized that I didn't need to worry. The plants on the side of the road were red and purple, without leaves, not at all like proper trees. And the sky was pink and red and the road was paved with something like glass, and there was no sun in the sky but it was still bright and clear.

"This is where I am from," a voice said.

I stopped ru

It was John and then again it wasn't. He had the same

voice and his eyes were deep and kind as they had been on the Corinthian Plantation. But in this new place he was a head taller, quite a bit thi

You can imagine that I was amazed by the events unfolding around me. The last thing I remembered was being under a tree in a rainstorm. Now all of a sudden I was in a strange new land and my friend had grown a foot and changed colors on me.

"What the hell you doin' to me, niggah?" I said.

He pointed at me and said, "Neither master nor nigger be."

In this new place his words took on a new meaning. They brought about a vision: I saw Tobias and the cowering Pritchard in my mind. The slave master was holding a whip and the abject slave was writhing on the ground, begging our master for mercy.

I didn't want to be either one of them. I reached out in my imagination and pushed their images away. Then I turned my attention back to Taller John and his lecturing finger.

"That's right, Forty-seven," John said as if he knew what had been going on in my head, as if he saw the tableau of master and slave in my mind.

"Go beyond it," John continued. "Just because they treat you like that doesn't mean that you have to believe in them."

As the images faded from my mind I was once again aware of the strange land around me.

"You live here?" I asked.

"No," Tall John, the orange being from beyond Africa, said.

"But you were born here?"

"Yes," he said. "My ancestors were born here many millions of years ago. It is a planet called Elle and it is so far from Earth that it is as if it doesn't really exist."

"Far beyond the dirt?" I asked. The only time I had heard anyone use the word earth they were talking about the soil beneath our feet.

"Earth," he said again. "It is the planet you come from. Like the moon only larger and crowded with life."

"An' this place "

"My planet Elle," he interjected.

"Yeah. This place Elle is a earth too but so far away that you cain't get there?"

Tall John nodded and smiled. He was even taller now and his orange skin was tinged with purple. The light above his head brightened and I was begi