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“In a manner of speaking, I was. Lost in the wilderness, you might say. But I’m coming back, yes, I am coming back. Those Shadow Men, though, they looking for us. I got to get Memphis and Isaiah away from here.”
“We can keep you safe,” Sister Walker said.
“Like you kept me safe before?” Bill challenged. He shook his head. “Ain’t taking orders from nobody no more. I’m the only one knows what those Shadow Men can do. How many of ’em there are, how they think. I’m taking these boys to safety. While I can.”
“I have a car. I can drive you,” Will said.
“They’ll be watching the roads—and watching you, sir. Both of you. Memphis here had an idea.”
Memphis nodded toward the collections room. “The tunnel. The old Underground Railroad passage. We can get out that way.”
“Memphis, that hasn’t been used in decades. There’s no telling what shape it’s in or if it still has an opening somewhere. You could end up trapped down there,” Will said.
Isaiah looked frightened. Memphis thought about what it would be like to walk for maybe miles underground, only to reach a dead end. What if they got lost? What if there was a cave-in? But what choice did they have?
“Professor, right now those men are in Harlem asking after Isaiah and me. How long before they find us? My face is known,” Memphis explained. He shook his head. “No. Has to be this way. We’re leaving. Through the tunnels.”
He hoped he was making the right decision.
Will nodded. “All right. You’ll need provisions. Wait here,” he said, heading toward the kitchen.
“Where else would I go?” Memphis whispered. He could hear Will rummaging in the kitchen. Sister Walker was staring at Bill Johnson, at the smatterings of gray in his black hair, the lines on his face, Memphis realized. He was no longer the young man she had known once upon a time. She spied the mark upon his hand.
“Shadow Men gimme that. A brand to make me theirs.” He appraised Margaret coolly. “What ’bout you? You got yourself a mark from your thirty pieces of silver? Or your hands still smooth and clean?”
“I tried to stop them,” Sister Walker protested.
“Not hard enough,” Bill said.
Sister Walker narrowed her eyes. Her voice was a low warning. “Don’t you dare preach to me, Mr. Johnson. I spent time rotting in a prison cell for my act of resistance.”
“So I heard,” Bill answered. “What’s done is done. I done wrong, too. We carry our sins forward, Miss Walker. What matters now is doing right by these boys. Time to step to
, Margaret Walker.”
And Sister Walker remembered Lavinia Cooper. The light shining into the room where she lay in Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital. Before the Devil breaks you. Well, let the Devil try. Margaret Walker was up for the fight. “Who do you think has been getting these boys ready for the battles ahead, old man?”
Bill’s lips tipped into a smile. “Ain’t old no more. Plenty a kick left in me.”
Will charged into the collections room with a gas lantern and a burlap sack. “There’s some apples, cheese, bread. Canteen of water.”
“Thank you,” Memphis said. It wasn’t much, but it was something. It would see them through a few days if they were careful. Memphis would give his ration to Isaiah if it came to it. He thought of Theta again; she’d have no idea where he’d gone. “Professor, can you tell Theta that I’ll get in touch just as soon as it’s safe?”
Will nodded. He kicked back the carpet and yanked up the iron ring on the secret entrance to the cellar. A plume of dust circled up. Memphis’s heart began to beat faster.
“Do you know where the tunnel lets out, where it ends?” he asked, peering down into the dark hole.
“Cornelius never said. I’m afraid you’ll be traveling blind,” Will cautioned.
Bill snorted and swung his legs over the edge. “Been doing that most of my life.”
He lowered himself down the rickety steps, dropping to the basement’s floor with a rustling of the dirt. Isaiah and Memphis followed. Will handed down the sack of provisions, which Memphis passed to Bill, and the lantern, which Memphis kept. He looked over at his brother’s wide eyes. He needed to keep Isaiah safe. That was everything.
But where was it safe?
“May the spirits guide you,” Will said from above, and closed the door.
Memphis let his eyes adjust to the dark. The air was close. It smelled of earth and dust. Of the past and the future.
