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“We don’t have much time!” urged Katherine. “You’ve got to stop them.”
“You’re sure pretty,?
?? said the sheriff.
Miss Katherine stared at him in horror.
“Kiss me,” said the sheriff.
She slapped him across the face.
He laughed. “You kissed the onion picker. Why won’t you kiss me?”
She tried to slap him again, but he caught her by the hand.
She tried to wriggle free. “You’re drunk!” she yelled.
“I always get drunk before a hanging.”
“A hanging? Who—”
“It’s against the law for a Negro to kiss a white woman.”
“Well, then you’ll have to hang me, too,” said Katherine. “Because I kissed him back.”
“It ain’t against the law for you to kiss him,” the sheriff explained. “Just for him to kiss you.”
“We’re all equal under the eyes of God,” she declared.
The sheriff laughed. “Then if Sam and I are equal, why won’t you kiss me?” He laughed again. “I’ll make you a deal. One sweet kiss, and I won’t hang your boyfriend. I’ll just run him out of town.”
Miss Katherine jerked her hand free. As she hurried to the door, she heard the sheriff say, “The law will punish Sam. And God will punish you.”
She stepped back into the street and saw smoke rising from the schoolhouse. She ran down to the lakefront, where Sam was hitching Mary Lou to the onion cart.
“Thank God, I found you,” she sighed, hugging him. “We’ve got to get out of here. Now!”
“What—”
“Someone must have seen us kissing yesterday,” she said. “They set fire to the schoolhouse. The sheriff said he’s going to hang you!”
Sam hesitated for a moment, as if he couldn’t quite believe it. He didn’t want to believe it. “C’mon, Mary Lou.”
“We have to leave Mary Lou behind,” said Katherine.
Sam stared at her a moment. There were tears in his eyes. “Okay.”
Sam’s boat was in the water, tied to a tree by a long rope. He untied it, and they waded through the water and climbed aboard. His powerful arms rowed them away from the shore.
But his powerful arms were no match for Trout Walker’s motorized boat. They were little more than halfway across the lake when Miss Katherine heard the loud roar of the engine. Then she saw the ugly black smoke …
These are the facts:
The Walker boat smashed into Sam’s boat. Sam was shot and killed in the water. Katherine Barlow was rescued against her wishes. When they returned to the shore, she saw Mary Lou’s body lying on the ground. The donkey had been shot in the head.
That all happened one hundred and ten years ago. Since then, not one drop of rain has fallen on Green Lake.
You make the decision: Whom did God punish?
