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“I left my boy in Ohio with my old granny, who had helped me raise him since his mother died in childbirth,” he explained. “A colored man with a law degree has a hard search for a job ahead of him.”
My head cocked in surprised interest. I didn’t know there were colored lawyers. The grim line of his lips and his knowing eyes showed me he had expected this reaction. How uncouth I felt.
“When I came home,” he continued, “I found the door wide open, my grandmother dying of a blow to the head, and Willie gone.” His eyes flashed anger, and his words came from between clenched teeth. “I don’t know how long that old woman had been lying there hurt. The show—the show took him’ were her dying words.”
“What show?” I gasped. Surely no show would steal a child.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I asked everywhere.” He scanned the woods around us as if he still searched. “The circus had been through days before—Marvel Brothers—and a mud show the previous week, also two small medicine shows. After my grandmother’s funeral I left. I had no time to waste. The circus would be the easiest to find, but it also moved the fastest. That’s where I decided to begin my search.”
That explained Mr. Northstar’s harsh exchange with Mr. Marvel. “And that’s why you were looking around the train.”
“A man brought food to the caboose and locked the door. I thought my boy was there,” said Mr. Northstar. He sighed. “Have you seen such a child?” I could tell by the hopeless look in his eyes that he knew I would have spoken up before now if I had.
I shook my head.
“I’ve found lots of dry wood,” cried Apollo. He tripped and tottered, with his arms full of branches and a trail of twigs behind him. “Isn’t the morning glorious? I saw a fox! Honestly! A real fox.” He tumbled the wood onto the ground. “I told the bunnies, ‘Beware.’ Then I laughed because I was talking to bunnies. That’s a caution, isn’t it, Abel? But us furry folk gotta stick together, right?” His laughter pealed like Christmas bells in the clear morning air.
I resolved not to mention the piebald child. He didn’t need to learn that people kidnapped boys who were different.
“You will take this child home, will you not?” asked Mr. Northstar as he built a fire.
“No, Abel!” cried the puppy boy with a short memory.
I felt a lump in my throat. “Yes, sir,” I said, glancing down. “As soon as I can.” Well, I’ll send him home, at least, I thought. “I’m afraid I shall have to earn some money first, however,” I added. That was true enough.
“If there are colored folks in town, I may find news of where there are jobs to be had,” he said. “Get that basket by the rear wheels,” he told Apollo. “Bring the pan that hangs on a hook inside the back of the cart,” he told me. “There are plates and forks in the red storage box.” He rummaged in a pack and pulled out a loaf of bread. Soon we were gobbling down mouthfuls of scrambled eggs and bread toasted over the fire. Breakfast had never tasted so good.
After I ate, I could barely keep my eyes open.
“You need sleep,” I told Apollo, watching him yawn cracks in the dried egg around his mouth. He refused to look at me.
“There’s a mattress in back. Use it,” said Mr. Northstar, with tenderness in his voice despite his stern words.
“Abel hasn’t slept either,” protested Apollo.
“Both of you,” said Mr. Northstar. “Boys need their sleep.”
“Go wash your face in the stream,” I told Apollo. “You’ll give me nightmares if you sleep next to me like that.”
“That’s an unusual last name you have,” I said while we waited for Apollo.
“Indeed,” said Mr. Northstar. “I have my grandfather to thank for that. He named us after the star that led him and granny to freedom, rather than bring a name with him from slavery. I’m glad the man had more dignity than humor, else I would find myself named Dipper, not Northstar.”
My heart warmed at his attempt to be funny, knowing how unhappy he must be. “How did you become a lawyer?” I asked.
“I had a sponsor,” he told me. “A Quaker woman whose parents helped my grandparents on their journey north. She came to visit us in Ohio once and took a liking to me. She said she’d pay my way to Howard University, in Washington, D.C., if I did well in school.”
“We were almost neighbors,” I exclaimed. “We’re from Maryland.”
This time his smile reached his eyes. “Neighbors, but far apart,” he said.
At that moment Apollo ran back from the stream. “There’s a lady coming.”
11
FOR A SECOND MY BREATH LEFT ME as I imagined a dancing girl coming down the path, but it was a handsome, dark-haired woman of middle years, wearing a checkered morning dress, who bustled up to us and brought me back to my senses. Was she about to throw us off her land?
“Are you the boy who knocked on my door this morning?” she asked me, ignoring Mr. Northstar.
