Resurrection by Steve Batson
The old man lay quite and still on the bed. It was winter and he thought of something
he had heard long ago. "Old men and old dogs . . . if they can make it to Spring
they'll be fine." He knew he would not see spring. He had been thinking of other
things . . . other days, and before that of days that had not yet been. For the first time
he understood something he had heard about all his life . . . the sight.
He had seen boys who would one day be men. Seen them in strange places and doing things that were not strange to him at all. Winter on the river, cold and one of them off a bluff, another selling butterbeans and buying smelling water in a place so big he could not imagine it. He had seen trains and cities and heard preaching. There was another war and another and it seemed to him many more after that but none of that mattered now. What mattered now was the young man
standing beside him. He was fifteen or sixteen the old man could not remember, but he
was a man . . . at least in terms of the mountains.
The old man took the boy's hand in his. "You know the ways and stories but you
take care to live by them if they is to really have meaning. This was your Grandpa's, he
said, as he pressed the small poke of three marbles in the boy's hand. I called for you
because of them. The other two will follow you as I led your grandpa. War's coming. Man's
nature to fight. Do Your Duty but wait 'til the call comes, 'cause they will follow. Try
to find a safe place and tell them to do the same. I gave you your name, leastwise the one
they all call you. I give you them. They is yours now. Do right by 'em. You the smart one.
That why I named you as I did. This was my mothers" he said as he handed him the
blackened silver cross. "It will guide you. You know the signs and the book. Follow
them."
The old man let go and drifted off. The boy left the room. He went outside and noticed
them . . . all come in now. There in the yard was all the folk from the mountain and from
the kingdom, both black and white. He knew the old man who had stood watch inside the door
to the bedroom. Black folks called him the King but he knew him as Caleb King. He also
noticed young Mr. West, an old man to him, sitting by the other side of the door inside
the room. They would be two of the six who would carry the old man. The others were coming
in, bringing food. The two boys playing under the tree saw him come out.
They ran up to him. "Look," they said. "He gave us two pokes with three
old timey marbles in 'em, each. Grandpa told me these three was his. Said them three he
give to his Grandpa a long time ago." He pointed at the other small boy. "I
ain't a gonna play with 'em though. Gonna make a string and tie the poke closed . . .
gonna keep it around my neck."
The second boy said, "Well I'm gonna play with mine" and dumped them into his
hand.
The older one looked at him and said, "Keep 'em in the poke. Them marbles ain't
for playing." He was instantly obeyed.
"What he give you?" both of them asked at once, all excited.
"Me? Wal I reckon he gave me what I will be . . . what I am . . . and what I
was." The words sounded strange but he knew they was right.
The old black man had come out for a smoke, he leaned on the porch and smiled as he
heard the conversation. The boys noticed him and he heard the two small ones call out.
"Come on Fox . . . show us how you can run."
The older one broke for the barn and called back, "Run fast as you can Ebiot, you
and Billy Bulloch both, you ain't never seen the day you can catch me."
The old black man reckoned that truer words would never be spoken.
Tol Brookshire was by the cold spring. How he got there he didn't know. He was doing
something special and he needed to go back and finish. The two stepped out and he knew
them, but they wasn't what he remembered. "What you two doing up here," he
asked.
"Been waiting for you," Pap Abraham Moses said, "Me and Joshua
both."
Tol looked back over his shoulder trying to remember what he had to finish.
King Joshua spoke softly, "Nothing back there for ya. It all done be finished.
Come on and walk with me and Pap now. Time come for us to show you a kingdom. Folks down
there at the cabin been a waiting a long time on you. Your grandma and ma, them three
Yankee soldiers, your pa and brothers, Old Man West even rode Jesaw up to meet you. Most
of all they is two boys been a waiting a long time to shoot some marbles. Come on
now," he said gentle and touched Tol on the shoulder.
Tol followed, What he had to do didn't seem that important now and he could smell something that smelled like Grand Ma Brookshire's country ham. He turned and walked with King Joshua and Pap Abraham Moses. You know, he thought he could most hear Caleb King saying, "In my father's house are many mansions . . . " but that was behind him now. He walked on toward the cabin in the laurel and he never looked back again and he knew he would never have to.
About the author - Steve Batson
