PROLOGUE : Concordia Parish 1878

“Come on, Martha. Let’s go down to the river market. Mama Catherine is almost finished making my wedding dress and I want to find ‘something blue’ to wear with it,” Eliga Gaines said. She was nineteen years old and was proudly engaged to a local boy whose daddy was a farmer in a different parish. She had met him when he visited their church three months ago and their wedding date was now just over six weeks away. Eliga called Catherine “Mama” even though Catherine was in reality her older sister. Martha did the same even though she was officially Catherine’s sister-in-law. The two of them had lived with Catherine ever since their respective parents had died of the fever. Eliga had been fourteen when she came to live with Catherine. A year later, Martha at the age of thirteen came to stay with her as well. Martha smiled while nodding her head in agreement. She enjoyed sneaking down to the river market and looking at all the brightly colored merchandise while secretly enjoying the thrill of the place. Both she and Eliga knew that the river area could be a dangerous place to visit. Men had gotten killed—stabbed for that matter—fighting over the silliest of things. In addition, Mama Catherine called the women with the painted faces who walked the riverbank—“hussies.” Still, they liked going there simply because it was always an adventure. The rivermen treated the colored people fairly—unlike some of the rude shopkeepers in town. The rivermen’s main purpose was to sell the people their wares and make money doing it. The color of money was the only color with which they concerned themselves. Plus it was cooler by the Mississippi River with breezes that kept the stifling May heat at bay even if it meant they had to deal with the nuisance of flies and mosquitoes. Eliga was especially animated to go. She was anxious to visit the boat belonging to a new merchant who had come to the dock. Her best friend, Mahaley, had stopped by her house the day before to tell her about him. “Oh my God, Eliga! You gotta’ go down to the dock, now! I was just there at the River Market with Pa and a new boat is anchored there with a strange man who is selling the nicest things. He can speak English, but it’s hard to understand him. Plus…” Mahaley looked around to make sure Catherine wasn’t anywhere near to hear her added, “He’s kinda scary!” “Why he be scary, Mahaley?” “Well….he wears clothes that are different. I ain’t ever seen anything like them before. And his eyes! They are real strange—almost like a cat!” “How do you mean, Mahaley?” Eliga had asked. She was unable to visualize just how the stranger’s eyes could cause Mahaley to talk about them so. “And to have eyes like a cat—that’s impossible!” Mahaley raised her hands and using her middle fingers, she pulled both her eyes back so that they formed two narrow slits. “See…! His eyes are like so,” she lectured. “The man…is…a…‘Chinaman!’” she declared emphatically. “How do you know he’s a ‘Chinaman’?” Eliga demanded back just as pointedly. She was always amazed at how worldly Mahaley professed to be even though the furthest the child had ever traveled in her entire life was just to the river’s edge. She hadn’t even gone to Natchez and it was just across the river. “You ain’t never seen one before! You don’t even know where in the world China is anyway!” In a game of point-counterpoint, Eliga was now one up on her friend. She wasn’t trying to be mean about it. She just wanted to challenge Mahaley on how she could be soooo self-assured in her knowledge. “I may not know where China be, but I know he be a Chinaman ‘cause that what my daddy say he be!” Mahaley snapped back defiantly. She had now used her ace-in-the-hole card to win their current debate of words. She was a daddy’s girl and whatever her father said was always the ‘gospel truth.’ “Plus,” she added with her voice taking on an even more authoritative affirmation that she had won the battle of I-know-more-than-you-do-war; “The man has got a long single braid that reaches down to his knees and my daddy says that what dem Celestials do with their hair!” Mahaley was now in total control of their conversation having won the knowledge war. She was more than content to chatter on— ecstatic that she wouldn’t be challenged further as she continued sharing her beloved father’s observations about the man. “When the Chinaman runs to get things, his braid flies through the air as he pulls out new merchandise. The more he takes out, the more people flock to his boat. They were even fighting and arguing over who saw what first!” Glancing over at Eliga, Mahaley saw that the temptation to challenge her hadn’t been fully abated. So use used her final trump card. “My daddy recognized him as a Chinaman because he saw them people in Arkansas when he worked the plantation there four years ago.” Eliga sat listening intently. She closed her eyes—squeezing them tightly and tried to visualize it for herself. She couldn’t. The more Mahaley told of what she had seen, the more excited Eliga was to go and see it for herself. “I can’t go down to the dock now. I will have to wait until tomorrow,” she admitted sadly to Mahaley. “…and even then, Martha and I will have our Saturday chores to complete before we can even think of possibly sneaking away.” Eliga was right. By the time Martha and she were done on that Saturday afternoon, the day was full blast into being hot and humid. But they had gotten all their chores done in record time and now the two of them were on their way to the dock. Martha had to half-run to keep up with Eliga’s quick pace as they took the shortcut route directly down towards the river’s edge. Eliga carried a dime she had earned from helping Mama Catherine in her sewing business. She clutched the money tightly in one hand as she now pulled Martha along with her other hand. Arriving at the dock, Eliga knew immediately which boat to visit. His deck was filled with people and the man was exactly as Mahaley had described him. He did wear clothing unlike anything that she had ever seen before. And it was true that when he dashed back and forth, his braid flew throughout the air. The shoppers onboard the boat were in a frenzy as they grabbed at items, tossing aside what they didn’t like while clutching the items they wanted to pay for in their other hand. “Chinaman…I want this one!” a woman said clasping the item in her arms to her bosom to make sure no one could snatch it from her. On the other side of the boat, another woman was screaming, “Chinaman, Chinaman, I need two more of these,” as she held something bright red in her hands and the Chinaman dashed to help her, his long braid again trailing in the air. Eliga and Martha climbed the plank on to the boat. They wanted to watch the frenzy from up close. They stood silent and wide-eyed taking in the action until finally the whirlwind activity ebbed as people paid for their purchases and left. The merchant looked around at the mess the people had made of his wares. He muttered some words in a language they didn’t understand and then began the process of straightening up and reorganizing his goods. He kept a wary eye on the remaining adult customers plus the two young girls. Finally the adults onboard paid for their selections while the two young girls dressed in matching white smock dresses continued perusing but not touching a thing. When he got to his jewelry section, he saw that two of his cheaper necklaces had been broken by the shoppers as they roughly handled the delicate pieces. He held the broken necklaces in one hand and began to pummel his arms up and down with a corresponding verbal tirade to match. It was only when his arms went down a second time that he felt the huge bulge of money in his pockets. That caused him to stop and smile. He knew intrinsically from the feel and weight that he had done well. He had sold quite a bit of merchandise and thus had made a tidy profit. He glanced over at the two remaining girls. They were still silently looking at all that he had to offer. The merchant mentally noted that they had perused almost his entire inventory of merchandise yet hadn’t touched a solitary thing. He finished tidying up his goods while still keeping a watchful eye on them. He noted that they paused the longest by the jewelry display. They eyed the necklaces he had rehung and rearranged. Still they kept their hands to themselves. Not once had they reached out to pick up a thing. “I like the pretty blue one, Martha,” Eliga said softly to her sister-in-law. “Me too! How much is it?” “Fifty cents.” “Do you have enough money for it?” Eliga shook her head “no” and then sadly told her cousin, “I only have a dime. Let’s go back home. Mama Catherine will be worried if we stay too late.” Eliga led Martha to the ramp so that they could get off the boat. Martha turned to the merchant and giving him her biggest smile, she waved at him, and said in a singsong voice, “Byyyyyyyye.” Eliga joined in with a brief wave of her own. “Good-bye sir,” she chimed in. Together the two girls walked down the plank to begin their journey back home. They were both barely back on the dock when they heard a gruff voice shout out to them, “You wait!” Both girls turned at the sound. They were stunned to see standing behind them the Chinese merchant. Seeing him up close for the first time, they saw he had jet black eyes that were piercing as he stared at them. Mahaley was right, Eliga said to herself. His eyes are strange! The two girls saw that he was half-bald from shaving the front part of his head while the rest of his coal-black hair was four feet long. He wore a natural-colored raw silk jacket that crisscrossed his broad chest and was held in place by a wide black belt thus giving him an even larger appearance up close. His pants were wide and loose and fell in a length just below his knees. His socks and shoes—were made out of cloth! The two girls stood motionless. They watched as he lifted his right hand. In it was two broken bead necklaces, one of which was an even prettier shade of blue than the one Eliga had admired. In a very gruff voice, he told the two girls, “You break! You break!” Eliga’s eyes grew wide as she looked from the broken necklaces to his stern countenance. She knew that neither she nor Martha had touched a thing. Mama Catherine’s had several rules. One of which was that they were never to lay their hands on what wasn’t theirs, and two; if you did and broke it, then you had better be prepared to pay for it. Eliga began shaking her head, “No.” “We didn’t break that, sir. My sister and I, we never touched a thing,” she explained. Her voice began to quiver at the accusation that she might even be responsible for such an action. Her eyes were moist as they began to fill with tears. Plus even if she had broken the chain, she didn’t have enough money to pay for it. LoChan saw the tears forming in Eliga’s eyes. He couldn’t understand why the girl was so upset. “Necklace–now no good, no good,” he explained. “I want you take. You take!” He insisted thrusting the two pieces of jewelry into her small hand. Eliga sigh a sound of relief. He had said “break” the first time but he had meant “take.” And even though it was broken, Eliga saw that she could fix it by removing beads rather than try to find the missing ones. “Thank you,” Eliga said accepting the gifts. She held out her other hand and offered him her dime. This time it was the LoChan who shook his head ‘no’. He smiled, bowed deeply and then remained standing and watching as the girls walked off. * * * * “Mama Catherine! Mama Catherine!” Eliga shouted as soon as they got back to the house. Catherine looked up from her sewing and smiled at seeing her two young charges. “Why are you two making such a ruckus?” She asked. “Mama Catherine…Look!” Eliga said holding up the royal blue beaded necklace. Catherine took hold of the necklace. She examined it carefully admiring the beauty and intricacy of the design. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before in her life. “Where did y’all get this?” she asked. Her eyes traveled from Eliga to Martha and then back to Eliga as she awaited a response from either of them. “We went down to the river market Mama Catherine. The man gave that one to me,” Eliga replied proudly. “You went to the river? Only barrel house women go to the river without a proper adult escort! And who is the man that gave you this…and why?” Her eyes narrowed and darkened. A terrible scowl crossed her face. Catherine began peppering them with demands and answers to her multitude of questions. She wasn’t in the mood to tolerate any delays in getting them. “The Chinaman gave them to us, Mama Catherine,” Martha chimed in. “He has a boat by the river and we….” Catherine looked from Martha to Eliga with fury in her eyes. “You’re lying, gal! What is a Chinaman… and why would a Chinaman give you such a nice gift? What have you been up to?” She queried again letting it be well understood that she had no patience or tolerance for liars. Tears immediately began to swell in Eliga’s eyes for the second time that day. “I’m not lying, Mama Catherine. The Chinaman gave me the necklace ‘cause it was broken,” she again attempted to explain. Catherine re-examined the necklace. It was absolutely exquisite. Had it not been broken, the cost would have been several dollars in the fancy stores across the river in Natchez. It looked like something the women whose husbands owned the plantations wore. She had seen one of those women once when the woman had come with her husband from Natchez to Concordia. They had rode slowly past her house and Catherine couldn’t tell what the woman looked like for her attention had been solely focused on the beautiful jewelry the woman wore. Catherine eyed Eliga with an even more disbelieving look. “This is much too nice for someone to just ‘give away’ even if it is broken. It looks like it could be easily fixed. Tell the truth, girl. Did you take it? I know you’ve been pining for something blue to wear with your wedding dress.” “No…Mama Catherine, I swear…I didn’t steal it. Why he even gave Martha one too!” Eliga added. Mama Catherine had a lightening quick temper and was known to get a switch and whip her children to keep them in line. Eliga hoping to prove her point held out her other hand so that Catherine could see the second necklace. Catherine grabbed the second necklace. It wasn’t as exquisite as the first one, but it was still nice. Continuing her fury towards Eliga, she took her by the arm and again demanded, “Why…why would a Chinaman give this to you?” And again she suspiciously inquired, “What…what have you done? You know I don’t tolerate stealing or lying!” “I haven’t done anything, Mama Catherine. I swear! The people were all down at the dock and grabbing stuff that he was selling on his boat. Martha and I didn’t touch anything like you taught us. We were on our way back home when the man called out to us and gave us the necklaces. That’s all.” “Take it back! Take it back—right now! Give it back to the Chinaman!” she ordered. Her sisters weren’t tramps and she wasn’t about to have them accepting gifts from men. She had heard about the women in New Orleans who were kept by men—men who bought them nice houses and fancy dresses. Men who weren’t their husbands but were their lovers. If that Chinaman thought he could buy the affection of her sisters with expensive gifts, she wasn’t going to permit it. Eliga and Martha turned and left the house. They slowly made their way back down to the dock area. Neither of them wanted to return the beautiful necklaces, but they dared not disobey Mama Catherine. Arriving at the dock they were met with an empty space where the Chinaman’s boat had been moored. He was gone! The two girls returned home to tell Mama Catherine of their dilemma. Catherine’s face clearly showed her frustration at their tale. She wanted the problem resolved immediately. She knew the girls wanted to keep the necklaces. But there was a bigger morality lesson for them to acknowledge. She was well aware that their ability to touch and repair the necklaces would lead to further temptation to keep what in Catherine’s mind wasn’t theirs to accept to begin with. “Give me the necklaces,” she demanded of the two girls. “I’m putting them up. When the Chinaman comes back, you’ll both take the necklaces and give them back to him.” Reluctantly Eliga and Martha turned over their newly acquired prized possessions to Catherine. She promptly put them high on a shelf where they wouldn’t get lost and where if someone did touch them, she would know. * * * * Two weeks later, Mahaley came sprinting into the yard, her cheeks flushed from having run so hard. “Eliga, he’s back. Ee-ly..juh…Eeee…..ly….juuuh!” Eliga came from inside the house followed by Catherine, Martha and Sis’ Betsy—Catherine oldest daughter. They all stood on the front porch wondering what was going on. Catherine spoke first. “Mahaley girl, why you be coming into my yard screaming yo’ lungs out so?” “Sorry…Miz Catherine,” Mahaley said sincerely. Then unable to contain herself, she blurted out, “But I had to let Eliga know that the Chinaman is back! I went to the dock this morning with Pa and I done seen him.” Catherine was overjoyed at hearing that news. She promptly went inside and retrieved the two necklaces from the shelf where she had placed them. She instructed Eliga and Martha to take the necklaces back to the Chinaman and tell him they couldn’t accept his gift. Holding the necklaces in their hands, each took a brief moment to marvel at them. It was the first time either of them had held the necklaces since Catherine had taken the jewelry from them. Slowly the two girls headed for the dock. They didn’t care that the walk seemed to take forever as they were not in a hurry to give up what each considered to be their prize possession. Arriving at the dock they saw the Chinaman’s boat. They paused a moment before climbing onboard. There weren’t any other customers and the Chinaman upon seeing them rose to greet them. This time it was Eliga who spoke first. “Excuse me mister, my mama says I can’t keep this.” With that she held out both broken necklaces to LoChan. LoChan stared at the two girls. He immediately recognized them and recalled that they were the two well-mannered girls he had met several weeks prior. But what he didn’t understand was why they had come back to his boat with the gifts he had given them. Why was the one girl holding the still broken necklaces out towards him? Perhaps she didn’t like it and wanted something nicer. Yes, that had to be it. He had several other necklaces that were better than the ones he had given the girls. He was a skilled craftsman—amongst other things that he did. He was an excellent jeweler who made many of the necklaces that he sold. He took the broken necklaces Eliga held out to him and told her, “You wait!” He shouldn’t have given them broken jewelry. It was probably an insult to give away something that is broken. Would someone want a butterfly with a broken wing? He asked himself. It was still beautiful, but it wouldn’t be the same as getting one that could fly. Plus they probably didn’t have the tools available to fix them. What had he been thinking? LoChan went to his chest and pulled out two even prettier necklaces than the ones he had originally given the girls. Returning to where Eliga and Martha stood, he handed the two new necklaces to them. “You take!” he ordered. Eliga and Martha couldn’t help but admire their even nicer new necklaces. They were fancier than the first ones. They tried to give the new necklaces back, but LoChan shooed them off his boat. “You take. You take!” he told them. He bowed repeatedly at the girls and no matter how they tried; they couldn’t get him to take back the necklaces. He wanted the girls to have the gift. Eliga and Martha not knowing what to do, left the boat with their two new even nicer necklaces. “What will we tell Mama Catherine?” Martha asked Eliga. Eliga shrugged her shoulders. She was too busy calculating on how to make Mama Catherine understand that the man didn’t want to take back the necklaces and maybe…just maybe she would let them keep them. This time, the two girls didn’t tarry on their way home from the dock. Arriving at the house, they entered the yard and found Catherine seated on the front porch. Catherine eyed her two sisters warily. They didn’t appear too devastated at having had to return the two pretty necklaces. “So, did you two do as I told you?” Catherine inquired. “Mama Catherine, we did! He took the two broken necklaces back. But now he has given us two brand new ones! We tried to tell him that you didn’t want us to accept the gifts, but he wouldn’t listen and made us get off of his boat,” Martha told Catherine the saga with a pleading intonation to her voice. She was hoping that her verifying the same story that Eliga had told her earlier would make Catherine more conducive to hearing an explanation. It didn’t’. Catherine’s reaction to the news was swift and decisive. “Give me those necklaces,” she demanded. She immediately turned and went to get her big wooden spoon. She had Eliga carry baby Isabella—her youngest. Martha half-walked and half-carried Catherine’s middle daughter Lucy who at age four was still too little to walk all the way on her own; while Mahaley took a hold of Sis’ Betsy’s hand. They made quite an entourage as they all marched down to the dock. Miz Jenkins, the neighborhood gossip and snoop saw them as they trudged past her house and attempted to engage Catherine in small talk. “Oh Catherine, dear. I understand your two sisters….” Miz Jenkins couldn’t get out her entire comment before she was summarily rebuffed as Catherine replied furtively, “Good day, Miz Jenkins!” and continued on her way. Catherine was not in the mood to tolerate any of that busybody’s noisiness at the moment. The older children almost had to run to keep up with Catherine’s sturdy strides. Arriving at the dock, Mahaley pointed to the boat anchored at the far end. Catherine marched up to the vessel, her eyes glaring with controlled rage and anger. She stopped at the boarding plank and shouted out, “Chinaman! China...man!” Onboard LoChan heard the commotion and came to the portside of his boat. He was accustomed to hearing the people refer to him as “Chinaman.” It was an insult—but one used even by the Chinese to refer to themselves. All the other customers who were crowded onboard joined in to watch as Catherine was known to all of the townspeople as a sensible—yet, no nonsense widow. two girls handed off the younger children to Mahaley and came and stood by her side. “These are my children,” she said pointing to the two girls. “They are good girls. Good girls! I don’t know why you gave them gifts, but they are good girls. I don’t like you giving my children anything!” Catherine spoke rapidly and the words all came tumbling out as one. LoChan looked at the woman and was perplexed as to why she was shouting at him. “No speak good English. No good English,” he replied back. Frustrated that the man wasn’t responding by understanding her tirade and what she was implying, Catherine reached into her apron pocket and pulled out the second set of necklaces. Holding them up so that LoChan could see them, she again chided him. “Why you give my girls ‘gifts’? They are good girls!” She pointed the necklaces at the girls and then at him. “Good girls!” She added even more emphatically. With her other hand, Catherine shook the huge wood spoon at him. She knew he would get and understand her international message of a mother protecting her young. And…he did! Catherine took a momentary break from her rant. She stood on the dock breathing hard from both the fast pace she had taken to the boat as well as her mounting anger. Her full breasts strained against the thin cotton calico fabric as she was in the final stages of nursing baby Isabella. She pushed back the few soft tendrils of curls that had escaped from under the headwrap she wore. She had fury in her eyes and her skin glistened in the afternoon sun from the mild perspiration that she exuded because of the summer’s heat. LoChan looked directly at the beautiful black woman who stood before him. She had pointed at the two young girls while holding the necklaces he had given them. Then she had shaken the huge wooden spoon towards him in a very threatening manner. His English may have been broken, but Catherine’s actions were internationally very clear. She was accusing him of wrongful intentions by having given those two young girls a gift! Now that he finally understood the source of her anger, LoChan responded back shaking both his head and outstretched hands in the negative at the woman. “Me…no like little girls,” he said keeping a wary eye on her. Sensing that she had half accepted his answer, he bowed then pointed his hand directly at Catherine. With a huge grin on his handsome face, he told her, “Me like big girls… like you!”