“I’m just so grateful to have you home, son. When I think of what might have happened…but the Good Lord spared you.”
“I would have been a damn sight happier if he’d spared my left leg too.”
Irene didn’t scold her son. She was too happy to have him home. She was actually relieved that the accident hadn’t taken away his vinegar. She knew he would need every bit of his pluck in the days to come. Her son had lost his leg, but not his backbone.
Benjamin wasted no time on self-pity, but immediately began working on ways to save the farm. Finally he hit on a solution. They didn’t have much, but they had land - lots of land. He would find tenant farmers and sharecroppers to work the land. Benjamin took advantage of neighbors who were poorer than he was. Both the tenant farmers and the sharecroppers were farmers without land. The tenant farmers paid Benjamin for the right to grow their crops on his land. The sharecroppers didn’t have the money to rent the land. Instead, they worked a plot in exchange for a portion of what their raised. In a short time, land that had never seen a plow was producing corn, cotton and tobacco. The sharecroppers gave Benjamin two-thirds of everything they raised. In addition the sharecroppers paid him for the use of the tools they used and for food and supplies out of their third.
Benjamin pushed them all hard to produce. He became a familiar sight. Hopping about on his crutches- urging them to work harder, driving them on. Benjamin was a bastard, but he was a good businessman.
No one had expected Benjamin to amount to anything especially after the accident took his leg. His father had been a humble and unassuming man who made up with kindheartedness what he lacked in ambition. His stepfather had been a scoundrel. Everyone expected the rich farmland and virgin woods that had belonged to the Foreman family for two hundred years to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. It was just that cynicism that fueled Benjamin’s determination to prove once and for all that he would not be disgraced as he believed his mother had been. A year after the accident the farm was thriving and Benjamin was finally earning the respect that had eluded him for his whole life.
* * *
Irene and Pearl were putting supper on the table in preparation for Benjamin’s arrival. He wanted his meal ready when he walked in the door.
“I’ve never seen your brother happier,” said Irene as she surveyed her table with pride.
“I don’t think Benjamin is going to be truly happy until he has every dollar in Beaufort County.”
“Pearl, your brother is just determined. Determination is not anything to be ashamed of. I am proud of Benjamin and you and Rose should be proud of him too. Do you know, he told me he is thinking of learning how to cut hair and opening up a barber shop in Belhaven?”
“Like I said, Mama, he isn’t going to be satisfied until he has every dollar in the county.”
Pearl was spared her mother’s response by her brother’s entrance. “Pearl, go get your sister. Tell her we’re sitting down to supper.”
For several minutes they ate in silence then Benjamin spoke. “I talked to Willie Modlin. He and his family are going to be moving into the tenant house behind the old pack shed. He’s going to be working that piece of land between the creek and Smith’s place for me. Mama, I told him we could give him a milk cow and few chickens in exchange for his girl giving you a hand. Those daughters of yours sure ain’t much help.” He laughed.
“Benjamin, are you sure it’s a good idea to take on more sharecroppers right now? You’re spreading yourself thin, son.”
“It ain’t like I can tend the fields myself now, is it Ma?” He gestured toward his wooden leg. “These poor bastards do all the work. I just collect the money.” He laughed again. Irene hadn’t seen her son so jovial in a long time.
As soon as he finished his supper, Benjamin went out on the back porch to smoke his pipe. Irene stood up, but she supported herself by holding on to the back of her chair. “You girls clean up. I need to lie down for a bit.”
“Are you alright Mama?”
“Yes, Pearl. I’m just feeling a little tired this evening.” Irene walked unsteadily from the room.
“I wasn’t going to say this around Mama, but I think I know why our brother is so perky.”
“What are you talking about, Rose?” Pearl had noticed that Benjamin’s disposition had improved but she thought it was just that the farm was going better.
“I think he’s sniffing after Willie’s daughter Madeline. That would certainly explain why he’s moving the family practically under our roof. And he didn’t give the others a cow, did he?
“Madeline?” Pearl exclaimed. “Why she’s only fifteen.” Even as she uttered the words she knew her sister was right. It made perfect sense. A cascade of relief flooded over her. Maybe it was over. Maybe he would stop. Now Madeline would receive his unwelcome attention. Pearl smiled to herself. Yes. It would be over now.
You’re chirpy, Pearlie.”
Without realizing it, Pearl had begun humming.
“What is that tune? It’s pretty.”
“I heard it on the radio. It’s called When You Wish Upon a Star.”
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