Song of Slaves in the Desert Read Online Free Page A

since we were boys together in Antigua. He writes to tell me that aside from now weighing as much as two Hebrew men of normal size he is in good health. And awaiting your arrival.”
    “Awaiting my arrival, father?” I had said.
    “Yes, he is.”
    “And so you have been corresponding with him about this for some weeks now?”
    “This happens to be so.”
    I shook my head. “I wish I had known, Father. I am terribly disappointed. What matter could be so important that I have to travel down to Charleston instead of sailing off on my tour?”
    “Your tour, Nathaniel, will come. But family comes first, however distant they may have been in earlier relations. My brother needs some looking to. I do not mean to set your mind against him but he fears that his only son may not be entirely capable of taking over the plantation. There is some question of the boy’s—now man’s—temperament. I had hopes that I might resolve this matter by letter and so have not spoken about it with you until now. Alas, my dear boy, things have not resolved. My brother has appealed to my familial responsibility. Which is why you must make the voyage to Charleston before the voyage to Europe. I need some advice about this matter. Should we or should we not invest in his enterprise so that we might offer both support and direction? That is the question.”
    “Are we going to become tobacco merchants, or sell whatever it is he grows down there?”
    “No, Nathaniel, not tobacco. Rice. Southern rice to feed the belly of the northern nation. A thousand acres of fields and rice-growing ponds.” He paused and blinked into the sunlight as though he had only just discovered it had dawned. “And a hundred slaves.”
    “Slaves? Father, I know nothing about rice. And less about slaves.” At this moment I cleared my throat and tried to assume a vocal posture of certainty. “I certainly do not want to learn about either.”
    “You will learn. You are old enough now to learn some things about business.”
    “And young enough to know nothing, Father,” I said.
    “I like humility in a man,” Father said. He smiled, which produced in me a feeling of warm good will. “You will know what to tell me soon enough about whether or not we should invest in my half-brother’s enterprise. He is a large man in many ways, this fellow of our blood. I do not know him very well, though am sure he would help me if I needed help. He has asked us for assistance that we cannot give without some investigation. It is my impression that we are his last resort. And you, young man, are mine. Will you help me?”
    “Of course, Father,” I said. “But after this, Europe?” I said. “My tour?”
    “Son, I promise you, assist us first in this matter and I will send you immediately thereafter. Remember, your mother was always a kind person. For her, family came first…”
    “Yes, Father.”
    “There is one more thing.”
    “Yes, Father?”
    He pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk, took out a small pistol, and offered it to me.
    “Father?”
    “Remember, the world is not always kind. A man needs protection while traveling,” he said. “The weapon is at the moment unloaded. Tomorrow I will buy you bullets. You are a man now, going about your father’s business. Carry this weapon always on your person. You may see some things down there in the South…well, never mind.” For a moment I stared at it and then took it from him.
    He next reached into his pocket and took out his gold timepiece, as if to establish that it was time for one thing and now it was time for another.
    “Your grandfather’s watch,” he said. “Which he consulted often while sitting in his office and looking out at the Carib palms. And which was next mine, and now yours. It is your watch, son, and from now on you will have to wind it.”

Chapter Three
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In My Margins
What Are the Origins of Man?
    Where had they come from? Out of the earth? Fire? Water? Water!
    When