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Category:
Literary Fiction
Type: Fiction
Pages: 272
Copyright: June 2014
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
A story about having faith in yourself and holding on to your morals at all cost
Winnsboro, South Carolina was a great place to live and raise children, until hard times hit it like a bomb’s detonation; severing families, friends and communities. Hank McAllister must decide if he will stay with his family or leave in search of a secure life for all of them. He soon learns every decision comes with a price.
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The sack suddenly felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds, Hank McAllister noted as he swung the worn, brown burlap bag up and over his left shoulder. It was as if metaphorically he was now carrying the weight of the world on his broad shoulders. Everything he could carry was inside the bag, yet it was the things he couldn’t carry with him that actually weighed on him the most. His hand gripped the rope he had attached at both ends of the bag to serve as a shoulder strap. His bedroll comprised of two thin blankets and a pillowcase was rolled neatly and tied with the same rope as the burlap travel bag. Hank casually slipped his right arm through an opening in the rope before slipping it onto the back of his right shoulder. Nora, his wife of ten years stood silently in front of him; she pulled him to her and hugged him deeply. It was as if she were attempting to absorb his essence; to somehow keep him there long after he was gone. She had been named Jennora by her parents but never took to it; she had basically drawn the short straw by being the first born of three girls and therefore had been given a peace keeping merged name derived from her two strong-willed grandmothers. The combining of Jenna and Lenora had appeased both sides of the family, it however left her with a name she never quite grew to love; she preferred simply ‘Nora’ and used it exclusively. Hank had known her for more than a year before he found out her true name. He was happy to call her by the name she preferred; it suited her he thought.
Her eyes were closed as she welded her body and blue Gingham dress into him. Letting him walk away from her would the most difficult thing she had ever done she told herself silently. The tears she was holding back would eventually escape, but not now; she didn’t want Hank to see her crying as the last sight he had of her for a long time. She would find time to have a good long cry after he was gone.
Two small girls clung to his pant legs; Annie, age six and Phyllis, age four didn’t understand completely what was about to happen and how it would change their lives for a while. They only knew their daddy was leaving. They had no idea where this place called Texas was; it didn’t matter, it was taking away their daddy and they didn’t much care for anything that took him away from them.
∞
This was June of 1930. The Great Depression, as it was being called had begun in earnest some eight months earlier. The folks of Winnsboro, South Carolina hadn’t been immediately affected by the craziness back east. Work had continued normally for Hank McAllister and fifty two others at the furniture factory. For a while it seemed like the depression they were hearing about was simply a problem up In New York as the steady, unhurried pace of Winnsboro continued on despite television and newspaper reports indicating the whole country would soon be feeling the effects. The stock market crash threatened to pull the entire country underwater eventually. The folks of Winnsboro had at first joked about the reports of the crash; they were men who only took stock in themselves and their work ethic. They couldn’t fathom why an event back east should affect their ability to produce high quality furniture; after all, it was what the country was built on, a hard-nosed, and no nonsense work ethic. That ethic was evident in every table and chair they produced. Somewhere on the bottom side of each piece of furniture made they applied a “Winnsboro made” brand.
Two months after the first reports of the crash, they began to understand the full magnitude of what was happening across the United States. Hank had simply been one of many workers suddenly thrust into a bleak future of long-term unemployment. Management at the factory had merely told them to blame their situation on the fat cats back east who had undoubtedly caused the stock market crash which had occurred in October. They had in fact joked about big wigs jumping from eighty story sky scrapers in New York. They concluded their tallest building was the three story Winnsboro bank; it was hard to imagine anyone jumping from that. It had ceased to be funny when pink slips began finding the hands of scared men. Most of them had little in the way of marketable job skills. A lot of bread winners became crust beggars in a matter of a few weeks. It was a sad time as once proud men cried, first for their families and then for themselves. The game had suddenly changed on them; most didn’t know how to adapt. It left some wishing they had a building in town higher than the bank.
Winnsboro was a small town and the closing of the furniture plant had the impact of a ton of dynamite detonating in the center of town. Small business closed for good almost daily; one day it was Mitchell’s bakery and Hoffman’s shoe repair; the following day it was Shapiro’s diner and Watkins’ auto body shop. It was akin to watching old friends die one by one. Those who remained couldn’t help but feel as if they were watching their once thriving town slowly become a ghost town. There was no end in sight for the town’s demise, except the inevitable outcome they all dreaded.
Even in a town as small as Winnsboro suicide found a customer when Charlie Davenport shot himself in the storeroom of his clothing store; the sad fact was no one had money for new clothes. His death seemed to somehow signal the town’s passing as well, as its residents began to exit in larger numbers in hopes of finding something better somewhere else. Fathers left families, wives left husbands and young men struck out on their own for the first time to search for the security they had enjoyed until recently; all departed with the promise of returning once they had something, and all knew in their hearts they would likely never return to Winnsboro.
Hank and Nora McAllister had five hundred and sixty five dollars saved when the factory closed; a blue and white soda cracker tin served as their bank since Hank had never put much faith in the folks who ran the banks. He didn’t understand why he should put his money in their pocket to hold for him; he would trust in himself he rationalized early in life. He had watched his father scrap by on meager money from sharecropping before he was finally given the section of land where Hank had grown up and now lived. The ex-slave owner turned farmer his father had sharecropped for had taken a liking to him based on his loyalty and honesty and had willed him several acres of land when he died. He had always spoken in glowing terms of the character of Hanks father; it was what a man could be measured by he had told him on many occasions before passing away; integrity, loyalty and honesty were the sum total of a man’s worth. Hank’s father had passed those thoughts on to his son as he grew up. There were a lot of folks who likely lost their life savings when the market crashed because they put their trust in the wrong people. Hank put his faith in himself, and his money in the cracker tin. No market crash back east could take away his savings.
They made it through the first winter, following the start of the depression and subsequent downwards spiral of the town by using less heating oil and adhering to a strict budget which had no place for niceties such as candy and toys for the girls. Hank appeased them with wooden toys he carved himself; the small dolls and animals he made kept them smiling and content. Collectively, the McAllister’s learned how to tighten their belts. Even though they didn’t farm the land as his parents had, they did maintain a small garden with enough vegetables to help them get through the tough times. Nora grew several plants and herbs for medicinal purposes; she had been taught by her mother all about the properties of plants, herbs and roots; she used them effectively as medicines for the girls, salves for rashes, and numerous other money saving home cures. She was a smart woman who had earned a teaching certification at the local college and had taught elementary for a while; the birth of Annie had been enough to make her stop teaching and become a stay at home mom. Hank had been promoted to quality control at the factory and the pay increase was a factor as well in Nora’s decision to stop teaching. Annie and Phyllis would be her only students in the future.
By the time spring wafted into Winnsboro the town was little more than a shell of what it had been less than a year earlier. Most of the town’s inhabitants having departed to the west in hopes of finding greener grasses; leaving downtown Winnsboro with business after business boarded up and vacant. It may as well have been grave markers to the remaining residents who had to pass them daily; it was a sad reminder of old friends who they had once laughed with and who had now moved on for good. Those remaining behind could not conceive of a United States ravaged from coast to coast by this thing called “The Great Depression”.
Hank had never been one to act before completely thinking something through; this time was no different. He would stay put for a while longer before deciding what he would do.
Summer crept in without much of the usual vivacity it normally brought along with it. Instead it promised to be cruel. There was a feeling in the air; something that hung over the town like dark storm clouds. Hank McAllister felt it; whatever it was it chewed at the lining of his stomach. It pulled him from his already fitful sleep each night and left him walking the floor at three in the morning. The feeling took away his energy along with his appetite. At some point during his restless early morning vigils he gave a name to the feeling clinging to him like late summer humidity; it was hopelessness. It was a sinking ship without lifeboats, or attempting to hold a crumbing dam together with band aids. Hopelessness moved into his chest late at night; it squeezed his heart causing it to beat faster than normal. It invaded his mind, pushing all other thoughts out until all he could think about was the hopelessness of his situation. And eventually it found his eyes and made them leak late at night when no one else was awake except him and his thoughts. He knew he had to do something soon; he couldn’t allow the feeling to take over the last solid thing he possessed other than his family, that being his soul.
Summer’s arrival found just over three hundred dollars remaining in the cracker tin. The debate that had gone on in the McAllister home throughout the winter and spring was now on the verge of becoming reality. Hank knew he simply couldn’t sit and wait any longer; time had run out for hoping and praying. There was no way he would allow his family to become dependent on others for their basic needs. He had struggled, or more accurately, wrestled with the problem over the past six months or so; now the answer was there in front of him, as clear as a Harvest moon; it was time to leave Winnsboro.
He wouldn’t drag his family off into the unknown void of the country outside of South Carolina; this was something he would have to do alone. While most were heading toward California, his gut told him Texas. Hank had never been one to follow the lead of others and he didn’t see a reason to start now. And as he prepared to set out on what promised to be an arduous undertaking, he knew all too well what it was he would be leaving behind; what he didn’t know, couldn’t know was what lay in front of him.
∞
Now as he stood in front of his family, with his heavy travel bag over his left shoulder and his bedroll slung over the right, he knew he needed to start walking away, but he couldn’t internalize a command to his legs, so instead he pulled Nora to him and hugged her tightly once again. She broke the clinch first, knowing he wouldn’t walk away without a push from her and a smile on the girls faces. Taking a step back, she looked hard and long at the man she might not see again for a long while; and it was possible she could be staring at his face for the very last time. She forced the thought from her mind; the bright summer sun caused her to squint her light brown eyes as she looked at the man in front of her before smiled weakly as she scanned him from head to foot. He wasn’t a very big man, only 5’8, but sturdy from years of doing hard work. She noted how his dark brown skin glistened lightly as he looked down at her; at 5’4 he stood above her; she allowed her gaze to move slowly from the faint hair on his upper lip to his dark brown eyes that at the moment were conveying much more emotion than he would have liked them to. He was a man who enjoyed a good laugh as often as he could and typically smiled easily. At that moment there was no hint of a smile on Hank’s face; his jaw was taunt as he looked at the trio in front of him; as he did the muscles in his jaw tightened and relaxed alternately as he searched for the right words before leaving. Nora broke the silence first.
“Hank, I wish you didn’t have to go…” she began and was cut off immediately by the man standing in front of her.
“We’ve chewed this long enough”, he told her softly as he pulled her close once again. As he did he stared over the top of her head at the house he had grown up in and was now home to his family.
“Time to go” he announced suddenly, breaking the embrace with his wife as he spoke. He dropped down to his knees to hug the two small girls. Phyllis had begun to cry again; he turned to her first, but the four year old could not be consoled.
“Don’t worry baby, I’ll be back home real soon” he spoke softly into her ear. “You help your mama and I’ll come back real quick, I promise.” He found himself blinking rapidly as he worked desperately to hold back his own tears. That was the last thing they needed to see at that moment. He felt his fears and doubts beginning to take hold of his throat; it threatened to choke the air from his lungs. His six year old Annie was trying really hard to be strong as he pulled her against his chest and hugged her tightly. He could feel her heart beating rapidly even as she tried to show a calm exterior. A soft kiss found the cheek of each little girl in turn before he rose to once again embrace his wife.
“I love you.” He told her softly.
“Daddy…” Annie was tugging at his pant leg. Again he knelt down in order to come face to face with her.
“What baby?” he asked even though he was afraid of what she was about to say. Her lower lip was beginning to tremble; she was losing the battle of controlling her emotions, causing her to pause for a moment before continuing on with what she had to say. When she did it was soft, almost a whisper.
“Daddy…don’t get lost out there.” Her words caught him off guard and he clutched the small girl to him before he could speak.
“I’ll try not to Annie, I’ll try hard not to.” There was an intense need to move away from them before he broke down. Rising quickly he turned and began to walk down the long dirt walkway leading away from his home. He wouldn’t, or couldn’t turn and look back, not now; not with his eyes as clouded with water as they were at that moment. His heart felt much heavier than the pack on his shoulder.
It was a scary world for a black man with only a fourth grade education and limited job skills. He was fortunate to have met Nora. She taught him to read and write well beyond what he had learned in the limited schooling he had attended.
He reminded himself that he didn’t have a choice about leaving. What was he supposed to do? Wait until the last dollar was gone from their cracker tin? What then? The soup in his family’s bowls had to come from him, not some free handout. He couldn’t sit and wait for that to happen.
He set a fast pace, trying desperately to put some distance between his family and himself; he had to get further away to minimize the possibility of giving up and turning back. He found himself almost running for the first two miles. Annie’s words played over and over in his head as he slowed to a fast walk “Don’t get lost out there.” He wiped his eyes, adjusted the load on his shoulders and slowed his pace a bit. He had a long way to go; no more tears he told himself. He rationalized it was more important to leave for them than it was to stay with them. The tears would have to wait. There would likely be many reason to cry in the near future; there was no way he could accomplish his goals if he allowed himself to succumb to each one.
He still had enough trust in the remaining Winnsboro residents to stay on the main road as he headed away from town; he would switch over to the lesser traveled dirt roads running through heavily wooded areas on the outskirts of town. It was already heating up he noted as he wiped his forehead on the back of his hand. South Carolina had a subtropical climate in the summer, with the humidity staying high enough to make his cotton shirt cling to him in only a matter of minutes. He had tried to dress smart based on the areas he would be walking in over the next three days or so; his cotton tee-shirt was covered by a white gauze shirt with long sleeves. He tucked the pant legs on his blue dungarees into the tops of his brown Frye boots; they came to just above his ankles and would serve him well in preventing snake bites. He completed the outfit with a black Panama hat; the wide brim would help keep the sun out of his eyes. He knew the outfit was a warm choice, but it would be beneficial once he entered the wooded part of his journey and the numerous bugs began to seek out a potential meal on his arms and neck. Nora had packed a homemade insect repellent for him made from the oils from Chrysanthemums and Lavender; it was a little overwhelming if you applied too much, but it was effective in preventing most bugs from wanting to bite. He would wear it all day and reapply each night. It was funny how just thinking about the insect repellent lead to him missing his family once again. He could remember applying the repellent many times on each girl before sending them out to play in their yard. He missed them already he realized. He suddenly couldn’t contain the smile that quickly spread across his face as he recalled Annie’s words over and over. This would be the longest venture he had ever made. The route had been carefully mapped out days in advance. Once he had determined for sure he was going.
“Don’t worry Annie,” he whispered. “I know where I’m headed- I won’t get lost.”
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