Hannah settled back in her chair. "Well, like I say, when Heath was little, things weren't bad. Miss Leah got plenty of sewing to do, and she done real nice embroidery, too. Miss Rachel help with the sewing. They took in some laundry sometimes. I help out and mind Heath while his mama do stuff, and I did the cookin'. Miss Leah, she couldn't cook nothin' to save her life. She weren't raised to do any of that stuff. Had her daddy lived, she would have been one of them Charleston belles."
"I see," said Victoria. She was fascinated. She had been curious about Leah's story, who she was.
"Now, Miss Leah, she got some opinions. When she a girl about thirteen, she was in town one day, and she seen a slave auction and a baby being taken from its mama. She horrified. She got so upset and came home cryin' and carryin' on, raisin' a big fuss with her daddy about slavery. Her daddy told her to hush her mouth, he didn't want to hear no more Yankee foolishness, that no slave in their house was mistreated, they was just house slaves and had it good. But Miss Leah, that weren't all right with her. Once she seen that, she never changed her mind.
Then when she was fifteen years old, she had a friend invite her to one of them abolitionist meetins'. She snuck outta the house and went. She brought home somethin' she said was a pamphlet, by a lady named Miss Grimke, and it was why slavery was wrong. Her daddy found it in her room and told her he'd whip her till she was black and blue if she ever brought that trash in his house again.
Miss Leah ain't scared, though, she done it anyway, she just try for him not to catch her. Then all of a sudden he died, and she just a girl, and all of a sudden there ain't no money, and she found herself on a train to California to live with Matt. Miss Leah was very unhappy. She wasn't close to Matt, he was lots older, and she hardly knew him. She couldn't stand Martha.
She said Martha was as mean as a snake. That's why she married Charlie, to get away from Martha, not be under her roof. Miss Leah don't know till it's too late that she jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Charlie court her pretendin' he doing all right, he got enough money to support a wife, and he so kind and gentle that she think he be a good man.
She think they gonna be fine, maybe have some children. But he start gettin' drunk and a couple of times, he hit her. Then he disappear for weeks at a time, and sometimes strange men come by while he gone lookin' for him, sayin' he owe them money.
When Charlie turned up drowned, she not that upset. But he left her broke, she had to pay the rent, so she went to town and got her a job waitin' tables. Miss Leah weren't too proud for that. It ain't what she was used to, but she say any honest work is good work, and she wasn't ashamed of nothin.' She got some hens laying out back too, and she sold them eggs to a restaurant. She hold her head up and say she gonna be fine.
A faraway look in her eyes for a moment, Hannah paused, then continued, "I came west on a wagon train with some abolitionists. They gave me a ride to California so I ain't never gotta go back to Alabama. I stopped in Strawberry. I met Miss Leah at a meetin' in a big tent that was gonna become a church. Lots of the town still bein' built then. She said I could stay with her.
I told her I help her with whatever she need, and she say fine, I can stay as long as I want. We become good friends, such good friends. I loved Miss Leah so much, and she loved me. She kept tellin' me don't call her Miss Leah, just call her Leah, we like family, but I can't do that, and she just give up tellin' me.
Then everything happened, and Heath was born, and like I told you, things was all right for a while. They not what Miss Leah thought her life was gonna be, but she wasn't unhappy. She said she didn't want no husband ever again. She said men brought her nothin' but trouble. She love her baby boy, though. She said if it was the last thing she done, she gonna teach him to be a good man."
Hannah paused and took a sip of her tea. Victoria said softly, "I want you to know, Hannah, that she absolutely achieved that. Heath is such a good man. So young, but he's so clear on what's right and wrong, and he has a kind and generous soul."
She was rewarded with a big smile. "That's my boy. He really somethin.' There wasn't nothin' that boy set his mind to he couldn't do. And he as sweet as the day is long, even if he don't like me sayin' that."
"He doesn't?" Victoria smiled. As a mother of boys, she wasn't completely surprised.
"He sure don't," Hannah said, laughing. "He roll them eyes at me, he about twelve years old, tell me don't call him that, he ain't sweet, only girls are sweet and he ain't no girl. I tell him stop bein' so sweet then, if he can, and he say Hannah, what you mean? I tell him all the nice things he does for me, the way he takes care of his mama and Miss Rachel. He hushed right up then, cause he know he still gonna do it."
Victoria and Jarrod laughed. This sounded like the Heath they knew. Victoria said, "I would love to know more about him as a little boy."
"I can tell y'all about my boy. That boy so sweet when he was little. He still sweet, but he such a sweet little boy he fooled his mama into thinkin' he was gonna be easy to get grown. He play outside every minute he can, and come runnin' in the house, see what we doin', ask us why we doin' it, bring us weeds cause he think they flowers, come tell his mama look at this, look at that.
He always finding things, bugs and worms and critters, diggin' in that dirt. Miss Leah didn't understand you can't keep little boys outta dirt. He come in his face all dirty, she wipe his face and not thirty minutes later, he back, dirty face again. He so cute we all just laugh."
"He love every critter he find. He bring stuff to show his mama, frogs and toads and lizards. That boy can catch anything. One time he found a mama cat and kittens. That boy find stuff like crazy, every day he find somethin.' He come in all excited, he about seven years old, and he make all three of us come see them kittens with him.
He say Mama, Mama, can I keep one? Miss Leah not too sure about that, a critter in the house. She say she think about it. Then Heath say, 'Mama, cats catch mice, and you don't like mice.' Heath know his mama don't like mice because one day he catch one and bring it to show his mama, and she start fussin' and tell him let that go right now back outside where it belongs.
He say, 'But Mama,' and Miss Leah usually real patient, but this time she mad and she tell him do it right now before she take a wooden spoon to his bottom. Miss Leah can't whack that boy hard enough, he don't care one little bit, so he stand there and think about it for a minute. Oh, she so mad.
While Heath thinkin' about it, that mouse jump outta his hand and run and hide in the house. Miss Leah 'bout fit to be tied. She tell him he better find that mouse or he gonna be sorry, he gonna have to stay inside all week. That boy look and look for that mouse. He don't care if she whup him, but he think he gonna die to stay inside all week.
So he finally figures out to leave it be and when he ain't lookin' for it, it gonna come out. He come ask me, Hannah, can I have some food for my mouse to make it come out? So I give him somethin' and he catch it that way. He got it by the tail and he come show Miss Leah and say look Mama, I got it, can I go outside now? Miss Leah just wave her hand at him and say 'Go.'"
Victoria and Jarrod both laughed. Somehow, they could picture all of this.
"So did Heath get his kitten?" Jarrod asked.
"He did in the end. Miss Leah think about it, she know he gonna keep botherin' her for some critter to keep and she reckoned a cat not so bad and maybe catch mice like he said. He picked one that was white with a big black spot on it. He call that kitty Inkblot cause he look like someone spill a big ole blot of ink on him."
"That is so cute," Victoria said.
Hannah smiled. "That boy the joy of our lives. Miss Rachel love him too. She brought up two girls so she know somethin' bout young'uns, and sometimes she make that boy hush or behave when Miss Leah can't. But sometimes he even get Miss Rachel goin,' or she not sure what to do with him. One time, he about four years old, he was climbin' on this little chair standin' on it. Tryin' to get into somethin' he ain't suppose to, no doubt.
Miss Rachel tell him get down from there. He say 'Why, Aunt Rachel?' She say, 'Number one, because I told you so, and number two, it might break.' That boy don't miss a beat and he say, 'Number three, I might bunk my head.' Miss Rachel can't help laughin', even though that boy sassin' her and he still not down off that chair.
Then she thought of somethin' she told her girls, and she say, 'If I have to come over there, you're gonna be sorry.' He know Miss Rachel mean it, so he got down."
"He sounds like Audra, doesn't he, Mother?" Jarrod said, after they had laughed heartily.
"Actually, all of you were like that," his mother advised him.
"I wonder if he could pout like Audra, though," Jarrod said. Audra was the Barkley child best known for that.
"Heath not too bad about that most of the time, he just do somethin' else if his mama say no. Or he come find me, and ask me, knowin' I didn't hear his mama. He real tricky like that. But when that boy decide he gonna pout, he make it big. He stick that lip out and fold them arms and he ain't gonna laugh at nothin' till he decide he not mad no more."
Jarrod laughed, as Audra's style had been similar. He was enjoying learning more about Heath as a little boy. The things he was learning seemed to fit the young man he knew.