Chapter 5

Baby Artemis was born the second day after the family's arrival in Boonesborough. His skin was the color of molasses and his eyes were a dark brown. His curly red hair was full and coarse. Nemo sat alone holding his newborn son as Rebecca tended to Maida. Zena was fascinated by her new brother's skin and kept running her little white fingers over his smooth cheek. Leander sat brooding near the fireplace.

"Son." Nemo's voice was quiet in the early evening dusk. "Come here, Leander, and see you new baby brother."

"No." The boy's voice was harsh and angry.

"What's wrong, son? Tell me, please."

Leander stood to face his father, his hands clenched into tight fists. "You heard them yesterday. Don't pretend you didn't. Those people. What they said about me. They'll say it about him too. He's darker than me even. They'll hate him and think he's only good for a slave. You know it same as me, only you're too scared to say so."

The boy's volume rose as his anger and hurt escaped. "You're white, Papa. You could leave me and him and run away. You'd take Zena, but you'd leave me and him. You know you could. Mama too. You three could blend right in with these folks. But what about me and him, Papa? What about us?"

Zena stood frozen beside her father. She stared at Leander, then at her father. Her little face quivered as she absorbed her brother's anger and her father's hurt.

Nemo stood just as Rebecca came through the curtain. Her pretty face was filled with understanding and sympathy. She glanced at Nemo and took the baby from his arms. She disappeared behind the curtain and handed the child to Maida. When she reentered the room she saw that father and son were standing stiffly several feet apart. She bent and took Zena's hand. Shaking her red head in aggravation, she slipped through the door with the child and into the Kentucky darkness.

Minutes later a flat-handed knock sounded on the heavy door. Nemo opened the door and stood silently gazing out at Daniel and Mingo. The two tall men entered and saw Leander standing with clenched fists just as Rebecca had reported to them inside Cincinnatus' taproom. Daniel cleared his throat.

"Let's see your new boy, Nemo. Becky tells us he's strong and healthy."

Nemo silently nodded, ducked behind the curtain and emerged with the baby in his arms. Daniel lifted the blanketed bundle in his arms as Mingo stood at his elbow, their faces reflecting tenderness in the firelight. The baby squirmed in Daniel's arms and opened his bright dark eyes. Mingo reached out a finger and the child grasped it strongly. Mingo's face split into a wide smile.

"He is strong, Nemo, strong and healthy. Just as Rebecca said. You must be very happy. And Maida is well too?" Mingo smiled into Nemo's troubled eyes. "Your family is growing, just as the territory is growing. But not everyone is suited to life on a frontier. There can be great freedom here. There can also be great restriction." Mingo's dark eyes searched Nemo's face as his meaning penetrated the other man's mind. Behind them Leander sighed deeply.

"Where could we go, Mingo? I thought that the wilderness would be safe. There would be no slave catchers, no masters, no slaves. But it seems we've brought the issue with us, in our bodies. We cannot escape what is in our blood." The agonized father stared at his son's angry face.

Mingo turned and stepped close beside Leander. He bent to look into the boy's face. "How old are you? Seven? Eight?"

Leander glanced at Mingo from the corner of his light brown eyes. "Ten."

Mingo's eyebrows raised in surprise. Then he reached his brown hand to the boy's shoulder. "Leander, no one will ever say that your life is easy. But it can be good. You have a family that loves you. Your father and mother want a good life for you, for all you children born and yet unborn. You can help that become a reality, or you can cause yourself a lifetime of uncertainty and anger.

It is your choice. I watched you on the trail to Boonesborough. You are a strong, helpful, cautious boy. Your mother, sister and baby brother need your help. Are you going to deny them?"

Nemo walked to Leander's side and laid his hand on his son's head. "Mingo is telling you the truth, son. We want you with us, wherever we are. Do you want to go away from here?"

"Where can we go, Papa, where people won't call us names and say mean things about us? Where people won't think me and him are stupid because of our skin? Where they won't think we're thieves or worse just because we aren't white?"

Nemo looked up into Mingo's face, seeking the other man's guidance.

Behind them Daniel's voice drifted through the quiet cabin. "Nemo, I was raised in Quaker company. Most Quakers don't judge a man by his skin color, his blood, or his family connections. Could be Pennsylvania is the place for you. I seem to remember you tellin' us that your master taught you a trade. Carpentry, wasn't it? And Maida knows sewing and fine laundry. She could be a lady's maid or open a shop. There are many wealthy households in Philadelphia. Perhaps you could find a place there to raise your children as free from prejudice as man is capable of being."

Nemo stood looking into the fire for several minutes. Then he raised his head and looked at his son standing motionless beside him. The baby in Daniel's arms gurgled and sighed. The father took his baby from Daniel's arms and sat before the fire, pulling Leander to lean against him. Mingo stepped to Daniel's side and the two men left the family to its quiet cabin and turbulent thoughts.

Rebecca reported the family's decision at the supper table the next evening. She had taken Zena back to her parents and found the household making preparations to leave Boonesborough as soon as Maida felt strong enough.

"They're happy, Dan. They think that your suggestion is right for them. I do hope so! They're such good people. It's tragic what people do to each other. There are days when I think the world is finally making sense, and then I meet people like the Mathesons." She sighed and shook her red head in sorrow.

"People are fallible beings, Rebecca. I think Daniel's idea is as right for them as anything can ever be. Isn't there a passage in the Bible that says the sins of the fathers will come back even to seven generations?"

Rebecca looked at Mingo in surprise. "Yes, there is. Are you saying someone somewhere committed a sin and Nemo and Maida and their children are paying for it now?"

"Yes, Rebecca, that's exactly what I'm saying. I'm speaking of enslaving others. It is expanding throughout the world. And as this abhorrent practice continues in the colonies and elsewhere in the Empire men of the future will face a blood cleansing. I have little faith that it can be any other way."

The three friends sat around the table in silence, each with their own thoughts. Rebecca sighed and rose from the table. She gathered the dishes and spent the next half hour putting her cabin to rights. Daniel and Mingo stepped out onto the porch to continue their discussion.

"There's still hope Mingo. Maybe future generations can figure a way out of this belief system that likes to pigeonhole people."

Mingo's face reflected his disagreement. "I don't see how, Daniel. I have heard that blind people are prejudiced just like those of us with sight. How can that be? There must be something in the human heart, some fear or doubt that makes us so savage. Why else would Cherokee and Shawnee war against each other for generations? There is room for all, yet we squabble and fight as though by sharing we lose what we consider ours." Mingo shook his head in puzzlement. "Maybe we are only primal beasts, Daniel, and there is nothing within us to set us apart from the lower animals."

"No, there is something in people Mingo. Else you and me would never have followed those slave catchers. We didn't know the Mathesons. They were nothin' to us. And if we were just beasts, when we found the Mathesons we'd a' left 'em where we found 'em once we saw Leander. There's still hope. Men like you and me, women like Rebecca and Maida, children like Israel and Jemima……and like Zena, Artemis and Leander. There's the hope." Daniel turned his head and smiled at his Cherokee friend. "And knowin' you makes me feel as hopeful as all get-out. Let's go in and see if Becky's got some of that pie left. I think she saved you a piece. Maybe I could get you to share it?"

Mingo smiled and slapped Daniel on the shoulder. The two firm friends entered the firelit cabin to share good food and friendship. They laughed together and lived their lives as well as they knew how. The future they left to others.