Good Dirt

by Charmaine Wilkerson

“Talk about what,...

“Abou...

“What us? There is no us, Henry.” She can’t resist saying, “That was you...

“I know, I know,” Henry says. “But you never gave me a c...

“No, Henry, you never bothered to give me an explanation before you ghosted me on our wedding day. You didn’t ...

“But I called you, Ebby. I texted you. I asked you to give me...

“That was afterward, Henry. Afterward. You had your opportunity. And that opportunity expired once you failed to show up at my parents’ house, on the designated day. With one hundred guests in the garden. Would you even be here at this door, r...

air quotes with her fingers—“if you hadn’t ended up runn...

Silence. Henry looks down at his ...

“Of cours...

“E...

“Don’t Eb...

“Ple...

“No, no, no. You, please. Just go away. I am closing this...

Henry doesn’t...

“If we need to talk about the guest cottage,” Ebby says, “I will deal with Avery. She’s the one who booked the room, right? Or would you like me to g...

Henry steps back and puts up his hands, as i...

“Would you at least think about i...

“Think about what, Henry? What part of no do you ...

The old Henry would have laughed at the cliché. But Henry’s mouth is tight, now, and Ebby admits she feels a bit of satisfaction at the sight of it. But she also feels close to tears. She urgently needs Henry to leave. He turns away, now, and Eb...

“The authorities want to keep the foreigners from wandering around town and spreading ideas of rebellion to slaves.” Old Joe said. “As if a slave who sails the seas with the permission of his master doesn’t have eyes and ears of his own. He’s a man, is he not? He has a tongue to tell stories of what he has seen and heard, does he not? He has a pocket sewn into his jacket. He can carry the printed word from afar, with news of how men and women live elsewhere.”

Old Joe shook his head slowly. “They can’t tie up the mind with a rope, but they keep trying anyhow. So they lock up the black jacks.”

“There will always be men willing to steal the freedom of others if they think it will bring them an advantage,” Frenchie said.

Avery’s quirky little laugh is a surprise, but so is the ease with which Ebby finds herself joining in.

She feels a current of sadness run through her as she thinks what a relief it must have been for Henry to be with Avery after two years of Ebby. Two years of restless nights. Two years of being gossiped about. Two years of being called and texted repeatedly by Ebby’s mother every time they went away on a trip. And suddenly, painfully, Ebby sees, so clearly, the tone of her relationship with Henry. She glances at Avery again. Well, of course.

But Ebby sees this too: that nothing excuses Henry’s behavior. No matter that it might have been difficult for Henry to be with Ebby at times, and that the prospect of being linked to her indefinitely might have come to feel like too much. People fall in love, they dream, then adjustment kicks in. Sometimes disillusionment. Fine. But Henry was a shit about it. That hasn’t changed. Nothing excuse...

Ebby grew up with little privacy, but she still craved it. When Henry ghosted her, knowing, full well, that the media would be following their nuptials, it was as if he had stripped off her clothes in public. He hadn’t even tried to protect her. She looks over at Avery. Doesn’t that set off alarm bells for her? Once aga...

“So your dad’s technology is what’s famous.”

“That, and the fact that he’s a successful black engineer and people don’t expect that. We are surrounded by black scientists and doctors and lawyers and other highly skilled professionals, but still, people are surprised. They continue to be surprised at African American achievement, even though it’s all around us. Even though it’s always been there, holding up society at every level.”

“And then,” Ebby continued, “when my brother was killed, you know, everyone started paying attention to my family. So my dad became mo...

“That’s a real shame,” Henry said. “I mean, I’m really sorry you lost y...

Ebby shook her head. “We didn’t really lose ...

“So...

“We didn’t lose my brother. They took him from us...

One of them reached for the jar while the other shook out the folded trash bag. Then the boy did something unthinkable. He reached for the jar and tried to stop them. That sullen-looking boy, almost as tall as they were but a kid, nonetheless, had suddenly sprung to life. He lunged at them like a viper. Shouted at them. No! Scared one of them into firing their weapon. The fool kid. What was he thinking, doing a thing like that?