I felt very tired now, and dropped all my defenses. “But don’t you see, Tucker, if I’m to sell you our land, there has to be a concrete reason. You know I can’t just give it to you. I suspect you wouldn’t even take it if I did. You want to pay for it.” I resorted to finance and added, “And I have to know you can meet the payments on it.”

“I ain’t making no payments. I got enough right now.”

“How do you know? I haven’t told you the price yet.”

“I have enough money to buy twenty acres, and besides, you know whatever I got to offer is enough.” We stared at each other for what seemed like a long time.

“I know, but say it so I can hear it, Tucker. It’s important that I hear it.” I found myself almost pleading with him.

He nodded. “I want that land on the plantation because it’s where the first Caliban worked, and now it’s time we owned it ourselves.”

“What else?” I was leaning forward now, anxious.

But he disappointed me. “I don’t know. When I’m there I’ll know. Now all I can say is my new baby ain’t working for you-all. He’ll be his own boss. We worked for you long enough, Mister Willson. You tried to free us once, but we didn’t go and now we got to free ourselves.”

I straightened up and looked down at my papers. “How much do you want to pay, Tucker?”

And so we talked cost. Tucker told me how much he had, which, as he had said, was enough for at least twenty acres. I showed him a map of the area and pointed out where the seven acres were.

Tucker nodded. “That’s where I wanted it.”

“Why?” We were closer now than we had ever been. We had come to a very strange kind of agreement that I don’t quite understand except that I was doing something I realize I had always wanted to do, and also because it was almost like those things I wanted to see done twenty years ago. And Tucker, he had realized something was wrong with his life and was trying to set it straight. What each of us wanted so much individually we helped each other to do.

“Something special there,” he answered, “something my grandpa told me was out there.” He did not go on.

“Well, it’s yours now. I’ll have a deed drawn up tomorrow.”

He continued to surprise me. “You draw it up and keep it. I don’t want no deeds. It’s mine and besides, you don’t want it enough to cheat me out of it.” He said that with a smile in his voice, but not on his face.

It was a nice moment, one of those moments of communication I had experienced so seldom and I wanted to prolong it. I asked him if he wanted to go out there to see the property. “Now, I mean. I’d like to drive you out there.”