Inside, I heard the women wailing although a circle of rifles around the swamp kept the Black folks away. Some of the men had the privilege of owning guns they had hidden for such an occasion, but their attempts at defending what they had brought into the world resulted in their own captivity. There was no law to turn to, no separate justice to protect them, and even the church stayed empty though the minister of African Episcopal opened the doors so they could pray. Nobody showed up, however, fearing they could be shot, burned, or carried away with the rest. By the wee hours of the morning ten bodies hung from ropes tied to the crook of limbs from the tallest, sturdiest cottonwoods and dogwoods along the swamp. Darlene and Tuck were side by side.

I felt my mother’s heart race so fast and furious that her heart almost stopped beating before the rope was slipped around her neck. But it held out until even after. Like the rest of them, she fought underneath the trees, so much so that some of the ropes became tangled and wound so that they eventually hung at the oddest angles. The expression on Tuck’s face stayed the same as when he had been captured, the sad downcast look of a boy about to be whipped by his daddy. Once her life began slipping away, I could no longer sense her. I would hope they would have talked to each other with their eyes, and held hands though they couldn’t touch. I can only imagine whether he and my mother said anything to each other, made any promises to keep in the next life, tasted just a little bit of rain before they died, rain that finally washed over the town for the first time in weeks.

The overnight was quiet, with only the occasional hiss of a rattlesnake or laughter of mockingbirds or scurry of a possum or hare to interrupt the silence. There may have been alligators snapping their jaws, lurking for prey to drop, though they wouldn’t have made a sound anyway. The blackened silhouettes swayed against a night sky made blue by electricity precipitating thunder and lightning. Most of the boys had had no time to put on shoes, so many of their toes peeked out from holes in their socks. One of Darlene’s daddy’s felt slippers had fallen off, floating away among the flowers.