The Violin Conspiracy(98)

Master Thomas always likt to have me around. He always wanted me to play. He treeted me reel fine. Sometimes he let me take food to my momma. Everday he made me play for him. He said it made Him reel happy. When his Wife went to sleep he made me play for him before he went in to sleep nex to her.

Master stopt cuming out of the house after a while. He was gettin sick. He wood lay in his bed all day long. I always stayed with him and playd while he was takin his Medasin and havin his treetmints. He wood lay in his Bed and cry when I playd. He said to me Leon you let me no what the angels will sound like when I get ther. I tol him you aint goin nowere master Thomas sir but he got sicker and sicker and he smelled rite bad. Not even the missus wood go in to see him but I was ther ever day. I playd his faverit tune what seemed like 100 times a day. Then he started gettin better. He got up and walked around sometimes. He was reel slim. He wood make me take my meals with him since the Missus woodnt see him no mor. After 3 months Master Thomas got so slim that he coodnt walk no mor. I still sat with him and playd ever day. I wont be here much longer Leon he say to me so I say were you goin master Thomas sir I say to him. He just askt me to play him a tune. He say I made that fiddle sing like my momma used to. He tol me how he love to heer my momma sing. He say I was speshel.

Then came a time when he tol me Leon you been a good boy. You never try to run away and you do good work. What you want. Just tell me. I say master Thomas I want my momma to come back to the house. He tol me I cant do that my wife the Missus wont have that. Well then I guess I want to be a free man.

He say to me but if I free you who will play for me at nite. I say to him I will play for you master Thomas sir. I wont leev you. I will play for you as a free man. He thot about that and he took out some papr and he rote out what he tol me was my freedom paprs and he gav me them with my fiddle. I never let them paprs out o my site. Them papr and my fiddle kept me alive.

I beggd him on my hands and nees to let my momma be free too and she wood stay here and hep him. He tol me he coodnt do that. I went to tell momma that I was free. I tol her I was goin to find work after master Thomas past and that I was comin back for her to buy her freedom when I made enuff money from my playing. You no what my momma tol me? She tol me dont Never come back to this place. You go be free and dont you Never look back.

Master Thomas died in his Bed. The Missus made me play that song he loved. I lef a few days later. The nex yeer I did come back to find momma but she was Gone.

You no why I tol you all this and made you rite it down? Because Master Thomas was a teribl man. He did teribl things to my momma and to my brother and to many other slaves. Even tho he did all that I still lookt him in the eye and treetd him with respekt. No mattr how mad I was. No mattr how bad things got. I was always respektfl. Even when I didnt get no respekt.

I dont never want you to forget that girl.

I wont never forget this and I have lernt my lesson.

Nora Marks

Age 9





Chapter 34


    Day 48: Promenade


And with that final communication from Grandma Nora, Ray called Kim immediately, shared Jacob’s documents with her.

Two days later the attorney wrote that he was withdrawing the claim. Would Ray make the document public? It was very damaging to the Marks family, and of course none of this story could be verified. It might all be made up.

Ray was disinclined to respond to their attorney.

The Markses and their lawsuit fell away. He didn’t feel triumphant: just vaguely uneasy. These white people wouldn’t give up so quickly. They’d gotten it into their heads that the violin was theirs for their imaginary niece to play in her imaginary concerts, and there was no arguing with white people.

So he didn’t argue. He tried to forget them, let the press conjecture whatever it wanted; Ray wanted only to play.

Ray and Nicole walked hand in hand along the Moskva River promenade. The sun was warm and glittered on the water. Nannies pushing prams trundled past, and people snacked on the benches.

Ray grabbed Nicole and kissed her long and hard.

“It’s over!” She hugged him. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Oh my god, I am, too,” Ray said. “I can’t believe this monkey is finally off my back.” Relief kept pouring off him. He’d take a breath and he’d feel some unknown coil in his chest release and fall away; and then another breath, and another coil loosen and disappear. It was really over. “It’s like an angel is watching over me.”

“More like your grandmother.”

“Yeah, I was thinking that, too. I always thought that she was with me. Always.”

“That letter she wrote. Do you think it’s all true?”

“Yeah. I can’t imagine a kid that age coming up with such graphic details. It’s the horrible, ugly truth a lot of people refuse to even acknowledge. I don’t know how people did it back then. They were treated worse than animals. I thought I had it bad with the comments people make. Calling me a monkey or turning me into a PR stunt. It’s nothing compared to what my family went through.”

“Try not to think about it,” she said, rubbing his back.

“You know what?” he said. “I’m going to use it as a reminder of everything that my family has endured. When I get discouraged, I’m going to take that letter out and read it. Anything that I’m going through won’t even compare to the things that used to happen. I wish I could go back and show this to people who told me I was being paranoid and melodramatic.”