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Octoroon Odyssey
Chapter 1
TJ Ryder
Ashley Wilkison, young prince of Goldenrod Plantation,
dearly loved his second cousin who lived in Tana House,
an equally large plantation in Georgia, and eagerly rode his arabian
stallion over there despite his father's concerns; for he and his father's
older brother had some mysterious but deep friction in the past.
Passed the black fieldhands picking cotton, past the stables where the
black boy grinned at him, knowing he wouldn't be putting his stallion
there, preferring to keep it out of sight of the main house, the big white
columned, stone mansion where the Mister, Lycus Ohara, sometimes sat in
the shade drinking a tall gin and tonic, overseeing his 1200 acres of prime
cotton land.
***********
"Click!" Hearing the pebble on the glass, the maid rolled her
big eyes as she was bending down and adjusting her beautiful, young
mistress's corset.
"Oh my, now what could that be?" Scarlett said.
"Ah wouldn't know ma'am!" Beulah replied innocently.
"And you won't dare tell anyone either!"
"No ma'am, but if the Mister hears...!"
"Well he just won't, will he? And that will be all!"
"Yes ma'am" the huge, fat but also muscular, jet-black
woman left. Scarlett slipped on her skirt
and looked out the window, smiling down at the slim, young
Ashley hiding in the bushes.
Leaning out on the balcony, she looked around to see if
anyone was looking, and went down the stairs, out the servant's
entrance, and almost bumped into Rufus. The jet black,
huge and muscular, freed slave was an annoyance to the gorgeous
arrogant young woman since forever as she frowned.
"Oh hello Rufus," she felt it awkward to even have to be
polite to a black man, even if he was a freeman now and
for some crazy reason her father's valued employee.
"Why hello, young missy, yo lookin so fahn today!" he grinned
as he absently touched his huge bulge pushing his thin worn pants.
"Rufus, excuse me...!"
"Not so fast, young missy," he stood in the doorway, keeping
his voice low so nobody would hear, "ah don think yo father be
lahkin yo bein in de bushes with a certain white boy!"
She gasped at his impudence.
"That's none of your business, Rufus, now please..."
"An you know what else, sweet, young missy; ah think his
father be lahkin it even less! Yo nevah wonder why dat is!"
She opened her mouth in shock.
"Rufus, I know your father's favorite slave catcher but I will not
tolerate this impudence!"
"Awyeahh," he smiled, licking his full lips, "not just
slavecatcher, ah his slavefinder! Haw haw, yo gotta find em
to catch em. And y'know, yo find niggas in de strangest places
pretendin to be someone else, did you know that?"
"Will you let me by at once!"
He made a big show out of moving sideways and giving a little
bow, "Why ah ain't stoppin yo none, missy, even so ah sho be
wishin yo was an escaped slave since yo grew so pretty! Ah catch
yo for nothin! Course if you was a runaway ah wouldn't be allowed
to keep you long, yo way too pretty fo dat, haw haw! Naw ah'd have
to sell you fo sho, ain't dat de way. We poor niggas even if we
find somethin good we can't keep it long!"
"What are you talking about you dumb...!" Never mind!"
She flounced off and he chuckled, loving the color that rose
in her cheeks when she got mad. Awmannn, he thought, arranging the
thick cock in his sheer cotton pants. 'One day, honey,' ah might not
keep yo long but yo won't nevah forget ol Rufus, nosuh!"
******************************************************
"What's the trouble, darling?" Ashley whispered as they
sat on a double swing in the garden!
"Oh, that awful, house-nigger Rufus is so uppity sometimes.
He talks to me as if we were in the same social class,
if you can believe it!"
Ashley's jaw tightened, "maybe I should give him a thrashing!"
"No!" her hand on his arm as he was about to stand up restrained
him. The thought of this slim boy raising a hand
to that huge scarred ugly black man brought a slight
smile to her pretty face that she quickly hid.
"No, no, dear, for some reason my father just dotes on him
and he a slavecatcher after all. He's bigger and stronger than any
field hand; and he has to be because he can't use a gun.
Slavecatchers don't get paid until the owner gets his valuable property
back in one piece!"
But still the idea of this slim, blonde, pampered boy thrashing Rufus
made her restrain a giggle.
"I know, but if he dares raise a hand to me while I crop him,
I'll...!"
"And he's a freeman! Father freed him himself over 20 years ago.
So, please, I shouldn't have mentioned it!"
"Scarlett, " he paused, "maybe it's time for me to talk to
your father, about us!"
"Oh, I don't think so, dear, all this talk about a war
after the last election is upsetting him!"
"But how will we get together? We could run away, go west to
California!"
"Oooh, but dearest, I just couldn't leave Father. It would hurt
him so much!"
"Darling, if war comes I'll have to serve and it might be years
before... or, maybe I won't even be coming back. People say it will
be very nasty!"
Scarlett shivered at the thought, not only thinking of Ashley
but the dozen other suitors and would be lovers.
"I don't want to discuss that awful business!"
"Then at least let me talk to your father about courting you
properly! I can't be hiding in your garden forever!"
She laughed, agreeing, making him smile despite his earnestness.
"I promise, dearest. This weekend there are the races, and
father is sure his horse will win and he will be in such a good
mood! That will be the time!"
************************************************************
Saturday night, so much has happened! Lycus Ohara, father of
only child Scarlett, dead of a heart attack the moment his arabian
won the Peaches Cup! The plantation was in shock as Ashley trying to
comfort the distraught Scarlett. His never having gotten her father's
permission to call on his daughter weighed upon Scarlett's
conscience, sometimes holding herself responsible, and then
less than three weeks into the mourning period, war breaks out
at Fort Sumter! Ashley tells her the previous night he would
joining up soon as Scarlett struggled to manage the huge plantation,
trying to grasp with the help of a town accountant the strange
ways of business she had never been exposed to before.
At Goldenrod, Ashley was discussing the war with friends
from his college class, knowing they would soon be joining units under
uniform when his father sent the butler in to fetch him.
He knocked on his father's study!
"Yes father?"
"Um," the tall, grey- haired gentleman sat behind his
desk with a worried expression and a reluctance to say what he
was going to say.
"Son, I would prefer it you didn't go over the O'hara place
for a while! Until things are sorted out over there!"
"Well, father, I have to tell Scarlett I'm going to be joining
my regiment! Plus, well, I thought we were both going over
there to discuss helping her manage the plantation!"
"Um, son, that's another thing. A large, Raleigh syndicate has
made a claim on Tana and has gotten a court order to take posession!
Tana House is not any of our family's business any more, and
I want you to accept that!"
Ashley's mouth dropped open!
"B-but, um, what about Scarlett? She was the rightful heir, the sole
heir in fact! But even so, your'e Lycus' only living relative, you
would have an interest wouldn't you?"
"Ah, you know my brother and I fell out long ago, and as for Scarlett,
hmmpfff, it would be better if you did not get involved any further, for
the family reputation. You will recall I have consistently urged
you to keep your distance; and now, please son, I must insist on this!"
Ashley stood numb, as he walked out, knowing he would be really
disobeying his father for the first time in his life.
Arriving in the dark at Tana, seeing the black drapes on the
majestic columns, and the strange carriages in the circular
driveway, he was stopped by a magistrage's deputy at the
doorway, a big, thick- looking brute, white trash from the nearby
town of Black Creek.
"Sorry sah! Private matters!"
"I must go in, I'm, I'm a member of the family!"
The brute smiled at him then. "Well, (haw) you don't look it, but
then, (haw, haw), neither does she!"
Walking into the living room, he caught Scarlett's worried
eye, still looking ravishing in a the currently fashionabledress as she came
over to him.
"Oh, Ashley, I'm so glad you came!"
"Darling, what is going on here? My father said...!"
"Oh, the reading of father's will, the judge will be
doing it very soon!"
"Who are all these other people?"
"Business friends of papa's I suppose, or maybe creditors,
although it shouldn't be too much; papa was very strict about debts and
we have tons of money in the bank! Are you leaving for your regiment?"
"Yes, ...but dearest, this looks very strange to me!"
"I'm sure it will be over soon and then I'll have Beulah make
some mint julep and we can disscuss the will!"
A small, frail, old clerk announced for everyone to be seated.
Ashley sat besides Scarlett, and a portly man who looked
like a crook sat at Scarlett's father's desk as if he belonged
there, making her back stiffen at the sight.
"Greetings to all the principals gathered here. I appreciate
you coming on short notice. Let me say that the will has been adjured
and there will be no repetition. It will not take very long!"
He cleared his throat.
"First, the will specified that the entire estate has been bequeathed
to a Miss Sally Cummings!"
"WHAT?" Scarlett stood up!
"Please, madame, we will have no interruption until I am finished or
you will be notified of the proceedings by mail!
Scarlett's mouth opened, never having been talked to like that.
She whispered to Ashley, also stunned, 'who is Sally Cummings?'
He shook his head.
"(ahem) Continuing, Miss Sally Cummings being deceased, the court
has adjured that the only heir left must be the plantation
she worked on at the time of her death. That would be the Reynolds
Group from Raleigh, who I believe has a representative present?"
Two businessmen looking like yankees in expensive clothes
nodded curtly.
"Gentlemen, are you ready to take possession immediately?"
"WAIT just a minute, " an exasperated Scarlett said!
"Wait until wer'e done, young lady, or you will be escorted out!"
Ashley restrained her with a hand on her slim wrist.
"Yes, your honour!" one of the businessmen replied!"
"Then come forward, present your credentials, and sign this paper!"
the fat man said. Then he looked up at Scarlett.
"The official proceedings are over! I assume you want to register
an objection, madame?"
"I-I certainly do! Who is Sally Cummings, who are these people?
What do I do now?"
"All right, allow me to answer please. Sally Cummings is, was,
a slave belonging to a one-time partner of your father's, his brother.
Slaves by law cannot inherit property even if she were alive under Georgia law.
If she had been freed that would be a different matter. Now her owners
at the time of her death are taking her place!"
"They get the whole plantation?"
"That was in the will!"
"Then what happens to me?"
"Oh, well, that, as I understand the situation, is up to these
gentlemen!" He indicated the two middleaged businessmen who
were looking over the papers very carefully, quietly with their
backs to the rest of the people in the room as if they didn't matter
much.
Scarlett turned to some of her neighbors and friends.
"Mister Olson, did you hear that?"
"Yes miss Scarlett. I'm here to collect on my last field plow
and Frank for the bills at the general store from the new owners!"
"Yes, well, but did you hear what they said, about me?"
"I'm really very sorry ma'am to hear that!"
"Um, excuse me, um, gentlemen," Scarlett said, and the
younger one looked at her as an annoyance, turned to the other one
who just nodded.
"Oh, that's right, Tsk, what was the solution we came to
George!"
"Oh, " he gave a wave of his fingers. "Short sale I think!"
"Right, that's quite right!" The heavier older man half turned
to her while still reading a document.
"Miss um, Wilkison, you are now the property of the
Reynolds group, please gather up one bag of your things and
be waiting for delivery to your next place of employment
by the servant's entrance!"
"Whaaaa!" She felt dizzy, grasping a chair back for support
as Ashley took her elbow.
"Excuse me, sir," Ashley shouted, his face red, "that is not
very amusing! Miss Scarlett has had a shock already, with her father's
death, and now with this terribly cruel stroke, ...!"
"Excuse me, sir!" The man called George spoke, "it is hardly
a joke and we are trying to be businesslike as well as humane.
Whenever we assume a plantation or business we have an established
method. All the Tana darkies will be notified of the new owners and
we think because of Scarlett's, um, involvement, it would be a source
of friction to allow her to remain here!"
"Darkies, what's that got to do with...!"
The judge sighed and spoke up. "Sally Cummings was your mother,
child! The Reynolds group has provided a birth certificate with
witnesses, as well as letters from your father. She was a quadroon
and that makes you, an octoroon. In Georgia that is still black
enough as they say. Now in Louisianna that would be slightly
different. Of course every state is a little...!"
"Your'e saying I'm a negroe?" she gasped.
"Um, one eigth negroe to be precise, at least according to the
records!"
"I'm getting out of here right now! I will have no part of
this...!" Two huge black men stood in front of her,
and even her friends and neighbors knew them as hired freemen
and stepped aside.
"Ain't let you do that missy!"
"Leroy Bacon, you work here, you know me!" she said.
"Ah knows mah job, missy, bes you step aside too sir!" he
looked down at Ashley who was trying to step between them.
"Your'e acting like Scarlett is a, a ...!"
"Slave! Yup, that's what she is!" intoned the deep bass of the
biggest man to come into the room yet, Rufus, in his worn pants and
workshirt and a bullwhip around his arm. Everyone including the
whites backed away from him as he went over and talked politely to
the two yankees.
"Yassup, ah sign for her raht here!"
"You say you can get that price for certain?"
"Oh yassup, ah done business with these gennelmun befo, lotsa
times!"
"Fine, report back here or wire me in Raleigh and I'll have
another job for you!"
"Yassup, Rufus take care of her proper, haw, haw, yo get
yo money, dat fo sho! But ah needs her papers. A big old nigger
with a pretty white gal needs proof she be a slave!"
"That's in this document right here. Everyone knows
our company and it will hold up all over the country;
and that's our telegraph address if you have any difficulty.
You have expense money?"
"Yassup, thank yo suh!" Rufus felt he was dismissed as both
men turned to talk of other things. Scarlett was between
him and Ashley and looked as if she didn't know where to go.
Ashley took a step forward but both big free darkies stood
in front of him. Scarlett looked pleadingly at all her
white neighbors and friends, but most avoided looking at her.
Somehow she had become a piece of property in a few minutes.
"Cmere, gal, " Rufus smiled, and to Ashley's shock, he
took out a pair of handcuffs and made her put her hands
in back. "Dat's not too tight is it?" she blushed
furiously, sputtering.
He said softly enough for Ashley and the two
darkiest to hear,
"Dont dat make dose nice white titties stick
out!"
They both chortled and Ashley's face got red.
He wished he had brought his revolver and thought of
holding up the room at gunpoint, rescuing the princess
and riding for California which was still a free state
and they could start a new life. But of course
they would be caught, she enslaved anyway, he put in
jail or even hung and his father would shoot himself!
Ashley watched with disbelief as Rufus did something
else, attached a leather loop from his wrist to around
Scarlett's slim soft neck as a leash.
"Cmere now honey, we gwine up to your bedroom
an pack!"
She had to follow his massive form, as he held her
elbow as well. "Ah bet ah'm de first man in yo bedroom
besides yo poor ol daddy ain't dat raht, missy?"
"Rufus, um, please...!"
"Well don you worry bout dat none, we ain't got
tahm raht now to settle things between us, haw, dat come
later!"
Standing in the bedroom, she was shocked the way Rufus
idly pocketed a few of her jewels, not all of them, just
a few he didn't think would be noticed.
"Yeah, we sell dese pretties for travellin money!"
"I thought he gave you expenses!"
"Haw, expenses nevah for expenses, pretty, you live
offa de land as much as you can in mah business!" Then he
took a pearl necklace from around her slim neck.
"Now, that yo biggest bag theah?"
"Yes!" she swallowed her pride and tried to use reason
despite her rage building inside. "Rufus, this isn't going to work.
Listen, I can borrow money from Ashley, I know I can.
You can let me go!"
"Den ah be runnin from de law, no suh, not fo dis
nigga!"
"Talk to the yankees, please! Ashley will get his papa to
pay more for me than anyone else!"
"Haw, y'know ah ain't as dumb as ah look cuz ah even
thought of that, but ah guess his papa don't want no octoroon
lookin lahk you around his house with his only boy sniffin around,
nosuh! Haw haw, neighbors would talk an all! Iffen yo was some ol
black nursemaid or crippled fieldhand, dat be no problem!"
She was shocked, but then she realized it might be
true, hoping it wasn't!
"Rufus I'm going to need more clothes than that!"
"Nope, an you just gwine need some pretties an
unmentionables for the trip, and a nice, big cloak
for people to see on de outside. Haw, yo don't have to be
wearin nothin underneath actually! Ah done that befo,
women shy from havin to run off naked.
She gasped, but the submissiveness of being tied and
leashed and his thick log moving in his pants as he
leered at her got her nipples hard. Licking her full
lips, she wondered what was going on!
"Where are we going?"
"Now, finally a smart question. We takin a long trip
and it not easy bein a big nigga travellin in the south
let alone with a white-lookin pretty woman. So yo best help me
all you can cuz if ah go down, ah cain't even describe
what some of dose crackers or niggas be doin with you!"
She groaned in fear.
"Click!" he unlocked her cuffs and took off the leash
"Now if you try an run off," he said, putting the fearful
bullwhip on the bed, "Ah might just stip yo naked
an tie you to a branch an you feel what mah blacksnake
do to that soft, white skin and nobody gwine stop me!"
She shivered, she had heard and seen what whippings
were like!
"Everytime I tell you to do something, you do it!
unnerstand?"
"Yes!" she half choked.
"Now take off dat dress, keep yo little underthings,
no little petticoats, not for yo no more!" For seconds
while he watched she trembled and tears formed, but then
she began to unbutton her blouse. After several minutes
he was satisfied, and had to arrange his cock in his pants,
wishing he had more time but there would be plenty later.
"Awraht, this be yo travellin cloak, slip it on! Nope,
don't put yo arms in, leave em out. "CLICK!" He cuffed
her hands behind her back but nobody would notice under
the cloak!
"Now, go on downstairs and wait fo me by de back door!"
"By myself?"
"Yup, ah got some more business, ah be along when ah
get there!"
"B-but all my slave...slaves, my people will be there?"
"Yup, best not talk to em much, but yo got to learn to
get along with em now, so get started!"
*********************************************************
Scarlett stood there on the landing, watching the downstairs
guests leave along with the new owners, seeing Ashley arguing
until a deputy told him to move along, it was private property!
Private Property!
And she was private property! Temporarily in the custody of
a huge black man who had a thick lump in his pants and a
bullwhip on his arm! Finally, fighting back tears, she
walked downstairs a little awkwardly with her wrists cuffed
in back in her cloak, and all the servants stared at her
Two of whom grinned, some were obviously worried about
the new owners. Sissy was the only who came over, an ignorant
pickaninny who hadn't grasped what was going on.
"Why missy Scarlett, what yo wearin dat big cloak?
What we gwine do, Missy Scarlett? What happened to us
now!"
"Sissy, leave dat lady alone now!"
"Beulah, she Missy Scarlett!"
"Nevah yo mind, now, come over here!"
Even Beulah avoided eye contact as she waited there
by the door, her hands still cuffed behind her!
******************************************
End of chaper 1. Complete Illustrated story coming out in 2011
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