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@@ -1136,20 +1136,41 @@ segue to tamba: Tamba shrugged. "You girls have your knives yes?" -Birdie nodded. She saw Lulu instinctively touch the knife at her waist. +Birdie nodded. She saw Lulu instinctively touch the knife at her waist. Tamba nodded. "And you know how to fire a gun. If you need to, take one off me and use it." Without waiting for them to answer he turned around and walked toward the village. -"You know how to fire a gun, if you need to, take one off me and use it." He turned around and they walked into the village. +It was not the happy place it had a been just a few weeks before. The people regarded them warily from the shadows of their huts. The head man came out and greeted Tamba, shaking his hand and clasping him on his back. He nodded to the girls and brought them all into the shade of an oak. A woman brought them tea. Tamba and the chief spoke half in French, half in Waccamaw, a kind if pidgin that Birdie could not follow, though she recognized the words for slaves and she thought the world for south. She thought perhaps the man was saying that the whole village was getting ready to move south. She knew others had done the same. The land south of Savannah was largely uninhabited until you came to the first Spanish settlements in Florida, but there were rumors the Spanish were pushing north, seeking to expand their territory. Still, rumors were less worrying than the actual attacks happening here. +They finished their tea. Two women came over to look at their dried fish and wares. They listened to Tamba explain Birdie's desire for blue dye. One of the woman smiled at her, the other just stared at her for a long time, looking away whenever Birdie tried to meet her eyes. Eventually she nodded and walked off. She returned to their shaded spot under the tree with a small dried bladder, which she handed to Birdie, motioning with her hands that she should untie it. Birdie did, careful not to spill any, and looked inside. It was a dark inky color. She could not tell for sure if it was blue though. Lulu saved her by pulling a brush and piece of paper out of her bag. -TODO: Add scene of trading, she talks to a woman about paint and colored dye. Connect to the coming of fall, the breaf break in the weather that hits as they return down the river to camp. It's too early to get cool, that's not a good sign foreshadowing storm. +Birdie carefully dipped the brush and dabbed it on the top the paper. The liquid hit the paper in the clear blue drop that held for just an instant before it broke and began to dissolve a deep rich blue that spread like a wave breaking over the beach. It left a slightly darker blue edge around it. It was the most beautiful blue Birdie had ever seen. She wanted to jump up and hug the woman, but she did not. Instead she kept her face composed, she nodded to Tamba who smiled and said something in Waccamaw. The woman picked up one of the bundles of dried fish and left without another word. Tamba glanced at Birdie. "They took her husband in the raid yesterday." +Birdie watched her back as she walked into one of the huts. "Are they leaving?" +Tamba nodded, but did not say anything. He went back to bargaining with the other woman. The chief watched Lulu and Birdie and smiled. "We are leaving." +Birdie's eyes must of widened, because he laughed. "Do not be so surprised. Your tongue, it is not too hard. Not so hard as this one," he gestured to Tamba who ignored him. The chief looked at Birdie. "I am sorry your father did not come. I always looked forward to him. I will miss him." Then he broke into a laugh. "But I will not miss his loin cloth." +Birdie felt her face flush. She really wished her father had never done that. But she smiled at the chief's joke and promised she would tell her father as much. +:TODO: seque? -Kadiatu and her family give a windows into slavery and river boat culture. Her father is a freeman, river boat worker. +Back on the river they sailed in silence. The wind rose and died with the turns of the river, but the current carried them enough that they did not have to paddle much. Birdie was lost in thought. Partly she was planning how to use her blue, but partly she was wondering what they would do with everyone leaving. Would they have to go to Charlestown to trade? Charlestown wasn't a good market for her dried fish. There were large fishing boats to supplied far more than she ever could. And she did not like it, it was full of loud shouting people who didn't seem to her to do anything but rush about and shout things. She much preferred drinking tea with the Waccamaw chief. She would miss the trips upriver. After that village there was nothing but scattered farms, or ont he other fork, toward Charlestown, huge plantations full of slaves working the fields. +Tamba broke her train of thought with a simple question: "Do you feel that?" + +He was standing up in the stern, scanning the eastern horizon. Birdie stop for a second and tried to see if anything felt out of place. Lulu beat her too it. "It just got a lot cooler." + +Tamba nodded. + +Lulu and Birdie looked at each other. Cooler air meant a relief from the heat of the fires. It meant an end to the fires was near too. + +"It is too early." Tamba frowned. "Too early for this cool." + +"What does that mean?" asked Birdie. + +Tamba continued to stare off at the eastern horizon. "I do not know," he said finally. + +:TODO: Move storm to here. The end of tar season, another big party. the scene below. @@ -1670,10 +1691,10 @@ Henri's voice broke the silence and interrupted Birdie's train of thought. Birdie smiled. "Okay," she said. +Birdie wanted to do the belly crawl, but Lulu argued that Henri should. He was after all smaller. And he had a natural sneakiness about him. He had a much better chance. In the end Birdie agreed. And so Henri was sent out, worming his way across the sand, taking cover behind clumps of grass, stands of sea oat, until he came to a piece of drift wood which he used to worm is way down to just about even with Captain Jack's log. There was just about two knots of open sand to cross. Henri piled sand on his back and in his hair for camouflage and then he went for it. Slowly, ever so slowly he would move, and then stop and lie still. Birdie was impressed. She understood now why he had become such a good hunter in such a short time. He was patient. And he was good at reading his prey. In this case it helped that his prey was very near drunk, if not completely drunk. Henri would have pulled it off had it not been for Bellamy, who happened at the that moment to turn and look in Ratham's direction and then bend over laughing. He was too far away to be understood, but Ratham clearly saw Bellamy and other men looking in his direction and laughing which made him glance behind him just as Henri laid his hands on the bottle of rum. Realizing the jig was up, Henri snatched the bottle and ran. -TODO: Connect here to a scene of the feast so that we can lead into the next section, the tale of the ghost ship +:TODO: Finish up this anecdote, see if it makes sense. fade into scene below. -powdered wig in favor of tying back his long black hair with a simple band, Bellamy became known for his mercy and generosity toward those he captured on his raids. This reputation earned him another nickname, the "Prince of Pirates". He likened himself to Robin Hood, with his crew calling themselves "Robin Hood's Men".[4][5] ## The Tale Black Sam Told |