Everyone looked away but Mitch. They all knew what the house held. And since Nick had ever been in it, he had no idea. But when Summer stepped forward and nodded at the book, he knew that it was going to be very bad.
“I don’t know about that house, but I got a secret I have to tell. There was a lot of them babies that died when the sickness came around. Some of them just up and went to sleep one night and didn’t open them eyes again. Some, not many, got too weak to take the tit, and they more’n likely starved then died from the sickness that was takin so many. But there were a few of them that just…them parents just couldn’t stand the fact that some of their own were darkies.” Nick felt the hair on the back of his neck dance as she continued. “We was just slaves, you know. Not having any kind of life to go on with without the family that we worked for. When they told us to do something, we’d have no choice but to do it lickety-split like or be put to the tree. That whip…once it bites into your back, you never forget that pain.”
“What happened?” Nick didn’t want to know. He had no idea why he asked her the quiet question, but he did. And once he did, he also knew that she was going to answer him.
“There were three of them babies born to the master. One to the missus too, but he was so dark that it mattered little to the house. One of them was my sister’s child, but she done already died when she birthed him. There was one that was birthed to the woman that did the baking too. She had herself a right fine boy, too. But he was light, too light to say he was another darkie’s son.” Nick watched her face. “Mine was a girl child. Blonde hair with these pretty little curls. Skin like cream it was so soft and white. And her little body, it just hummed with goodness and health. I’d get to see her all the time running up and down the big halls. Just like she was one of them. Then the sickness came.”
No one said a word for several minutes. Summer stood near the door and looked out into the yard. Nick was sure she was going to run, not finish the story and leave them with only half of it. And he was pretty sure he’d be all right with that.
“He brunged her to me that night. Me, I was so sick that I knew I was minutes from meeting the Lord myself. But the master just brunged her into my hut and said ‘Kill her.’ Like she was nothing more than a hog that was to be butchered on a spit.” She didn’t turn around, but pulled a locket from under her dress and kissed it. “She weren’t sick. Not one bit. But the others were in the house. The missus had done went over. The boys, his only ones, had already died the week before. The house was near gone. But he didn’t want her no more, he told me. ‘Kill her,’ he said to me. And left.”
Addie wiped at the tears streaming down her face. Aster left them, her body nearly doubled over with her apparent pain. Aster had always been so tender hearted when they found other ghosts, Nick was sure this was very painful for her as well. But Summer just stood there staring out the window.
“I nearly just let her go on back to the house. I was too sick to care for her anyways, and if he beat me for it, then I would be just as dead. But she sat by my bed and wiped my head with a dirty rag. Singing some tune she’d no doubt heard from the missus of the house. And all I could think of was she had to die or I would.” Summer turned then and laid the necklace on the table. “I had to do it, can’t you see? I gots me no choice when I’m told to do something. I have to do it or face the whipping tree. So I pulled her to me and with the last of my energy, I pulled that thing around her neck until she was dead. Her little body…her little body just went all limp in my arms, and I done killed my little girl.”
“Oh my God.” Izzy sobbed into her towel and Jake held her. Steele and Kari were huddled in the corner, and Nick could see that Kari was crying as well. Addie had her head on his chest, her entire being racked with the power of her own sorrow at what had been done. Summer moved to the door then, and he knew as surely as he was standing there that they’d never see her again.