Chapter 9 just keeps going. I'm trying to finish it up, but I keep finding that there's more ground to cover. I'll try to get the last piece put together and posted by next Wednesday, but I doubt I'll get much more posted before that. I have a very busy weekend.
About half an hour later, she heard a carriage – presumably Walters’ – rumble off of the farm. She waited for a few minutes before she put her plan into motion.
Slowly, she walked up to the door and called sweetly out to Neol, “Mr. Neol, sir, I don’t suppose that there’s any way you could let me out of here for a couple of minutes to use the outhouse?”
From the other side of the door, Neol replied, “No, ma’am, there ain’t no way that I can a-do that. You know that you’re only allowed to go there when both me and Tyrone are present, and he’s asleep right now after a long night of huntin’. You’ll just have to wait.”
“Please,” pleaded Maria in the pitiful voice that had always allowed her to talk her way out of getting in trouble with her teachers. “Please, let me go. You can escort me, but I can’t wait for him to wake up.” She ended her request with just the right mixture of sweetness and feebleness. A lost, hungry puppy could not have made a more heart-wrenching appeal.
Neol thought for a moment. “Well,” he answered finally, “all right. I’ll a-let ya out for just a minute, but don’t a-tell Mr. Walters what I done. He won’t take too kindly to me stretchin’ the rules like this.”
(Maria always regretted what she did next. In fact, years later, when she was able to bring Neol to work for her, she treated him quite well, like a member of her family.)
Just as Neol started to open the door, she hid behind it. Then, once Neol had walked farther into the shack, she struck him hard from behind, hitting him in a spot on the back of his head that would leave him unconscious but alive. Then, she quietly slipped out of the building and headed towards the creek, her eyes blinded by the barely-risen sun.
The rest of the plantation still slept as Maria stealthily crept towards the creek. She ran as quickly as she could, knowing that she had to reach the creek before anyone else awoke. Upon arriving at the creek, she took extra care to leave footprints pointed eastward in the drying mud. After crossing the creek and cleaning her feet in the grass on the far side, she turned towards the north, where an outgrowth of the forest lay.
Once inside the forest, her main challenge lay in keeping a northerly path until she could find an easy place to cross the creek again. Thankfully, the forest roof was thin enough to allow sunlight to get through. Maria always knew where the sun was. After a few minutes of jogging, she found a spot where the creek tapered off to a trickle, and she easily leaped across it.
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