and then replied, “You been to bed with any good-looking women in the last month, Mister Socrates.”
John shook his head in disbelief and thought, here I am trying to show him the importance of reading and he completely turned the table on me.
“No, I ain’t been to bed with any woman. How about you?” John asked.
“Me neither,” laughed Tim. “I thought that might be a good way to shut you up. Now back to them Greeks. Why do you like reading that stuff?”
John sat up on the side of the bed and after stretching answered, “Governments and law systems are what control the lives of people. Without law and order no one’s rights would be protected. We’d live in total chaos. Without our governments it would be a kill or be killed society.”
“Well, I guess that kinda falls in line with what I came by to tell you,” Tim said. “You see there’s gonna be a special, secret meeting down near Hickory tonight and you and me has been invited.”
With a question on his face, John asked, “What do you mean a secret meeting?”
“You can’t tell a soul about what I’m gonna tell you, John, especially if’n you decide to go with me.”
“You know me better than that, Tim.”
“Well, there’s gonna be a get together down there tonight and there’s gonna be a high ranking confed’rate gen’ral who’s suppose to talk to us.”
“Gen’ral!” John exclaimed. “What in tarnation about?”
“Well, if’n you’ll shut up, I’ll tell you about it. Now as I was saying, this here meeting is the beginning of a movement to take our government back.”
“Government back!” John said. “What kind of hair-brained joke you trying to play on me.”
“It ain’t no joke,” Tim replied. “Folks here in the South is tired of them Northerners, sorry white Southerners and Negroes running things. We’re tired of the treatment they dishing out to us. Things fixing to change around here, Mister John Wilson and if’n you want to help us, you got an invitation.”
John shook his head in disbelief. “Tim, the military gov’ment ain’t always gonna be around here. There’s gonna be a time when we’ll get our chance to run things. How do you think this group is planning to take over the government? You know there’s no way we can fight the Federal troops. We been through that before and I must say we didn’t and don’t have the men and resources to do it again. You’ll not get me in trouble this time. I won’t be going with you, and who is this person who wants us at the meeting anyway?
“Frank Olliver and ‘Fessor Hendon wants you there tonight, that’s who,” Tim answered.
“Frank Olliver! That’s enough for me. If Frankie’s involved, there’s got to be trouble connected. You can go, but you can count me out.”
“Wait a minute, John. There was a time when you two was closer than two straws in a broom. Frankie don’t mean you no trouble.”
“That was a long time ago. He’s changed a lot these past few years. We speak to one another, but that’s about it. If Frankie’s involved, you can bet trouble ain’t far behind,” John said.
“You know why you’re on the outs with Frankie,” Tim replied. “You ain’t ever forgive him for not showing up down at Newton Station and when he up and married—”
“Stop it right there, Tim. You don’t know what you talking about. Don’t ever mention her name to me. That’s a part of my life that just don’t exist no more, you hear me.”
“Sorry, I was just trying to tell you that they wanted you there for some reason and if’n you don’t care much for Frankie, then you know the ‘Fessor means you no harm.”
Professor Hendon was the only teacher John and Tim had ever had and even though he could be eccentric at times and had a reputation of being a ladies man, he had the men’s respect. To John, this was the man who opened his eyes to learning and always challenged him to never accept mediocrity.
“The Professor,” John said, regaining interest. “He really wants me there?”
I can’t believe that he wants me to go with him tonight, John thought. It seems like I should still be just a student to him, listening to him lecture about the poets, the art of speaking and politics. Politics, that’s what he enjoyed the most. No wonder he is interested in this meeting. Politics was always his first love.
“If’n ‘Fessor Hendon will be going, then I might just tag along with you,” John said, changing his mind. “It might be interesting just to see what this group is up to, but y’all better not get me into any kind of trouble with the law.”
“Won’t be no trouble, John. If’n you don’t like what you hear then you can quietly bow out, and I’m sorry about what I almost said. I know’d it was a ticklish subject.”
“Don’t worry about it, and I was a little too hard on Frankie too. I’m suppose to go over to see Suzanne tomorrow, and her mother ain’t never been nothing but nice to me. Mrs. Olliver can’t help that she’s got a son like Frankie.”
A large smile crossed Tim’s face. “I must say, that Suzanne is one beautiful woman. With that long black hair streaming down her back, those dark brown eyes, long legs and a figure that would even catch Preacher Gilmor’s fancy, I swear I don’t have but one good leg, but I’ll tell you one thing Mister John Wilson, I’d give ever bit of that good leg of mine fer one glance of that woman in the raw.”
John immediately reached for his pillow and sailed it across the room so fast it almost unseated his friend. “It’s just like you Tim Johnson, always got your mind where it ought not to be. If’n you’d behave yourself, you could find yourself a good woman, but all you like is those women who let you have your way.”
Tim laughed. “Why don’t you go ahead and say it? I like the whores. I can have a night of passion and fun and when the sun comes up, I go my way. No commitment, no marriage, and no nagging wife to hound me twenty-four hours a day. That’s what you thinking, ain’t it?”
“I’m just saying that you have a lot to offer some woman if’n you’d just work on it a bit. You ain’t that bad,” John said.
“Talking about marriage, folks around here is saying that you and Suzanne would make a fine couple. They say y’all been doing some heavy courting and figure won’t be long ‘til Miss Suzanne and you will set up house.”
“Set up house, that’s ridiculous,” John replied getting up to retrieve his pillow. “I agree she is a fine looking woman but like Daddy always said, when you marry a woman, you also marry her family and that Olliver family is a strange lot.”
“Well, John, I don’t see how you could beat her. As I said, she is some kind of looker and her mother and Frankie own a large chunk of Newton County. Some say they is among the richest folks in Miss’sippi.”
“That’s part of the problem, Tim. I know how they got their wealth and it ain’t honorable. To my family’s disgust, Frank Senior was one of the first to bring slaves into the county. His father-in-law gave him ten or twelve to get him started and then he cheated many a poor
