The TYLER FEED & SEED truck, loaded down with furniture and other household goods, pulled out of Grants Chapel Alley. Meanwhile, Aunt Lil had stacked suitcases filled with our clothes and personal items in the rear of the company station wagon. She and Uncle Silas took one last walk through the house, just in case. Her chickens had made the trip to our new home two days ago.
The past week couldn’t have ended too soon. Those knocks at the door during the night and when we checked, no one was there. And the colored folks, even the young boys, kept their eyes straight ahead as they walked by the house.
Aunt Lil stood by the car, surveying her home for the last time. Regardless of what it had become, this house had been a significant part of her life. During my short stay, I also had some pleasant memories, but they ended in sorrow. There was Mickey, and of course, Miriam.
“You ready, Aunt Lil?”
“I’m ready.”
She slowly maneuvered her body into the front seat and shut the door. Uncle Silas put the car into gear and we left Grants Chapel Alley for the last time. Aunt Lil took one more look. It was an ugly house but she still had to wipe her eyes with a handkerchief.
In a minute we had passed Mabel White Memorial Baptist Church and turned onto Houston Avenue, A few more miles and we would be at the Macon city limits. My joy grew with every passing block.
Up ahead I could see the oak tree opposite the entrance to Sylvian Drive. Something familiar appeared in the field beneath its branches. As we got closer, my mood changed.
Jonathan sat on the ground next to the tree, hands clasped around his knees, head hanging down-a few feet away from the vegetable wagon. I squinted hard before I could locate Sadie. It lay on its side, all four legs straight out and still attached to the wagon it had pulled faithfully all those years.
I turned to say something to Aunt Lil but she and Uncle Silas had somehow not noticed the tragedy by the roadside and we had already passed the tree. I focused on the rear window in time to see the death scene growing smaller.
It was then that I became aware. This awareness appeared instantly but without fanfare. It is, Uncle Luther later told me, the gateless gate, and those who pass through it walk freely throughout the universe.
I only knew at that time a great burden had been lifted from me. All the contradictions, the things people believed in, the ideas that caused some to hate and to kill-were all swept away.
Jonathan sat under the tree mourning his companion. And the living Sadie was just a memory. The present moment is all we have. In that moment the universe is being created-and in that moment the universe is being destroyed.*
We should live each moment fully and with compassion.
THE END
*The Spirit of Zen, Alan W. Watts, 1958, p.52
Filed under: Deep South Volume 2
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