A New Beginning: My Journey with Addy

I tell Addy firmly that I’m not leaving, pulling her toward a corner of the theater instead. We slip behind a curtain where nobody can spot us, and it turns out we can still see almost the whole show from there. Every time a joke or a riddle lands, Addy and I clamp our hands over our mouths so nobody hears us laughing.

Once the show ends, we duck out ahead of everyone else and find ourselves back on the street in the fading light. We can hardly stop giggling about the show. Addy says Sam used to always be able to make her laugh. He used to tell funny riddles, like “What’s gotta be broken before you use it?” I say I don’t know, and Addy answers “An egg.” We chuckle. But a moment later, her smile fades and she says she misses him.

Addy admits she doesn’t know where Sam and Poppa are now. They may not even be together. She says Sam ran off when he was first told they were going to Philadelphia. Maybe he’s run off again. He could be on his way here right now, but he also kept talking about joining the Union army. Running away is dangerous, but joining the army could get him killed. Sam is too stubborn to be talked out of anything once he decides on it.

We walk in silence for a while, and I watch a man light a streetlamp with a long stick as the last of the afternoon sun slips away.

Addy breaks the quiet, pointing out that we saw the whole puppet show tonight, start to finish, and we never let that woman at the front doors stop us. I grin, because she’s right, we didn’t give up. Addy declares she isn’t going to give up on her family either. Poppa and Sam will find each other again eventually, and once they do, Poppa will go back to the plantation to get Esther, Auntie Lula, and Uncle Solomon. Then they’ll all be together in Philadelphia.

Talking about her scattered family makes me think of my own. I miss Danny, Mom, Dad, and Gran and Grandpa too, more than I expected to out here on a strange street in 1864. Addy squeezes my hand and reminds me that Momma always says to hold on to hope and be patient. The word hope sparks something loose in my memory, and I remember Addy once mentioning a Quaker Aid Society that helps people separated by slavery keep hope alive while they search for each other.

An idea comes to me. If Poppa and Sam are on their way to Philadelphia, maybe they got help from someone. And maybe someone at the Quaker Aid Society might have written their names down or have information about them. Addy’s eyes go wide, and I tell her there’s nothing wrong with asking, which settles it.

Addy already knows the way to the Quaker Meeting Hall, so we hurry through the darkening streets while shopkeepers pull their doors shut for the night. When we get there, a lamp still burns in a back room crowded with papers. A kind-looking man glances up from his desk to ask what he can do for us. Addy doesn’t need any nudging from me. She introduces herself and explains that she’s searching for Poppa and Sam, both sold away from the Stevens plantation in North Carolina, and asks whether he might learn if either of them has passed through a freedmen’s camp or is already on the way to Philadelphia.

The man, Mr. Cooper, promises to make inquiries with a few aid societies. These things take time, he warns gently, but he thinks he can help. He writes down every detail and tells her to check back in a few weeks.

My heart skips as I squeeze Addy’s hand. Out on the street, Addy is happier than I’ve seen her all day, already talking about how fast she’ll run home to tell Momma. Then she stops short, asking what about my own family, and suggesting we go back and have Mr. Cooper look for them too.

I shake my head. I don’t need Mr. Cooper searching for people he’ll never find, not when I already know exactly how to get back to my family. The truth is, all this talk of reuniting Addy’s family has made me miss my own so much that I know it’s time to go home. I explain that my family isn’t coming to Philadelphia, that I’m going to them instead, and that I just need to keep going on my own.

Addy agrees, though I can tell she’s disappointed even as she understands. She admits that having me around has felt like having a sister again. I tell her that she and Momma have treated me like family too, and I thank her for everything. She asks if I’ll be okay, and I promise her I will, reminding her that her own mother must be worried sick by now.

Addy pulls me into a hug and whispers that I’m so brave, and that she won’t ever forget me. Watching her hurry off down the cobblestone sidewalk, I think to myself that she’s the truly brave one. She has worked so hard for a freedom she still can’t fully use because of the color of her skin, yet she never lets that discourage her, riddles and all.

At the corner, Addy turns back for one last wave, and I wave back, promising silently that I won’t forget her either. I reach into my pocket for great-great-granduncle Charley’s coin. Addy has shown me how to make the best of whatever comes my way. I’m going to work hard in school from now on, studying every subject and not just the ones I enjoy, and I’m going to tell Dad about my failed test myself, because I know it won’t happen again. Instead of counting the hours my family and I spend apart, I’m going to treasure every minute we get together, starting with the riddles I can’t wait to tell Danny.