Gunpowder and Tea Cakes: My Journey with Felicity

The next morning I ride back to Williamsburg alone in the carriage with Marcus driving the horse from his high seat. When we arrive, I thank him very much, and wish him good luck. He stutters for a moment, before wishing me the best, too. I can’t tell what he’s thinking, but he smiles.

After I find a hidden spot in the garden, I take myself back home. It’s so hard not to tell Grandma about everything that happened, so I pretend it’s just an ordinary day. But after dinner, I call Amara.

When I ask her about the shelter, Amara says she and Lauren picked out the cutest puppy. I’ll love him. But she can tell I have something else on my mind. I can’t find the right words, so I just blurt it out.

I ask Amara if she thinks any of her ancestors were enslaved. She answers that they certainly were. Her dad’s family has been living in North America for longer than they know. I ask her if that’s hard to think about. She is quiet for a moment, and then responds that in some ways, yes. She can hardly stand to imagine it. But in another way, it makes her proud. Her ancestors must have been incredibly strong people to survive.

I ask Amara if that’s why she likes African dance. Amara chuckles. She just likes being up on stage. But, she does like learning traditional dances from Western Africa. It’s a way for her to learn about her own heritage.

I ask Amara if I could come to her performance tomorrow night. Without a moment’s hesitation, she answers of course it’d be okay! She can get tickets for both me and Dad, and Grandma, too.

After I hang up with Amara, I sit and pet Muffy, thinking. Nobody can change bad things that happened in history. It seems to me that the best we can do now is try to learn about them, and maybe help others learn about them too. Amara’s doing that when she performs traditional dances from Senegal and other West African countries. And I can do that too, when I’m a junior interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg this summer.

I hear the door slam see Dad coming up the stairs. I run over to give him a big hug. When he laughs and asks what the hug is for, I just tell him I’m glad I don’t have to sneak through the woods to see him.