EUNICE M. HAWKES THOMAS
with CYNTHIA R. THOMAS
ENJOY AN EXCERPT FROM EACH STORY
"...Scott could not see anything but the girl. His mind was on fire as he moved in a haze. Back at the wagon, his field hands helped her into the wagon and threw a blanket over her as she was trembling. He had never seen a woman that looked so…she was a copper color…her skin was the color of copper..."
'The Cherry War'
"On this place...eveywhere you looked...there was fruit trees…apples, pears, cherries and plums.
In the spring the cherry trees bloomed and they were so pretty. Everything was so beautiful and green.
And, we knew that the kids on the other hill, the knoll, who had been living here all their lives, were coming to get the cherries. But, this was our land!"
"...what happened is, Keg went back to the street corner every day. He found himself an orange crate and with his tin cup in hand, he sat on the crate all day, every day. His appearance was disheveled and he looked like a beggar because he was sleeping in doorways at night. People walking pass would drop a nickel or a dime in the cup and by nightfall, he might have a dollar, two dollars or something like that, but not much more..."
"The girl said, 'My mother will be here in a few minutes.' And, when her mother made her appearance in the doorway, she was a little short woman, ebony black, with a smooth leather like complexion. She was so dark that you stared at her. She looked like a statue. She had piercing blue eyes that seemed to look right into your soul. When she said, 'Come with me,' we got up, walked through her dining room into her kitchen. There she opened another door and beckoned for us to follow. We went four steps down and entered a room with a dirt floor. There were short stools circling a zodiac sign that had been drawn in the middle of the floor."
"...while the intruder was threatening everybody and telling everybody what he would do to them three guys came up to the café door. They looked through the screen and, as they opened the door, it squeaked, loudly. They began pushing one of their group inside. But the guy was so fat that he had a hard time fitting through the frame of the door. Once inside, the two guys accompanying the fat man, held him up under each of his arms and stood there, looking around..."
"...Now, people in other communities always said that you were taking your life in your hands when you stepped foot in Green City. As the years had passed there seemed to be a criminal undercurrent there, in the business district, because of the gambling. The warning was always, ‘You shouldn’t go there after dark. Make sure it's daylight.'"
..."Upon her release from the hospital, the young woman made her way directly to the Social Service Agency. Extremely distraught, she demanded to know why they had not contacted her and advised her as to the whereabouts of her daughter. She walked from one desk to the other and, in an excited, high-pitched voice, she inquired, 'Please look at this photograph, and tell me if you have seen my daughter here?'...”
"Chloe was a tomboy. She would rather run with the boys than to stay home, sit on the front porch, and wear frilly clothes like her sisters. Every day after school, jumping up on the front porch in one swoop, she ran in the house. Shouting out, “I’m home,” she took the stairs, two at a time, to her room on the second floor. Rushing, she would tear off her school clothes, replacing them with her dungarees, sneakers, and straw hat. Then you would hear her running back down the steps, calling out, “I’m goin’ to the fishin’ hole,” or whatever she and her pals had scheduled among them for that afternoon. And, with a slam of the front screen door, Chloe was off on a new adventure!"
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to all of you who believed in this work and that it would be published.
Illustrations & Photography
THE OLD COUNTRY ROAD
‘Photography - Courtesy of Cynthia R. Thomas
The Old Country Road’, 'Rooster', 'Girl Wearing Straw Hat', and
THOMAS FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS
'Girl On A Farm Horse' at the Hawkes Family Homestead, Blackstone, Va
THE LITTLE SLAVE GIRL
Artist - E. P. Peters
Original art; composite black/white/color sketches
'The Creature'', 'Blue Wind/Mala'
Little Girl – ‘Lu’
Grownup -'Lu' -
Little Girl –‘Pear’
'Pear' at nine years old
Grownup - 'Pear'
'The Mistress, Evangeline' with 'Pear'
Artist - Cassandra E. Armstrong
'Little Slave Girl, Pear - Sleeping'
Original art; colored acrylic oils- on canvas
Artist - Shirley Lightfoot
"The Shoe" Symbol for Pear-The Shoe Maid
Original art; composite color pencils with
metallic silver and gold pens
THE FORTUNE TELLER
Artist - Cassandra E. Armstrong
'The Fortune Teller'
Photographed Original art - mixed media - colored pencil,
charcoal & cut construction paper pieces
MYSTERY OF GREEN CITY
Photographer - C. R. Thomas
"Carousel Horses"
THE GIRL FROM KANSAS
Artist - E. P. Peters
'Phillip'
Original art; composite black/white sketch
Artist - Quinn Tracey Barrett
‘Chloe’
Original art; composite black/white sketch
THOMAS FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS
'Portrait of an ‘Elegant Woman’
Black/white Charcoal sketch
'Girl and a Jukebox'
Photography - Black and White
KEG & THE NUMBERS GAME
Artist - E. P. Peters
'Younge Keg' & 'Older Keg'
Original art; composite black/white sketches
Artist - Shirley Lightfoot
Keg In The Abstract’
Original art; composite color pencils with
metallic silver and gold pens
HERDING THE LITTLE SHEEP
Photographer - C. R. Thomas
'Wood Statue – ‘Girl Holding Lamb’
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Photography: ‘Train’ Courtesy of history page of Norfolk and Western Trains; Native American Creek Indian and Creek Nation Map courtesy of Google.com