Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

I wake up in the morning, forgetting where we are momentarily. Then I recall last night’s events and realize I’m in the cave. I get up and start to stretch when something suddenly crashes into me.

“Hey!” I shout.

I reach my hands out and feel fur. I gasp and back away before remembering that Choco was here.

“What’s the matter, Mara?”

Pop strikes a match and places the tiny flame in a lantern. I look over and see Choco panting at me. I roll my eyes and chuckle.

After a few minutes of packing everything into our sacks again, we head out of the cave and continue traveling.

After walking for not too long, we start to fall into a comfortable rhythm. All of us are going at the same steady pace. Even Choco next to me is taking two steps for every one step that I make.

I start to feel relaxed, possibly for the first time in my life. It’s just how I’ve always imagined it. We are away from the plantation, we’ve got a home to go to, and we’re together. Although I have to admit, the dog is a surprise. But, hey, our own, personal tracking dog is always an asset. I let my shoulders fall and finally star to calm down.

And that’s when Choco starts to growl. My tension rises and I silently scold myself for letting my guard down.

“I think he smells somebody. Quick, everyone! Hide behind those rocks!” Pop whispers urgently.

I dash over with everyone a few dozen feet to a bunch of boulders. We crouch down behind them and sit as silently as possible. I can’t even hear myself breathe. Or maybe I’m not breathing at all. It’s hard to tell when your life could possibly be on the line.

I hear a quiet shuffling, and I risk the tiniest of peeks around the edge of the boulder. I see a man with a grey uniform on looking around suspiciously. After around thirty seconds, he grunts and turns away.

We stay behind the rocks for another minute, just for extra security. Then we crawl out slowly, looking around cautiously.

I can’t seem to stop myself from shaking. “That was close, Pop.”

Choco trots over to me and places his head under my hand. I suddenly can’t stop my overflow of emotion as I throw my arms around his neck.

“Oh, Choco, thank you!” I say.

He accepts the gratitude with a lick of my hand. Although I now like him, I’m not quite sure I’m ready for “dog kisses” yet. Everyone quietly laughs at my face.

After everyone finishes chuckling at my disgust, Mama suggests we go back behind the rocks to stay hidden while we eat. While we’re back there, chomping on some apples, I don’t even notice that Choco wandered away.

After a few minutes, we start to smell skunk. Mama decides that we should leave in case it ends up coming in our direction.

“But, Mama! Choco ain’t here yet! He just wandered off! We have to wait for him; he won’t be gone long!” I cry.

 “He’s sniffed us out once, he can do it again. Don’t worry, that dog’ll come back.” Pop tries to reassure me.

I am about to complain when I turn and see Choco coming back. I am relieved until Joel points out he’s been sprayed by a skunk.

Mama rolls her eyes, “Choco! Oh, well. There ain’t nothing we can do about it until we get to the McKinley’s.”

We start to continue walking again. While I trudge through the woods, I start to notice the dirt and leaves turn into tall grass. We’re in a field! I start to worry. Anyone could see us in a field if they were looking. We’d better get out of here soon, in case there’s another plantation nearby.

Just as if he was reading my mind, Choco starts growling again. Mama and Pop order us to get down into the tall grass. We lay flat on our stomachs and start to army crawl for a minute. Then Pop puts his hand up and we all stop, waiting for further instructions.

I listen close, and hear the sound of multiple men conversing. What if they find us? We aren’t exactly hidden here- we’re completely out in the open! I can’t keep the tears from rushing down my face. We’ve come so close, and it would be devastating to be found out now. I have no idea what would happen to us.

I hear the men shouting to one another. They are fanning out across the field. I look ahead and see Pop motion for us to keep moving forward. I squeeze the last tears from my eyes. This plan already had a slim chance of succeeding, and blurry vision wouldn’t help it none. I start to move forward.

“Wait!” I hear the man shout. All of us stop immediately. “I heard something!”

I have no idea what to do, so I just lay there, feeling absolutely useless. I wait for the men to walk by and see the runaway slave family, lying in the dirt.

Suddenly, I hear Choco pop up and bark. I am about to kick him in the ribs when he darts away. Well, if there weren’t gonna find us before, now they most certainly will. 

But then, a ray of hope enters my mind as a man says, “It was nothing more than just a stupid, stray dog!”

I start to smile. I don’t know if he was the cleverest dog in the world, or the dumbest, luckiest dog in the world. All I knew is that we were safe.

And then the joy came crashing down around my face as I heard what the men said next.

“This dog looks like a Labrador retriever- one of those trained, expensive kinds, ya know?”

“Maybe we could take the dog in and get some kind of reward. Maybe the boss will pay us- in cash!”

I start to panic. What will happen to Choco? I lay there until the men are out of earshot. Then, I see Pop start to move forward. I move along with him for the next few minutes until we start to get back into the woods.

We stand up and stretch for a moment.

“Pop! What’s gonna happen to Choco?” I screech.

“Hush up, Mara! I don’t know, but we can’t worry about that now, you hear? Don’t worry, he ain’t gonna get hurt.”

He starts to walk forward, followed by Mama and Joel. I stay behind for a second. An idea suddenly sparks in my head. I look down at my cotton dress and yank off a shred. Oh, yes, this will work.