The death of the slave hunters. The birth of Nalla’s child, a little girl with lighter skin. The death of Joseph’s wife and his desire for Nalla. Their three children together. The sporadic arrival of other runaways. The growth of the settlement. Its culture — language, food, customs, rituals, and fears, always the fear of being invaded and recaptured. The religion became a mix of the Christianity that had been forced upon the slaves by their white masters and the African mysticism they clung to. Joseph’s attempts to teach everyone, adults and children alike, the basics of reading, writing, and math. He had been fortunate enough to have received some education on the plantation. A few resisted his efforts, just as they rejected Christianity. His death from a disease that killed a dozen others in their settlement. Nalla’s heartbreak at his loss. The power struggles to take his place. The harshness of life on the island. The heat, mosquitoes, insects, panthers, snakes, storms, disease. The constant struggle for self-sufficiency by a people determined to avoid contact with the world and too afraid to venture off the island. Life expectancy was about fifty years. Half the children died at birth.
Mercer was consumed with her story and longed to hear Lovely’s voice. She wanted to spend hours on the phone with a million questions, but Miss Naomi could not convince her. Lovely had no phone, no television.
The more Mercer wrote, the more she disliked her job. She was in her third year at Ole Miss, her third teaching position, and she was tiring of the departmental politics. She assumed they were present on every campus and Ole Miss was no exception. With a master’s degree but no doctorate, and no plans to get one, she was deemed a lesser academic and one probably not worthy of tenure. What she did have was a publishing career that now included two novels and a collection of stories. Adding insult to envy was the fact that
In spite of her misgivings, and she kept most of them to herself, the fall semester was clicking right along, with SEC football the main focus and academics somewhere down the list. Mercer and Thomas lived in a rented condo on University Avenue, fifteen minutes from campus on foot. Heading east in the other direction, they often walked to the picturesque town square for dinner with friends or drinks in one of the many student hangouts.
Six weeks passed before Etta emailed with the news that the contract with Viking was on the way. Mercer should sign immediately and maybe the money would arrive by Christmas. Publishers were notorious for taking their time with contracts and payments.
When Mercer received the emails from Steven Mahon with the responses from the state of Florida and Tidal Breeze, she read them twice and felt uncomfortable. She called him and they talked for half an hour.
“What is discovery?” she asked.
“Both sides get to poke around in the other’s case. Live depositions, written interrogatories, document swaps, the like. It’s one of the more unpleasant aspects of litigation but a necessary evil.”
“So Lovely will have to give a deposition?”
“Oh yes. I’ve explained this to her. She was less than enthusiastic. It’s gonna take some work and preparation, but she’s our only witness.”
“Has she told you about her notebooks?”
A long pause on Steven’s end. Then, “What notebooks?”
“She told me that she has a box full of notebooks that date back many years. When you read her book and you see all of those names and dates, you realize that someone had to write them down.”
“Well, I asked her about that. She said it all came from memory.”
A long pause on Mercer’s end. Then, “Okay, so what happens if she does in fact have notebooks?”
“The other side gets to look at them, and given the resources they have, you can bet they’ll go through everything with a magnifying glass.”
“She might not like that.”
“No one likes that, but it’s part of the litigation process.”
“Okay, but if she has extensive notes that date back years, wouldn’t that tend to support her story?”
“One would think so.”
“So what’s your next move, Counselor?”
“You’re watching too much television. I’ll do some interrogatories, same for the other side. We’ll slog through a document swap and so on. Nothing much will happen until they take her deposition.”
“We’ll be down for fall break early in October. I’d like to be around for the deposition.”
“A good idea. I’ll try but no promises.”
“Any word from Judge Salazar?”
“Not a peep. She’s known to lay low during the preliminary matters.”
“All right. Keep in touch.”
The early stage of the lawsuit generated only passing media coverage.
