EPILOGUE — THE PLAIN BOWL
Three days later, the disputed pottery remained locked in the kiln under the supervision of witnesses chosen by both the creditors and the workers.
The medical examination had not finished, and no official had promised to punish Ambrose.
Harrow obtained an order delaying the estate’s forced transfers while the inventory and concealed sales were examined.
Catherine placed the available household funds toward food and medical care rather than another wagon of merchandise.
Elijah understood that none of this made the people at Whitmore free.
He asked Catherine to arrange a meeting with a free Black craftsman in Macon who had offered him paid work if a lawful release could be negotiated.
She listened without calling the request a betrayal.
Odessa and Hester chose to remain near the kiln while they pressed for the same possibility for their families.
They refused to let Catherine decide their futures over a dining-room table.
On Elijah’s final afternoon before meeting the craftsman, he found Catherine beside her mother’s writing desk.
She held the plain bowl Hester had brought from the old kiln.
“Your mother taught me to look at the bottom,” Elijah said.
Catherine turned the bowl and found the little spiral pressed into the clay.
“She taught me that too.”
He took the bowl carefully, feeling the rough ring beneath his thumb.
Then he carried it outside, where Odessa was waiting with the names of people who wanted to speak for themselves.
The End.
