IN DUE SEASON...

CHAPTER 9.

When Lottie arrived home from her meeting with Pastor Jericho, her mother was waiting for her on their newly repaired front porch. The sweet smell of honeysuckle commanded the evening breeze, overpowering the stench of manure from Mr. Joe-Joe's cow pasture next door.
“This kudzu gonna take over this state if they ain't careful.” Miss Charity gazed in the direction of the vine-smothered trees across the road. “Hmph. They say it's to prevent soil erosion, but that's what they get for importing something from Japan to solve a problem in America.”
“If you say so, Mamma.”
“You mighty busy these days, Miss Lottie.” Her rocker blades hammered the porch. “You leave at sun up and drag yourself back here at sundown. You’re bout to make me dizzy. I'll have you know, this here ain't no Do-Drop-Inn. This is a home where civilized people stop and chat with one another from time to time.” She huffed. “Anyhow, yo dinner's on the stove getting cold.”
“I'm sorry, Mamma. There's just so much to do. I didn't mean to slight you. It's good being back here with you and sleeping in my old bed--”
“Shush, Chile.” Miss Charity waved her hand. “No need to go on and on. But why are you rushing around so much, if I'm not being too nosy to ask?”
Lottie leaned against the banister to avoid her x-ray vision. “It's just that when me and Raymond were in so much trouble--”
“It occurred to you, you had a home to come home to.” Miss Charity rocked smoothly.
"And when I got here, deep down inside I knew. This is why I was spared, Mamma--to take a stand right here and to make a difference.”
“That's all well and good, Daughter. But whatever good thing you do, you’ve got to do it in God’s power, not your own strength.”
“But it takes hard work to do what me and Charley have in mind.”
“And just what might that be?”
Lottie flopped into the chair next to her mother and folded her arms resolutely. “Charley wants me to run for his senate seat when his term is up in a couple of years.”
“What? And why he want you to do a thing like that?”
“He says his family owes me, and this district needs me because it's mostly made up of our people.”
“Our people?”
“I know, Mamma, it's a tacky way to put it, but the fact remains the same.”
“It don't feel like we outnumber white folk.”
“No. It doesn't because the minority out-powers the majority in everything that counts, except one.”
“Which is?”
“Voting strength. If we could get every eligible black voter to the polls, we could put anybody in and take anybody out of office we wanted. But we don't, not right now, because too few of us are registered, and fewer than that actually vote, even in Presidential elections.”
“How you know all that?”
“I've spent a lot of time in the library and over at the voter registrar's office. These are the facts, Mamma, as sad as they may be, which means I've got my work cut out for me.”
“There’s a reason for it, too, Daughter. Things around here always stay the same, and the folk ain’t interested.”
“But I've got to motivate our community to support me in the next election; or else all of Charley's efforts to soften the heart of the Unified Party to the prospect of a black female senator will go up in smoke.”
“And that may be a good thing.”
“But Charley and I want to see this district put back on the map. Jobs. Economic growth. Hope! Don’t you see?”
“Who's your opposition? From the Dixie Party, I mean?”
“Most likely, one of the Bodines. Matthew, I'm told.”
“Matthew Bodine? Old man Jasper's son? You don't want to go up against that crowd, Lottie. They can get plenty nasty at the drop of a hat, much less if you get in the way of something they really want. Jasper Bodine's been grooming that boy of his for the Senate since he was knee-high to a pup. He wants him to win as much as anything to spite them Poteets.”
“I'm not afraid of the Bodines--”
“Well, you oughta be! If you think them was some bad men what chased y'all out of New York, I'll guarantee you they wasn't shot-from-toy compared to that rascal, Jasper Bodine. He's worse than a wounded rattler when he can't get his way. I hear tell a white man came up missing over in Ezelle County when he went up against Jasper in a land deal. Jasper got the land, free and clear. And they ain't never found that other man, alive nor dead.”
“But I can't give up now. Win or lose, I've got to try.”
“I hear you, Daughter, and what you saying is all well and good. But lest you forget, if you takes this on, you gonna need God on your side much more than your hard work.” She slowed her rocker and heaved a heavy sigh. “That painter fellow you hired came by today, Lottie. He asked me what color I wanted the house. I told him, sparkling white with jaybird blue shutters, just like yo daddy used to like it, if that's all right with you. After all, it is yo money.”
“I hoped you'd pick that, Mamma. We can paint the new fence white, too.” Lottie glowed. “It'll be real pretty. Like old times.”