THE CORNERSTONE, SHADELRA [the speed reading book TXT] 📗

around and started to dig again. Emanuelle was hard headed, like big paul was back when he was his age. He had felt the same way, but as he grew older he just got tired of being angry. The reality was that he was born in bondage and he would more then likely die in bondage. As he pondered these thoughts he felt eyes burning holes in the back of his head. He looked over at emanuelle who had suddenly piped down. He was back to digging, not even looking at big paul. He looked up to see cletus looking down at them with an evil grin. It had been a long, grueling day and big paul was happy to lay down in his tent to get a couple of hours shut eye. He said his prayers and laid down on his potato sack to be free in his dreams. He had a hard time getting to sleep. He kept thinking about what emanuelle had said to him earlier. After two hours had passed he finally was relaxed enough to drift off into oblivion. PSS! He was laying in between a dream state. He started to hear his dreams calling him. PSS! BIG PAUL! PSS! The whispers startled him back to consciousness. He opened his eyes and jumped up shocked to see emanuelle in his tent. "Boy! What the hell you doin? You scared me half to death." Emanuelle did not say anything. He was dripping with sweat and he had a paranoid look on his face. "Emanuelle, you okay son? Look like you seen a ghost." Emanuelle did look scared. It was a look that big paul was all too familiar with. "Emanuelle, you..you fixin to run off?" Emanuelle looked around the tent. "Big paul listen. I feel you a old fool, but you an old fool i like. I'm makin a break for it, come with me." he said almost in a whisper. Big paul sat back and looked at him. "Where you plannin to run to?" "We can make it up north, i know we can, if we work together like we did in the hole" he said with excitement. Big paul just shook his head. "Son, you won't make it out of maryland, you hear me? They'll catch ya, then they'll whip the skin off your back, then they gonna hang you until your neck snap." Emanuelle backed off and turned his head. "I..I gotta risk it, i don't care no more." Big paul could tell that he was tearing up. "Let me ask you somethin..you got youngins?" Emanuelle turned back toward and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Yeah, i got a lil son, wife back at the plantation ..gonna send for them when i get up north." "That's good, that's real good. Listen emanuelle i've been thinkin alot about what you said earlier. I won't even lie to you boy, you right..us building this man's city ain't gonna help us." Emanuelle dropped his head in defeat. It was almost like he wanted to be wrong and big paul right, he wanted things to change. "Emanuelle, when i was your age i fought in the war of independence . I thought that if we helped fight they would free us, treat us like real people..i was wrong." "That's why i'm runnin!" emanuelle said. Big paul continued. "It won't change things now, but i think..no i know that all of this will change things for your son and your son's son and so on. What we doin now is laying down the cornerstone to build not just this city, this house, but we laying the foundation of freedom for our people in years to come!" Emanuelle did not say anything, he just sat and listened. "Will we live to see it? I don't know , but if we don't do the things we doin now, that day may never come. Hell one day we may have a negro president sittin in that house we gonna build." Both men just looked at each other, then they started to bust out laughing. "I knew you was a crazy when i first saw you talk to ole cletus like that." "Yeah that was a crazy thing to say but you never know" big paul chuckled. Emanuelle started his way out of big paul's tent. "So what you gonna do?" big paul asked. Emanuelle looked back at him and started to grin. "I guess i'll see your old fool self in a couple of hours." With that he went out of the tent. Big paul laid back down with a smile on his face. He closed his eyes with his mind at peace. He laughed to himself before he drifted off into space..."Negro president, you never know.."


BACK TO PRESENT DAY....


Melvin jackson looked on as the first black president made his way to the podium to take the oath. As BARACK OBAMA made his way past where melvin was standing there eyes met. The president elect nodded his head toward melvin, melvin nodded back. In that one instance they both understood the connection and the legacy knowing that the cornerstone of this historic day was laid long ago.....


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Publication Date: 11-06-2009

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