“So, Mrs. De Baca,” Lawyer Tate said, “I understand you have really made it now! You’re a big-shot lawyer in Boston.”
I reacted with a smirk. “What?”
“All the talk. Miss Cassie Logan, also known as Mrs. Flynn de Baca, one of a handful of colored lawyers in all these United States employed by a very highly respected white law firm.”
Still smiling, I shook my head. “Well, in my case, that’s overexaggerated. All I am is a glorified paper pusher.”
“Maybe. But a paper pusher who’s made a dent, maybe an indelible impression.”
“I don’t think that’s the case.”
Lawyer Tate came from behind his desk and sat beside me on the sofa. “Look, Cassie, not only are you a person of color, you are a woman of color, so you are knocking down walls on two fronts. Tell me, how did you get into a firm like that anyway? You must have had some powerful recommendations.”
I thought of Guy. “I did,” I answered honestly.
“Well, however you got there, you’re in a position to deal with some important issues. You know, Cassie, in years to come we’re going to need powerful lawyers like our Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston. And let’s not forget Constance Baker Motley, backbone of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Lawyers who can fight the fight on a legal front to turn back all these laws that are keeping us down. You’re young, you’re of that generation that can do it.”
I shrugged that off. “Not me. I’m not here to deal with all our issues, Lawyer Tate, just with Moe’s.”
“All right then, let’s talk about our friend Moe. It’s public knowledge that Mississippi is trying to arrest him and get him extradited back to Mississippi. They haven’t been able to do so thus far, since they can’t find him. What we should be talking about is what we can do if they find Moe and if he chooses to challenge the extradition. Somehow, we’ve got to figure out how to save him.”
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
Moe did not remain in Canada. The same day I talked to Lawyer Tate, Moe showed up at the house. His wife, Myrtis, was with him, along with Myrtis’s brother, Dwayne. We were all shocked to see Moe and berated him for risking coming back into the States. He was unapologetic. “I knew you’d all be here and I needed to be with folks from home. Been eighteen years this month since I left from down there and I wanted to see Miz Caroline, wanted to see Mr. and Miz Logan. It’s worth the risk. Besides, I figure the police got better things to do than worry about me at Christmastime.”
Moe had been staying in Toronto. He had gotten word to Dwayne that he planned to be in Toledo during Christmas week. Myrtis and Dwayne drove from Detroit and met Moe here. Moe had parked his car near a church and come to the house with Myrtis and Dwayne in Dwayne’s car. It was odd seeing Moe without Morris at his side. Since Morris had gone to live with Moe, they had always come to Toledo together, and even after Morris became a student at Wayne State, they always made the trip together. When Morris graduated from Wayne State with a degree in business administration, he had stayed on in Detroit to be with Moe. The death of Hertesene had taken him back south and he had not yet returned. With Moe’s flight to Canada, we didn’t know if Morris would be coming back.
“No need for him to come back now,” said Moe when we asked about Morris. “Least not ’til I know where this mess is going to take me. He might as well stay south with Daddy.”
Soon after their arrival, we all sat down for dinner. During dinner I noticed Myrtis watching me, but as soon as I looked at her, she looked away. I had met Moe’s wife only once before. She also was from Mississippi, from around Greenwood. She was a quiet woman and somewhat skittish. She had heard about me and seemed particularly shy when I spoke to her. Her words were awkward and few. She seemed so shy that I mostly left her alone. She and Moe had no children. After dinner I told Moe I needed to talk to him about the arrest warrant and extradition request. We decided to go outside. Moe let Myrtis know and we left by the breakfast room door. Walking along the stone pavers that led to the back gate, I asked Moe, “Myrtis know you once had feelings for me?”
“Once had?” questioned Moe, and smiled.
I nudged him with my elbow as I had done in younger days. “You know what I mean.”
“She knows. Once when Levis was up here, he let it slip. Then she asked me about you and I told her I’d asked you to marry me, but you were having none of that from me. Told her you ran off to California and married some exotic fellow from Central America.”
I laughed. “Well, it wasn’t quite like that.”
Moe laughed too. “Well, seemed that way to me. Why are you asking about Myrtis now?”
“It’s just that she seems so uncomfortable around me. I’ve tried to talk to her, but she pretty much has nothing to say.”
“She’s intimidated by you, Cassie, and why shouldn’t she be? She’s heard a lot about you.”
“Good things, I hope.”
“Always good from me.”
We reached the towering blue spruce and stopped. The tree’s branches were laden with the morning’s snow. I walked around the tree, touching the softness of its new, blue-green needles. “I love this old tree,” I said. “Reminds me of trees down home. Not the same kind, but just that feeling of beauty, of something grand.”
“I know what you mean,” said Moe.
I rejoined Moe, still standing on the walkway. “You know you were stupid to come back here. You can’t keep taking these risks, Moe.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“You have any idea how they tracked you down?”
“I’ve been thinking a lot on that. Back when Maynard and Levis were here in the summer, they ran into this fella they knew from Strawberry who was up in Detroit visiting some of his people. Ran into him right in my neighborhood. Fella asked them what they were doing in Detroit and they told him they were doing same as him, visiting folks they knew. They told me about it and that they didn’t know this fella too well, but they’d heard he’s one of these Negroes likes to talk a bit too much to white folks. Well, I didn’t think much about it at the time, but I’m thinking since then that this fella might have gone back and told some of those white folks in Strawberry about Maynard and Levis being here and whereabout he had seen them. Police down there could have contacted police here, and they got to checking around the neighborhood, found out about me and where I work.” Moe’s brow wrinkled to a frown. “You know, I changed my last name, Cassie, when I came up here, but I never changed my name from Moe. . . .” He was silent a moment. “That was stupid.”
“Well, it’s too late to fix what’s already done,” I said. “Hope you’re not going by Moe in Canada.”