Cy in Chains by David L. Dudley

true?”
    Jess replied softly, “Yeah. Man I lived with done it. He warn’t my real daddy, thank God. He never got tired o’ remindin’ me about
that
.”
    â€œHow you end up with him?”
    â€œI dunno, and he never would tell me. His wife, neither. Mr. George and Miz Ada Prettyman. Sharecroppers over by Sparta. Long way from here.”
    â€œHow come he beat you?”
    â€œDunno. He beat her just like he done me. Half the time he beatin’ her, half the time he on her in the bed, tellin’ her how much he love her, how she always gonna be his woman.”
    â€œYou saw
that?
” Billy asked.
    â€œHuh! You stay in a one-room shack with folks, you sees and hears lots o’ stuff you rather not.”
    â€œDon’t tell him that mess,” Cy said. He remembered back before his mama left. Sometimes at night, when his parents thought he was asleep . . .
    â€œHe asked,” Jess said. “You want to hear more, Billy?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œYou guys hush,” West complained from the other side of Billy. “I want to go to sleep.”
    â€œAin’t much more to tell,” Jess said. “Mr. George used to beat me bad. Use a belt, razor strap, switch—whatever he could get his hands on. Say I was a sorry excuse for a boy. Accordin’ to Mr. George, I couldn’t never do
nothin’
right. Couldn’t plow a straight furrow, couldn’t chop cotton, couldn’t even slop a hog the right way. Didn’t matter what I done, Mr. George always find a reason to beat me.”
    â€œI’da run off from a man like him,” Billy declared.
    I’d of killed him
, Cy thought.
    â€œI thought about runnin’, but I stayed for Miz Ada.”
    And see where it got you
, Cy thought.
    â€œMr. George beat her like she was a dog. It hurt me deep down to see how he use her. Nothin’ she did satisfy him, either. She and me tried to look out fo’ one another.
    â€œMiz Ada wanted a baby real bad—believed if she could give Mister George a son, maybe he love her and quit hittin’ her. Long time went by, and nothin’ happen, even though he on her all the time. Then she started to have a baby, and Mr. George soften up some, but she lost it, and he beat her again, like he blame her ’cause the baby born too soon—born dead.
    â€œAfter that, Miz Ada kinda give up. One time Mr. George go after her—for burnin’ the collards—and she tell him she pray he go ahead and kill her. She rather be dead and go see King Jesus in heaven than go on livin’ in hell. That stop him fo’ a while. But next time, he went at her like he planned to answer her prayer.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œI tried to stop him,” Jess said. “I was pretty big by then. When Mr. George got to hitting Miz Ada, I stepped in. ‘Run ’way,’ I told her. ‘Go ’way, and don’t never come back.’ And she did.”
    â€œI bet you whipped his ass good then,” Billy said.
    â€œI tried, but he too much for me. He knocked me out cold, and when I come to, he had me stripped and tied, and then he beat me worse than he ever done before. He just kept on with that strap . . .”
    Just like John Strong
. The words hammered against Cy’s brain.
    â€œMr. George kep’ me tied all night, and next morning he took me to town—made me walk half naked behind his horse with a rope ’round my neck—and turned me over to the sheriff. He kept me in the jail until the next time the judge come to town, and he charge me with disorderly conduct and sentence me to ten years. Cain got his hands on me, and I been here ’bout four years. Longer’n Cy.”
    â€œHow old are you?” Billy asked.
    â€œDon’t know for sure. Seventeen, maybe.”
    â€œY’all quit now!” West said. “We don’t want to hear no more about Jess and his hard