Forever

Part 1

GEORGIA, August 1850

            "Clara, dear, why don't you go outside and play? You've been cooped up in here all morning." Eleanor Oswald lifted her five-year-old daughter into her lap.

            "There's no one to play with, Mama," Clara replied. "I'm tired of talkin' to no one but the horses."

            "Tell you what, try going to the plantation down the road," Eleanor said. "I think your daddy's going that way to town. Maybe he'll drop you off. I know Mr. and Mrs. Smith. They're very nice people. And I believe they have a young child you could play with."

            Clara nodded and hopped off her mother's lap, running toward the main hall in their enormous plantation home. She ran into her father as he was walking out the door. "Daddy! Daddy! Mama said you would take me to the Smiths' plantation down the road so I wouldn't have to talk to the horses no more!"

            David Oswald smiled and lifted his daughter into his arms. "Slow down there, princess! Now, what are going on about me takin' you to the Smiths'?"

            Clara explained everything to her father as he carried her outside and got the two of them situated in the carriage. Clara kneeled on the seat and leaned out the window as they bumped along the dusty clay roads in the direction of Atlanta.

            In just a few minutes the carriage rolled to a stop at the driveway leading up to the Smiths' plantation. It was significantly smaller than the Oswald’s', but magnificent nonetheless. Cotton fields stretched behind the house as far as Clara could see, and the rows of the fluffy plant were dotted with workers hunched over in the hot sun.

            The carriage driver opened the door for Clara and Mr. Oswald, and they headed up the drive. Clara skipped ahead, kicking up clouds of red dust, and sending lizards scattering into the grass. She giggled and reached down to grab one, but they were all too fast.

            "Come along, Clara," Mr. Oswald said, setting his hand on her shoulder. "I haven't got time to dawdle."

            Clara hurried up to the door and knocked loudly. One of the Smiths' servants answered. She smiled at the little girl in front of her. "Hello there, little lady. What can I do for you?"

            Clara's father appeared behind her. He nodded in greeting to the servant. "Miss Bessie, is it? I'm here to see Mrs. Smith."

            Miss Bessie nodded. "Yessir, right away." She let them come inside as she scurried off to find Mr. Smith.

            Clara twirled around the main foyer, staring up at the high ceiling. "This place is real big, Daddy!"

            David smiled at his daughter. "Yes, it is, Clara. So is our home. It's even bigger."

            "Yeah but this is new! And that makes it even better!" She giggled and continued to bounce around the room.

            At that moment Miss Bessie returned with Mr. Smith, who grinned when he saw Mr. Oswald and Clara. "Mornin', David! How's your little gal doin'?" He knelt down to Clara's level.

            The little girl grinned. "I'm doing just fine, Mr. Smith, thank you very much!"

            Mr. Smith chuckled and stood up to shake hands with Mr. Oswald. "So, what brings you here this fine morning, David?"

   "Well, Jackson, I thought it'd do little Clara some good to play with your boy John," Mr. Oswald said. "She's been cooped up at Alaska much too long."

            "With nobody to talk to but them horses!" Clara put in.

            "No one but the horses?" Jackson Smith said, smiling at Clara. "And they don't talk back too much, do they?"

            Clara shook her head, her dark curls bouncing around. "No sir but I got bit once, see!" She held up her left hand, which still bore the scar of a horse bite from years ago.

            "You poor thing," Mr. Smith said. "You sure do need you a friend, hm?"

            Clara nodded excitedly.

            "Miss Bessie, call for John, will you?" Jackson said to the servant, who was also his son's caretaker.

            Miss Bessie obeyed, and returned a few moments later with John behind her, looking nervous.

            Clara ran up to the little boy and grinned, holding out her hand. "Hi! I'm Clara! Are you John? We're gonna be best friends! I can't wait to play!"

            John stared at her and blinked, then shook his head and coughed. "Um, hello...Miss Oswald. Yes, I'm John. It's nice to meet you." He hesitantly took her hand in his and shook it politely.

            Clara on the other hand clasped his hand with both of hers and shook it violently. "Come on, let's go outside!" She dragged him past their respective fathers and out the door.

            Mr. Oswald shook his head and laughed. "She's feisty, that one. She'll do good for your son."

            Mr. Smith nodded in agreement.

∞

            "No, no, no!" Clara scolded John. "You've gotta really throw it! Be aggressive! You're a boy, act like one!"

            John sighed in frustration and dug through the gravel for another flat stone. Clara had been unsuccessfully teaching him how to skip rocks on the pond for the past hour, and quite frankly, she wasn't a very good teacher. He found a good stone and lobbed it at the water, where it skipped once then fell in with a splash. John sat on a boulder near the edge of the pond and sighed in defeat. "I give up!" He said, looking over at Clara.

            She joined him on the boulder. "It's okay. Let's do something else! Hey I know, can you fish?"

            John frowned. "Yes, of course. You're the most boy-like girl I've ever met, you know that?"

            "I'm the only girl you've ever met." Clara tilted her head back in pride and hopped off the rock, skipping over to the small shack behind the house.

            John stared after her. "She's impossible." But he had to admit, he kind of liked this strange girl who had skipped and twirled her way into his life.