The Abernathy Plantation, in North Carolina
Langdon Abernathy was asleep in his cozy room, on his father's plantation, "The Abernathy Plantation" in North Carolina, twenty-one miles outside of Fayetteville, his cousin Cassandra Hightower, from New Orleans was up visiting, it was Christmas season. Langdon was three years older than Cassandra and Langdon was now ten-years old, making Cassandra all of seven. It was 1961, December, one week to Christmas. He was asleep, and Cassandra was asleep next door to Langdon's bedroom on the second floor of the house. Everyone in the house, both Langdon and Cassandra's parents were asleep also.
Langdon was cuddled up around several stuffed animals, nice and warm, and Cassandra had her goldfish in a bowel by her bed, the fish jumping up and down in its water, it comforted her, she would wake up now and then to see how her goldfish was doing, a nice, fat and shinny gold colored fish.
And then they both woke up at the same time. And so they were both awake, but their eyes were closed, and Langdon felt for his one big teddy bear, and he was soft, and started to fall back to sleep, Cassandra heard her fish jumping in the water thinking that is what woke her up, and she started to fall back to sleep, her eyes still half closed. But they both heard a noise at the window, so instead of falling back to sleep instead they opened their eyes, Cassandra lay still looking at the fish, and the window, not knowing where the noise was coming from, she was warm and it was cold outside, with an inch of snow, and she did not want to get out of bed to check to see if a bird or squirrel was knocking at the window, thinking, that was the reason behind the noise.
But the noise got louder and louder, and Langdon came over to her bedroom, knocked on the door, and she said, "Who is it?" and Langdon said, "It is me, Langdon."
"Oh," said Cassandra, "come in," and he did, "do you hear that strange noise at your window, also?" asked Langdon.
She opened her mouth to say 'yes,' but then a small twig, hit the window, as if there was a magical pigeon making a nest on the outside window sill, but when Langdon went to look outside the window, it wasn't that at all.
Langdon looked at the clock, it was 2:00 AM, then looked out the window with Cassandra, saw a man down below their window, "Who can it be?" asked Cassandra, opening up her eyes wider, trying to get a better view.
"Oh!" said Langdon, "that's old Josh, our plantation hand, he works for my pa, wonder what he wants?"
Langdon opened up the window, there standing right under it was the old Negro, Josh, with his old warn out face, his black hair, dotted with white, so white it looked like it glowed with the snow, that shinned with the outside arch light.
He wore an old blue coat, and blue shirt, and blue pants, and big black shoes, and a brown wooden cane that was round at the top so he could put his palm on top of it, and he had big old shoulders, very wide, he was seventy-one years old, born in 1890. His grandfather was Silas Jefferson, came from Ozark, Alabama, and he would often tell Josh his son, old stories about those far-off days, about the Civil War in America, and so forth, along with fairy tales of all kinds, magical tales.
"What's up Old Josh," said Langdon, his head and shoulder's half out of the window, Cassandra putttng her head out also, but it was cold, so she didn't dare put her shoulders out.
Little white sparks of snow drifted down onto Old Josh's jacket, "Come down here, I is goin' to tell you an old story, meet you in the barn."
Every Christmas season, around Christmas time, Old Josh would come and wake up Langdon, and they'd meet in the barn and he'd tell him a Christmas story, Langdon never knew when he would exactly come wake him up, but it was the only thing Old Josh could afford to give as a gift, he didn't have any money to speak of, he lived on the plantation, behind the barn, the barn had cows and horses in it, it was warmer than Josh's old shack of a house, so it was always there that they went.
"Do you want to come along?" asked Langdon, to Cassandra.
"Oh yes, I wouldn't miss this for even a good movie on T.V., it sounds exciting, let me get dressed in warmer cloths and I'll meet you in the kitchen down stars."
"Yes," said Langdon, "I'll do the same, meet you downstairs in a minute."
So she dressed putting on warmer socks, and her shoes, and a hat, and pants instead of her dress, nothing matched her eyes or hair, but it was warm. She looked out her window; there still was a light sprinkle of snow coming down. Then she headed on down to the kitchen to meet Langdon.
"I'm happy it is snowing in December, a week before Christmas," said Langdon to Cassandra, not disappointed at all with the snow.
"I think it might stop by morning, it looks as if it has almost stopped now," said Cassandra, as they opened the back door of the kitchen up, and there was old Josh waiting to walk them down to the barn.
The few trees on the way, their branches, bare branches, were all covered with snow, they looked like frosted skinny men, almost like skeletons, in the shadowy dark of the night, to Cassandra.
"It's kind of spooky, out here," she said to Langdon, Old Josh leading the way.
"Why's that," asked Langdon.
"Well, the funniest thing is, these trees look like skeleton men on Halloween!"
Langdon looking at the trees, commented, "I suppose so,"
then added, "I do this every year with Old Josh, and nothing like this ever happened before to you, so its new I suppose."
"Well, on Halloween I go out with mom, down in New Orleans, it's a tradition, and I bring a pillow case and fill it up with candy, but never this late," explained Cassandra.
He glanced behind him, at her as they walked a little farther, said, "Oh, this is better than Halloween, Old Josh is going to tell us a story we'll never forget, he always does."
Old Josh now opens up the barn doors, leaves it open a bit, and turns on the light, hay and straw lay on the floor of the barn, and the stalls are occupied with the few horses the plantation has, and the dog Tobacco, is in the barn guarding it, he is almost as old as Cassandra, he's six, he's a mutt, but a nice mutt, he watches the farm, and the animals, and makes sure if any wolf's or robbers come, he barks to let them know he is there, and usually Mr. Cole Abernathy, Langdon's father comes running out the back door with his shotgun.
"Sit on down, and we is goin' to have us a good ole story," said Josh, and they sat against an old wooden beam, as Josh sat on an old bench, and leaded on his cane, his back against the steps that lead up to the hay loft, and now all were comfortable.
Old Josh of North Carolina
"Now youall dont go to sleep on me, cus I got a good story, I hears it from my grandpa Silas, he hears it from his pa, Old Josh, like me, an' I cant shout anymore so youall got to listen up close," said old Josh, so Langdon and Cassandra sat stone-still waiting for the story. Josh looked about and even Tobacco was also waiting on the story, he was although nibbling on some bone, then when Josh looked at him, he dropped it from his mouth, as if to say, 'Ok, go ahead and tell the story, I'm listening.'
"It was back in 1886," said Josh, "when my pa's pa, Old Josh, went to a place way up yonder, it's called Minnesota, it's so cold up there, the bears freeze to death when they is sleeping, yes sir, even the birds, the ones that forgot to fly down south, they fly in the cold there, and freeze their wings and fall dead, just like that, that is how cold it is there. So they stay in their homes and get fat. But someone up there he done invented a thing called the toboggan."
"What is a toboggan Josh," asked Langdon.
"Now I is goin' tell yaw but yaw cant stop me every minute for me to explain to yaw what I is goin' to tell yaw anyhow in a minute!" scolded Josh.
"Sorry Josh, I done got excited too soon," said Langdon.
"Well, as I wes about to say, its so cold there the dog and da cat, if-in they dont get on home before dark, they deader than a doornail also, jes like that there bear I mentioned a while ago, and so this here man he made up what you all a toboggan, the toboggan is plenty big too, its so big you can put four of you Langdon's on it, or five of you Cassandra's on it."
"Oh," said Cassandra, "that is sure plenty big, but what does it do?"
As they listened to Josh, they puffed and blew cold smoke rings out of their mouths, waiting for Josh to get to tell what that contraption did.
"Naw, shu," said Josh, "I is goin' to tell you what that there machine did, it was made of wood like a cart, but skinny and long, and it had rope on each side of it, so everyone could hold on to it. They brought the toboggan up the hill and my grandpa say, it was different than a sled, or sleigh, it had no runners or skis on the underside, the bottom of the toboggan that is, it jus skidded down the hill on the snow, the front was a little curved, it was made up simple as pie."
-Old Josh noticed the boy and the girl's eyes were closing, staring to fall to sleep, even the dog's eyes were closing, and so he continued, but this time it was magical, or at least for Langdon and Cassandra, and even the dog: they were in the toboggan, all of a sudden, just like that, in Minnesota, they were sliding down this hill in a long, very long toboggan, with Tobacco behind them, on the toboggan.
"Is this really happening?" asked Langdon, to Cassandra.
"I don't know, I can't see Old Josh, and maybe we are in a dream," answered Cassandra, "But both together?" replied Langdon.
They were going down the hill fifty-miles an hour, "Drive carefully," pleaded Cassandra, she was happily scared.
"I think the toboggan is driving itself;" remarked Langdon, then Langdon yelled, "HERE WE GOOOOO!"
They reached the end of the hill, they had passed several trees, and buildings, they were on the top of the hill by the State Capital originally, in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, kids and family's all around them, it was like a winter wonderland.
Said Cassandra, holding onto the rope of the Toboggan, "I think this is what the folks do here to get out of the cold and have fun, and so they don't stay so fat."
"Let's hike up the hill again with this toboggan and ride down again, that was fun," said Langdon.
And then Langdon noticed the birds singing in the breeze going from tree to tree, in the cold gray sky, and that the dogs were running back and forth, playing with the kids and each other. There were no flowers of course, but there were green pine trees about, and the squirrels were running with acorns in their mouths into holes of the trees.
Said Cassandra, "I think Old Josh was kidding about dogs and birds freezing, and squirrels, because they all look like their having fun like everyone else."
And they both started laughing, holding each others hand, Cassandra saying, "If I'm dreaming I don't want to wake up until morning, this is too much fun."
And Langdon started to whistle, as they climbed back up the hilly street, and Cassandra tried also to whistle, but her lips would not form right, and they got cold, so she stopped.
"Good morning," said Josh, politely.
Langdon opening up his eyes, "Are you done with your toboggan ride?" he asked.
"It's a far ways off now I reckon, but was it real?" asked Langdon; then Cassandra woke up, wiped her eyes clear, "Oh, what happened," she asked, "did we fall to sleep Josh?" Then she looked at Langdon, asked, "Did you have the same dream I had, that we were in that cold place Josh mentioned, and we went on that toboggan ride together?" (and the dog barked just then, and ran up to Langdon, licked his hands, excited, his tail moving as fast as that there toboggan went).
"Well, I is afraid I got to go on to work now, it's 8:00 AM in the morning, and youall got to ask somebody else that, there ain't anybody in here can tell you it ain't or it is."
"Josh, but you do know if it was or wasn't a dream," said Langdon.
Old Josh was now standing up, ready to go out the barn door, "Oh, I been to that place lots of times. When I was a kid, I used to go to it every Christmas, that is, when I was your age. But I ain't been there for several years now. Getting too old for toboggans, thought you'd like your first trip with me along, I mean, kind of along." And then old Josh went out the door to tend to his work.
Written 6-28-2008 (Lima, Peru) For kids 7 to 10 (OR US OLD FOLKS)
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