COPPERFIELD REVIEW QUARTERLY | AUTUMN 2021
12
As she soaps the shirts, Charlotte considers that if Father had won all those games of cards and dice, Charlotte would wear a new black velvet cap instead of a two-year-old linen cap. The day before, Phoebe and Theodosia had shown her the long riding coats and tall crowned beaver caps their fathers had sent them from Richmond. Their fathers did not gamble beyond the legal lotteries. Phoebe and Theodosia’s caps had long ribbons down the back, long enough that the girls giggled as they sat on them. Theodosia, the nicer of the two, lets Charlotte try on her cap. Charlotte pushes off the bed covers. She pulls off her shift and stands bare-skinned on the wooden plank floor of her cold room. She hasn’t wanted to build a fire. Let her freeze to death. Would Father be sorry then? Where did Father get the money to buy land in Kentucky? Did he win at a game? Why has he not paid the creditors? Father hasn’t seen the house or the land he bought. What happened to the family who lived there? Father won’t say. She puts on her stay, fastens it tightly and struggles into the first of her two petticoats. Do they gamble in Kentucky? Will it be the same? Where would they go then? If Father were not a gambler, she could have a Black girl help her dress, as Phoebe and Theodosia do. Charlotte knows that although they pretend to be her friends, Phoebe and Theodosia pity rather than like her. Charlotte accepts this. They have no reason to admire her. If Grandfather had not been a gambler and a thief, he would not have been sent to Virginia as an indentured man. He would have stayed in England. If Grandfather hadn’t kept on gambling and thieving, Charlotte wouldn’t have heard Mr. Allen say to Mr. Haught, “They’s becoming like them mean whites that live on possum and can’t wait to steal from you when they get the chance.” She ties on her pockets and struggles into her gown, careful not to rip it. If Father were not a gambler, Charlotte could have a new gown from Paris, instead of the one she has mended more than a dozen times. Everything Charlotte has fits in half a trunk. Charlotte remembers necklaces, tiny treasure boxes, a wooden doll with a laced-neck dress, pairs and pairs of shoes. Those things are gone now, as is most of the furniture. Even the kitchen table has gone to pay Father’s debts. Charlotte has helped Mother for weeks pack up dishes, linens, rugs, and clothing they will take with them. Everything has been loaded into the wagon that has been kept hidden in the cattle barn. Mother has said not to expect a large house in Kentucky. Where will Charlotte sleep? Will she share a bed with baby Abigail? Charlotte has heard that in Kentucky there are no towns, no churches, no schools for Garvan. Father has told her about Daniel Boone. Phoebe said Daniel Boone was a traitor to Virginia. Something Phoebe’s father told Phoebe, no doubt. Phoebe is not clever enough to have thoughts of her own.
