Shadows on the Soul

“Please, don’t let them take me, mister, they’ll kill me. I know they will.”

John Cassidy felt as though he had been hit with a two by four.  He was stunned. He looked into the frightened eyes of the man before him as the words echoed through his mind. Words he had heard before.  Suddenly, he saw a frightened black man hiding in his back yard, begging for help. He had not helped that man because he had felt it his duty to turn him in. He saw a blonde boy from Cleveland begging him for his help.  He had not helped him because to have done so would have meant severe punishment and pain, perhaps even death. 

For the third time in his life, John had heard those words, ‘Please don’t let them take me, mister, they’ll kill me, I know they will.’

“Get in,” John said as he turned toward his car.  Instantly, he hated what he had done. He knew he had made the biggest mistake of his life. As he was climbing into his car, he knew he was doing wrong. He considered taking off without the man, but he waited until the door opened and the man was in his car. He knew he was doing the wrong thing. He considered turning the car around and going back to the camp, but he steered straight ahead.  He knew that he was making a terrible mistake, but he did it anyway. Against all common sense, he had done a very stupid thing, but now it was too late. 

As John drove down the road, he looked over at the black man who had crouched onto the floor of the car.  John knew he had trouble. Here he was driving his car with an escaped prisoner in the front seat.  Stupid, stupid, stupid thing to do he told himself.  Why in the hell did I let this man in my car?   Why?

He didn’t realize it then, but he also had two other men in the car with him, one of them a blonde boy from Cleveland.

“It ain’t much, but you’ll be safe down here until we can get you on your way,” he began to explain to Matt.

“On my way where?” Matt asked.  “I don’t even know where I am or who you are.  I was in the back of the car when my friend said he found some people to help us and hustled me in a window.”

Larry regarded the thin but muscular black man as he gave Matt a look that was either resignation or aggravation; Matt couldn’t decide.

“Listen, bud, I don’t know your name and I don’t want to know it.  I don’t know where you’re from and I don’t want to know that either.  Likewise, you don’t want to know anything about me or this house.  All I know about you and your friend is that you are both on the run and wanted by the law.  All you need to know about me is that I will help you get to the next step in your journey.  Either that or I’m going to turn you in.  And if that’s what I intend to do, you can’t stop it.  You ain’t exactly in any position to do anything but sit and wait and hope I can be trusted.”

Matt regarded the man standing at the foot of the steps and finally shrugged his shoulders.  “You’re right,” he said.  “I just hate not knowing what’s going on, but I suppose it is best that I not know too much.  I am at your mercy, man with no name.”