Ain’t it funny how things work sometimes? One thing led to another t’day, and I come home with a real good job. I done already texted @timetravelerjenn1997 Jenn!
So, how it came about was that I thought I’d go to that karaoke pizza restaurant to see if they needed anyone to wash up dishes an’ work in the kitchen. Just as I was about to go in, two girls come out talking loud.
“We need to hurry if we want to make our audition. Job’s like this don’t come around everyday.”
I decided I’d just see where they were going, since I could always come back to the pizza place.
So, 2 blocks away, there’s this big building what used to be a department store, ‘cept it closed ‘cause of COVID and nobody going to it. It’s opening new as a place called American Heritage Interactive Theater.
So you go in and there’s all these places ‘round a big souvenir shop in the middle. Thays a Pilgrim village, for instance. An’ Gold Rush Camp. Naturally, the one what caught my eye was Life In The Delta, 1875. They all have more words, and that one said, “Reconstruction Era Life In The Cotton Belt.”
Now, this place ain’t open yet, but I guess everyone there was job hunting, so I was able to go over and have a look. Right in that department store was a shack like mine from 1880. Folk were gathered ‘round this girl at a warshtub.
The man what looked in charge said, “Just ad lib something. Visitors are part of the scene, but you have to keep things moving.”
That girl nodded, then put the warshboard atop the tub. “As y’all can see, we didn’t have much automation.”
My mouth shot off ‘fore I could stop it. “That ain’t how you put the warshboard. It goes down in the tub and lean it back on you so you can scrub hard an’ not tip o’er the tub.”
That girl looked at me, an’ the man in charge looked at me.
“Sorry…” I covered my mouth real fast.”
One fella with an iPad held it up pointing at a picture. “She’s right… Addison has it wrong.”
“Show me.” Addison says.
When she said that, I got shy ‘cause I thought I shoudn’t ‘a’ said anything.
“What’s your name?” Addison asked.
“Emma Knox.”
“Emma, come show me how to do it.”
I smiled and went over.
“You put this end, here, down in the water, see? Then you get your dirty clothes outta a basket like you have it. Warsh the cleanest one’s first on account of you don’t wanna spoil the water right off with the dirty ones.”
I took a shirt out o’ the basket.
“Dunk the shirt down an’ soak it, then you can spread it on the warshboard so as you can rub on the soap, like this… An’ you might have to rub in hard to bad places that mighta got a stain on ‘em”
I did all that as I said it, and the man I took to be in charge said, “She’s got the dialect done to a tee.”
I went on to say, “You can put the soap up here and then you jus’ scrub up the shirt on the warshboard. It ain’t much to think about, but it’s hard work. E’r’thing a sharecropper has to do is hard work, an’ there weren’t much to show for it either.”
Then I looked at Addison. “You wanna take a turn?”
Then the man said, “Brilliant! Get the audience involved! Addison, what do you say?”
Addison looked at me. “Hired. She can be the principal and I’ll play the second if needed.”
I looked at them lookin’ at each other, and I smiled like I understood. I did understand one word. Hired, ‘cept I didn’t know what for.”
The three of them got to talking fast, and saying a lot, then Addison asked me something I didn’t understand at all. “Emma, do you have an agent?”
I shook my head and she said, “Tom, we’ll be right back.”
So turns out Tom is the owner o’ the place and Addison is an actor and is the director o’ what turned out to be a really big theater show. An’ she was representative of what she said was a union of actors, an’ got me in it so that Tom would have to pay me somethin’ called “scale wages.”
I’m gonna make $1225 a week to tell people how it is to be a sharecropper.
Merrit thought somethin’ good would happen, an’ he was right!
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