Chapter 5 - I Meet the Sheriff
To be polite, I knocked on the sheriff’s door before entering. I heard a big thundering voice tell me to enter. There, with his feet up on his desk, sat the biggest black man I had ever seen. Even the biggest slaves that I saw working the cotton plantations when I once was in Alabama looked like midgets compared to this man. I was quite taken aback at seeing a negro in a position of authority. Sure, I was now in a Northern State and I knew they had better opportunities than those in the Southern States but this was hard to believe, even with the proof right before my eyes.
I told him who I was and that I was looking for a job and had heard he needed a deputy. Before responding, he got up and walked over to me, walked around me and had a good look at me, from head to toe.
“So, do you know anything about the law?”, he asked.
I had to admit that I never studied it but I knew right from wrong.
He smiled and told me it was not the best answer I could have given him but it was a good enough answer. His name was Abraham Williams. He had me sit down and we talked for close to an hour. I suppose, looking back, it was in a sense an interview but it did involve a lot more. At the end of it, he asked me when I would be ready to start work. That was the only point at which I knew he had even been considering giving me the job. Never did I expect that the hour talk we had was being used by the sheriff to asses my ability to be his deputy.
I wanted to start right away but first I needed to find a place to live. Abe, that’s what he told me everyone called him, suggested I go over to Elm Street and speak to Polly over at number twelve. That day was one of the luckiest days of my life as one of Polly’s boarders had just left two days before and she had a room to spare. We agreed on a monthly board, at a price that was fair to both of us.
I returned to Abe’s office to share my news with him and inform him that I could start the next day. We shook hands and I left, grateful that my life seemed to be getting back in order.