'The River' Chapter Preview : Scene 9 "Flora's Brilliant Mind "

The hustler explains another fact not well known in the county. The
law men do not even have a key to their own evidence vault. This was
explained by Judge Kelly.
The reason the good judge gave was equally odd.
He told of a case in which a horde of guns and ammo was stored at the
station, taken from a mafia startup setting up shop in Beaufort.
    “Several of tha’ officer’s was kill’d fo’ tha’ guns - pick’d off
like flies,” the creole relates.
        “It was hard put’in a case to’geth’a ‘gainst tha basti’ds.
They’all got off and  went back ta’ Italy.”
    “So fru’m then on, a station can have  an evidence vault. But its
keys and combination is stor’d in tha’ nearest city law enforcement
office.”
       “Anoth’a thing ,” the creole relates.
 Rising the hustler reaches for his sports jacket, pulling out the
burned remains of several of the deeds from his inner jacket pocket.
He shows everything to Flora.
Benjamin was able to take the deed remains with no trouble, since
nothing could be done with them.
But its what was on the back that caught his eye.


On the back of each burnt remnant seems to be a series of ghostly
shapes,maybe letters of some strange language,barely seen by the naked
eye.
    “I bet tha’ heat of tha’ fire mad’em symb’ls clear,” he says,
looking to the burnt papers.

The creole shows the blackened scraps of parchment to the call
girl,watching as her eyes light up. “Back in Puerto Rico, many of us
are descendants from Taino Indians - dating far back.”
   “These symbols look like what I saw in caves and on rocks in my
country’s rain forest - not exactly - but very close,” Flora beams.

Benjamin looks to the fragments,then to his lovely bed mate. “Can ya’
read this ..... language?”

Flora nods happily,the very thought bringing back wonderful
memories,summers spent with her grandmother,a full blooded Taino. As
Benjamin watches,the beauty handles each chard  fragment with care,
her long fingers flowing over a language that is barely spoken,almost
lost to the world.
    “Here .... this symbol means water and land,” Flora explians as
she points to a symbol.
  “But more like a huge body of water and small piece of land.”

Her interests growing,Flora’s fingers trace over another series of
symbols on the remains of another deed.  “Here, this symbols means
gold and gems, but not really the gems white men value. My native
people always found value in minerals that had spiritual signifigance
- versus shine and sparkle potential.”

As Flora’s eyes graze across the small pieces of  scorched vellum, she
looks up curiously.
    “Its as if information is given, but on several deeds. You would
need all of the deeds to get the complete message.”

     “Aint got tha otha’s ...,” Benjamin says impatiently though mesmerized.

Flora suddenly looks up, curious. “And these land deeds were for land
purchases  in America ?”



Benjamin nods. “Yep.”

Even more perplexed at Benjamin’s answer, Flora traces her fingers
over the back of another chard deed. “Ya’ know it is rumored that my
people traveled here long before old Columbus even came out his mama’s
womb.”
  “They taught the Creek,Coweta,Yamasi and Stono indians how to write.
Natives that were first on the land you now call South and North
Carolina.”

Benjamin nods,fascinated, watching Flora look over several other fragments.
After reading carefully, the beauty looks up with amazement.
   “ Each piece of paper is telling a story - how a white man came to
the land on ‘floating eagles’. Probably their ships from Europe.”
   “ And how he buried ‘gleaming yellow suns’-wooden boxes full, all
left in the ground.

Benjamin smiles as he looks over the young woman’s shoulder.
“Shiii-t,thats easy nuf’  ‘gleam’in yellow suns - thats gold ,” the
creole says.

Flora shakes her head,showing the creole a barely made out symbol, a
round circle with a dot  in the middle with, a line running through
the bottom.
  “Without the line, the symbol would mean sun or gold. With the line
at the bottom,the symbol takes on a more spiritual meaning. As if gold
of the spirit world,” the prostitute explains eloquently.

Sitting back, Benjamin smiles warmly at the beauty. He had no idea the
woman was so intelligent. Watching as Flora sets each burnt chard of
vellum down carefully, peeking over at admiring eyes,the puerto rican
beauty smiling to herself.
   “I did not always make my board and keep in my back,” she says softly.
   “ I was supposed to go to university in Puerto Rico - the first in
my family.”
   “That is until the night my father decided to come to my bed -
drunk on rum,” Flora says sadly.
   “ When all was found out,I was thrown on the streets - left to fend
for myself.”

Personally,  I  love that Flora has such a varied background, not only is the beauty a sexy beast,
she'd smart as a whip.  I love characters that have multiple dynamics to their personalities.