Excerpt from Yonder by Jabari Asim, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

William was lean and alert, with muscles that rippled when he moved. He stretched and twisted to prepare them for a day of labor. Milton, a new father, had round cheeks, and eyebrows that seemed to dance whenever he was angry or amused. He looked hopeful but wary as he approached William.

"Good brother," he said to him, "are you going to give my baby girl a word? Preacher Ransom is coming tonight. I need one more."

Four women and three men were needed for a newborn girl's whispering ceremony. Milton knew that William would say no. We all knew. Still, Milton asked him anyway.

"You know I can't," William said.

"You mean you won't," Milton said. He looked at me. "I guess you'll be our seventh, then."

"Me?"

"No, not you, Cato. Who else could I be talking to? Swing Low?"

"Take care," I warned him.

"What do you mean?"

"The names you speak. You don't know who's listening."

"Are you talking about Swing Lo—"

"You know I am," I said.

In the quarters, the story of Swing Low was far different from the one Thieves were fond of telling. Our version told not of an avenging spirit who was out to kill us but of an angel who suddenly appeared in the middle of the night to free us from our captivity and lead us to friendlier climes. But that version was always recited softly, lest it land in the wrong ears.

"That's just conjure talk," Milton continued. "I believe in Swing Low like William believes in the Seven. And how much is that, William?"

"Not at all," William replied.

"All the same," I said. "Don't go saying that name around here. A still tongue makes a wise head."

I was glad that Milton's baiting of William had not turned into an argument about the usefulness of saying our seven, as it often did. I believed in them so much that I often pointed to them as proof of my certainty about a thing. "I swear it on my seven words," a favorite saying of mine, was an expression that would never fall from William's lips.

Milton continued to pressure me. "You can help my daughter get wise. We need a seventh tonight."

I shook my head. "You don't want me. Get someone else."

"What's wrong with you, Cato?"

"My voice is not fit to speak over a child. You know that. Get Little Zander."

"He's too young."

I understood Milton's urgency. A child who went unwhispered had no hope at all. Misfortune would stalk him all his days. That had been the problem with Cupid, the foreman of our crew. Nobody said seven over him after he was born. At least that's what the talk was.

If Cupid was worried about his luck, he didn't show it. His life at that point had brought him certain privileges, all in exchange for keeping the rest of us obedient. In addition to having his woman to sleep with every night, he had a rope bed instead of a straw pallet, and a wine gourd that Cannonball Greene gave him. On the morning of the whispering, he was the last to step outside. Tall and strong with a scowl to match, he had skin the color of toasted cornmeal. Freckles dusted the bridge of his nose like spatters of blood.

Nila staggered out after him, bearing fresh bites. Sharing her shame, we all turned away.

Cupid was the only man allowed to have a wife in the quarters. There were other women there, some in the big house, too, and more at Pleasant Grove and Two Forks, Cannonball Greene's other farms. Some of the men had mates at those places. But Greene didn't allow us to pair up at Placid Hall, said it distracted us from the work God made us for. After a quick washing in the cold dawn, Cupid made everybody pray. I usually just pretended to listen. I looked at the ground and kept my own prayer going, to distract Cupid's god. I figured— I knew—that any god who listened to the likes of him was a god to stay away from.

Too often Cupid's mischievous spirit made him look in my direction. He knew I didn't like to speak after he fought me and with his rough boot stomped my throat, ruining my voice.

From YONDER: A Novel by Jabari Asim. Copyright © 2022 by Jabari Asim. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.