Read Online Trouble's Child by Mildred Pitts; Walter - Free Book Online Page B

mirror and gave them to Martha. “Tell your grandmother to wear this in good health, and you take care now.” He left to join the men outside the commissary.
    Martha covered the mirror with the head scarf so no one would notice. She glared at Ovide as if to say, “I’ll show yuh, I ain’t scared o’ no mirror.”
    Should she tell Titay about what had happened with the women? About the mirror? No! Not about the mirror. Titay might make her take it back. She’d be careful, and no one need know.
    At home she went immediately to her room. She placed the mirror in the space between the floor and cloth-covered box crate.
    That evening, she made sure the mirror was still in place. Maybe she shouldn’t keep it. If only she could be sure that what the people said and thought were not true. Would having the mirror keep her from going away? And what if Hal told? We sho gittin a lotta secrets . Suddenly she felt frightened. But he wouldn’t tell. Maybe he was right, but did even he know?
    She opened her small window and looked up at the evening star that twinkled in the sky. “O, Lord,” she said aloud, “how come I ain’t wise?”

NINE
    Martha got out of bed noiselessly. She carefully turned the wooden latch to lock her door. When she stooped to pick up her mirror she waited a moment. The silence told her she was right; Titay was still asleep. Quickly she removed the mirror and turned it to different angles so that the reflected sunlight played around the room.
    In the light from the window, her dark skin glowed with tints of deep brown and red. She thought of Hal and how he had looked into her eyes. A warmth from deep inside sent a smile spreading over her face. What if Titay saw her smiling like that? Carefully she stored the mirror in its hiding place.
    Dressing slowly, she heard voices from the front of the house. Titay said, “I come, right away.” Then she walked quickly to Martha’s door and knocked. “Git ready, Mat, that baby’s on its way heah tday.”
    For the last few weeks they had spent lots of time with Cam. Only last week they had readied bedding for the birth. Sheets had been washed, boiled in a lye solution, ironed and carefully wrapped to keep them sterilized.
    Martha’s hand trembled as she buttoned her blouse, and she had trouble tying her head scarf. She was anxious, excited, uncertain with feelings of joy, then fear. What if things did not go right for Cam? Should she tell Titay about the mirror? Titay might not let her go if she knew.
    â€œHurry, girl,” Titay called.
    Cam was waiting. She had already put the carefully wrapped bedding in the oven to make sure it was still sterilized. Martha got busy helping the father feed the children before they started out to his sister’s house. On Blue Isle, the mystery of birth was for the eyes of women only.
    The bed was made ready for Cam. Water was heated. Cotton and wool to wrap the baby in and the sterilized goose grease were put in place. Titay sat in the room with Cam while Martha finished a few housekeeping chores. Then Martha waited in the kitchen, reading for a history test.
    Suddenly she realized how still the house was. No sounds came from the room. She thought of the mirror. Had something gone wrong? Things could go wrong, that she knew. Martha remembered the story she had been told of how her mother had died when she was born on that stormy night. Titay had been forced to make a terrible decision: would it be Martha or Martha’s mother who lived?
    Martha trembled, charged with happiness that she was alive. That feeling changed to guilt and then to deep sorrow that she had never known her mother. She scolded herself for thinking things could go wrong. Cam was healthy. Titay had watched over her diet, her exercise and knew every stage of the unborn baby’s development. Yet Martha prayed that all would go well.
    She tried to concentrate on her assignment, but