MULATTO (Iyila) (Editing)

chapter forty eight

Meanwhile, Gabriel troubled himself with his admiration-lust-fondness-love feelings for Iyila, as accused by Martha. Iyila on the other hand, spent her time enjoying her stay at Okahana. The villagers were preparing for a marriage festival and Martha had asked her to join the girls in decorating the village. The girls were nice and mostly lively and she didn’t stop laughing as they decorated the whole town with different types of flowers that she hadn’t seen before.

She noticed a bond between  them that was stronger than anything she could fathom. The people were poor, their clothes were tattered, and their shelters were not strong enough to stand a heavy winter storm. She learned that their only means of survival was by fishing and farming.  Most times their children were attacked by malaria and other forms of illness due to the vast water and forest that surrounded them. But in their eyes Iyila saw that they were more than grateful to be free than to be living in a sophiscated shelter and eating good food, or wearing proper clothes.

After they finished decorating the village, the negroes and the bride asked her to accompany them to a stream where they would all take a bath. She’d been reluctant initially, but Martha urged her to follow them. The path to the stream was decorated with beautiful flowers. She ran along with the girls, laughing as she felt the breeze fly past her body. She loved Okahana, she loved the waterfall, the serene environment filled with nature's wonders. It was not only exquisite, it was home.

While at the stream, the girls gasped when she removed her head wrap to unveil her glossy dark hair. One of the girls had asked her if her master knew of it, but she had said "no" thereby lying. Gabriel knew, but she didn’t want them to suspect their relationship.

The water was warm. It tingled her feet.

The girls never stopped talking, especially one of them named Haggai. She was like Deila. They told her many stories, while she in turn told them some stories about Charleston. They didn’t hesitate to express their dismay in “ohhh”,  “uhhh”, and “ahhh” almost making Iyila laugh. Iyila noticed that they were clearly ignorant on many things, and the outside world, as they conversed. They were very primitive and naive, yet very happy. Something she would trade all her knowledge for.

Sometimes she got caught up and found it difficult to comprehend what the girls were saying, but she managed to get their meaning anyway. It was almost noon by the time they finished at the stream. The drums where already beating when they arrived at the village. The girls took her to one of the huts and gave her a ridiculous looking gown to wear.

“No!” she yelled for the tenth time, shaking her head in dissaproval. “There is no way I am wearing that dress, it is rather revealing, too revealing to be exact,” she said as she irritably stared at the white gown that was more revealing than a night dress.

“Tis a wedding, ya have to look beariful,” one of the girls suggested.

“My master will not approve this,” she replied to the girl. She didn’t understand how a person could be beautiful while half naked.  She was the only one not dressed. The other Negroes were already dressed in their white dresses that accentuated their curves, bottoms and bossoms. There was no way she was going to wear that, not even if they tied her to a stake, she reasoned.

“May I have my dress please, my old one I mean,” she said already reaching for the dress that she’d worn there. But one of the fat negros grabbed the dress before she could reach for it.

“Ya aint no white, so ya hav’ to dress as we’s unless ya’s gonna stay lag dah,” the girl seriously said.

Iyila gasped, she was only wearing drawers and nothing else. “You cannot do that!” she exclaimed.